On day two of the 41st Avon Old Farms Christmas Classic, the St. Paul's School varsity boys hockey team headed over to the Koeppel Community Center on the Trinity College (Hartford, CT) campus to take on the Tabor Academy "Seawolves." In the first half of play, the "Big Red" jumped right into their team game and did a great job of getting through the neutral zone cleanly, forcing the "Seawolves" to generate their attack from two hundred feet away. Tabor scored first when they took advantage of their first power play of the game by creating a nice two-on-one play in front of St. Paul's School netminder Blake Truchon '26 (South Burlington, VT), who was excellent all game long. In fact, the two goals that were scored on Truchon were clear lapses in the "Big Red" defensive play, which was arguably the team's best defensive game of the year.

All the Millville skaters did a great job of keeping the puck in front of them and covering the weak side of the ice. Sixth Form captain Matt Vohra (Valley NS) scored his first goal of the game to tie the score at one goal apiece when he banged in a rebound shot with one minute remaining in the first half. Vohra's goal gave the "Big Red" a lot of momentum going into the intermission, as they arguably played their best twenty-five minutes of team hockey in their young season.
 
Around the halfway mark of the second half, Fifth Form player Andersen Kilbourne (Duxbury, MA) scored the go-ahead goal for the Millville skaters when he fired a shot to the short side in the upper corner from the left side of the lower half of the grade "A" scoring area, giving St. Paul's School a two-to-one lead—an advantage they would not relinquish for the remainder of the game. Five minutes later, Kilbourne '26 struck again when he snuck a puck by the Tabor Academy goalie on the lower left-hand short side of the net, extending the "Big Red" lead to two goals and providing the team with a greater sense of purpose defensively.

Tabor Academy, a potent offensive team, did not let up; they pressed offensively and finally scored their second goal of the game with three minutes remaining in regulation when a "Seawolf" player knocked home a puck from the rebound funnel area of the grade "A" scoring area, making the St. Paul's School lead only one again.
 
Coach Harff '09 wisely called a time-out to settle the team down, reminded them of the outstanding structure they had played up to that point, and expressed how much he "believed" in the team's ability to close out the game for a win. For the remaining minutes of regulation play, the five St. Paul's School skaters on the ice defended beautifully against the six "Seawolves" players, stymying every scoring opportunity Tabor Academy tried to create. With less than a minute left to play, Vohra '25 picked off a pass in the middle of the defensive zone, took three strides, and fired the puck the length of the ice into the empty Tabor Academy net, giving the Millville skaters a two-goal lead and their first victory of this year's Avon Old Farms School Christmas Classic.
 
The team is back in Friday night against the host school, Avon Old Farms, at 9:00 p.m. on the John T. Gardner Rink in the Jennings-Fairchild Arena. Tonight's game against the "Winged Beavers" will determine seedings for the tournament's final day matchup on Saturday.