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By Ben Reese
HATFIELD — It was all systems go for Plymouth Whitemarsh on Wednesday night at Hatfield Ice.
The Colonials had both their offense and defense working well in a 7-5 victory over Wissahickon. And they needed both.
Plymouth Whitemarsh held a 3-1 lead after one period and a 5-2 lead after two. But the Trojans came roaring back in the third period to make it a close game.
“I thought our team played really well in all three zones — the offensive zone, the neutral zone and the defensive zone,” said PW coach Josh Aiello. “If we play the systems we have in place, we can beat any opponent we play.”
But it was the defensive system which really helped the Colonials against the Trojans.
“Our defensive game is really about playing our system,” Aiello continued. “It’s not necessarily a match-up against other opponents.
“Tonight we just executed well on our systems. We didn’t do anything specific against their core players. We just executed well on our systems.”
Wissahickon coach Ken Harrington was impressed by PW’s work.
“They are disciplined,” he said. “They play a defensive system on the whole ice.
“They know what they are doing. Our guys just went into the trap a lot of times. We had a lot of chances, but they didn’t go in.”
The big beneficiary of the defensive work was goalie Chris Maslij. The junior stopped 45 of the 50 shots thrown at him by Wissahickon.
“I thought we had a strong goaltending performance,” Aiello said “They had 50 shots and only five goals. That’s pretty effective goaltending.”
“We have two really good goalies. Kolton Galie is a senior and Chris Maslij is a junior. They compete really hard against each other in practice, and they enjoy making each other better. Chris Maslij got the start and I think he performed very well. He made some big saves, especially down the stretch. Wissahickon battled back and Chris Maslij was there to shut the door.”
Maslij was very appreciative of the defensive work done in front of him.
“Last week, we came off a loss to Abington and we really wanted to bounce back,” he said. “We had kind of a weak defensive performance, and we just wanted to come back with a strong defensive game. The defense did a great job.
“The Hussas (Wissahickon’s three leading scorers, all brothers) are fast and really good. There’s three of them, and it’s really hard to keep track. The defense did a really good job of staying with them.”
Offensively, the Colonials got three goals from Luke Weikel and a pair of goals from Matthew Flynn. For Weikel, it is becoming sort of old hat to score a lot of goals.
Two weeks ago, he scored five goals in a win over Upper Dublin and then followed that up with five more last week in a loss to Abington. Against Wissahickon, he put three more goals into the net.
“Obviously I can’t do it without my teammates,” Weikel said. “Things are just working well for us.
“I don’t think I have to score. We have great guys out there and anyone can get it done. It’s been going my way, but I think anybody on our team can put the puck in the net.”
Aiello appreciates what he has in Weikel.
“Luke is just getting stronger as the season goes on,” he said. “This is his third or fourth hat trick in a row. It’s pretty incredible.
“He’s disciplined in all phases of the game. He’s really a great performer. He’s got 13 goals in three games.”
Wissahickon played the entire first period and much of the second without Danny Hussa, the team’s leading goal scorer. He arrived midway through the second and gave the Trojans a lift that almost got them a win.
In the third period, the Colonials got on the board early with Weikel’s second goal. But Danny Hussa sparked a Wissahickon comeback with an assist on brother Nick’s goal and then scored one of his own to cut the lead to two goals. A goal by Nolan Pounds sliced the PW lead down to one, but Weikel tallied an empty-net goal to seal the win for the Colonials.
Two goals by Flynn and one by Isaac Mishkin offset a marker from the Trojans’ Ty Schiff in the first period. In the second, Dylan Novitski gave PW a 4-1 lead before AJ Pounds scored for Wissahickon, but Weikel netted his first goal of the game late in the period to move the score to 5-2.
Then came the third period.
Plymouth Whitemarsh 7, Wissahickon 5
Wissahickon 1 1 3 — 5
Plymouth Whitemarsh 3 2 2 — 7
First period: 1, Matthew Flynn PW (Luke Weikel, Aidan Keogh) 2:58; 2, Isaac Mishkin PW (Conlan Carpenter) 6:58 SH; 3, Ty Schiff W (AJ Pounds, Will Hussa) 10:23 PP; 4, Flynn PW (Keogh, Weikel) 10:35.
Second period: 5, Dylan Novitski PW (Timothy Murphy, Danny Smith) 7:38; 6, AJ Pounds W (W. Hussa) 12:38; 7, Weikel PW (Keogh, Flynn) 16:25.
Third period: 8, Weikel PW (Flynn, Keogh) 1:06; 9, Nick Hussa W (Danny Hussa) 3:28 SH; 10, D. Hussa W (N. Hussa) 6:52 PP; 11, Nolan Pounds W (unassisted) 12:26; 12, Weikel PW (unassisted) 15:40 EN.
Shots: W 50, PW 43. Saves: Michael Bonanni (W) 36; Chris Maslij (PW) 45.
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