SPS 2 - Kimball Union Academy 4
Monday, December 15th
Ackerstrom Arena
Meriden, New Hampshire
The St. Paul's School varsity boys hockey team traveled north to take on Lakes Region Hockey Conference stalwart Kimball Union Academy. The "Big Red" started the game well, scoring their first goal two minutes into the first period. The first St. Paul's School's goal of the game came off the stick of assistant captain
Quinn Brandell '26 when he ripped a slap shot from the middle of the high ice with lots of "Big Red" traffic (
Callum Green '26 & Fin Kilbourne '26) in front of the Kimball Union netminder. The "Big Red" and the "Wildcats" skated up and down the ice furiously for the next thirteen minutes of play, with Kimball Union enjoying more offensive zone time than St. Paul's School. The Kimball Union attack was finally able to score their first goal of the game from their persistent offensive effort with three minutes left in the period, and the first eighteen minutes of play ended with the score of one-to-one.
In the second period, the Kimball Union Academy "Wildcats" outscored the St. Paul's School "Big Red" two-to-zero to take a three-to-one lead at the end of thirty-six minutes of play. The second period was a lot like the first period of play. St. Paul's School had some great moments offensively, but had several turnovers and defensive miscues that never allowed "The Big Red" to establish its steady and potent offensive attack.
In the last period of play, Kimball Union Academy opened the scoring with a goal in the first two minutes of play. From that point forward, until the final second ticked off the clock, St. Paul's School played better hockey and established consistent offensive pressure on the Kimball Union Academy defense. With six minutes to play, St. Paul's School converted a nice power play goal when
Ryan Vohra '27 won the face-off back to
James Buchan '27, and Buchan attacked the Kimball Union Academy net to make a nice pass to
Mitchell Smith '27, who fired it by the Wildcat goaltender to make the score four-to-two in favor of the home team. In the closing minutes of play, St. Paul's School pulled their goaltender, assistant captain,
Blake Truchon '26, for an extra attacker, but they were never able to score a third goal to make the closing minute of the game really count.
Truchon was the hard-luck loser in the net, stopping thirty-six of forty Kimball Union Academy shots.
St. Paul's School varsity boys hockey will be back in action on Thursday at 7:00 pm when they travel to the Avon Old Farms Christmas Tournament in Avon, Connecticut, to take on the Tabor Academy "Seawolves" in game one of the four game tournament.
