In a home-and-away matchup on Friday, February 7
th, the "Big Red" traveled north on Route 93 to take on Lakes Region hockey conference foe, the New Hampton "Huskies," for the second time in three days. The St. Paul's School varsity boys skaters had visions of completing the sweep of the "Huskies," but the home team had different ambitions, as they wanted to secure a victory on home ice in Jacobson Arena.
St. Paul's School started fast and dominated the home team territorially in the first period of play. New Hampton, an opportunistic hockey team, never wavered, and they took advantage of two defensive miscues by the "Big Red" to build a 2-0 lead in the first eighteen minutes of play.
In the second period, the Millville skaters stayed on the attack and cut the New Hampton lead to 2-1 with three minutes left in the period. The "Big Red" goal came at the tail end of a power play opportunity when
Jaden Ficek ?26 (Bedford, NH) won a puck battle in the high slot of the offensive zone and moved the puck over to
Patrick Cooley ?25 (Rutland, VT), who collected Ficek's pass in one motion and fired on net to beat the New Hampton goaltender on the stick side.
To start the third period, the "Big Red" penalty killers "killed off" ninety seconds of a 5v3 to generate even more positive momentum. The "Huskies," feeling the pressure of the "Big Red," responded with an opportunistic even-strength goal of their own to reclaim their two-goal lead, making the score 3-1 with a little less than fifteen minutes to play in the final period. Pat Cooley, who had the hottest hand among all of the players in this two-game series, scored his second goal of the game with five minutes and thirty-eight seconds left to play in regulation. Cooley's second goal was unassisted when he took advantage of a New Hampton defensive turnover on the right face-off dot and let go of a "wicked wrister" to the far upper corner of the "Husky" net. Cooley's goal was made possible by a great screen in front of the New Hampton goalie by captain
Matt Vohra ?25 (Valley, NS), a play that does not earn him a point on the stat sheet but immense credit with his teammates. For the remaining five minutes of play, the "Big Red" skated desperately to tie the game but could not put the puck into the back of the New Hampton net to force overtime play. Unfortunately, a victory was not meant to be for the "Big Red" boys hockey team. They played arguably one of their most complete games of the year and skated away empty-handed.
Blake Truchon ?26 (South Burlington, VT) was the hard-luck loser today in the net, as he gave his team every chance to win the contest, stopping 28 of 31 New Hampton shots on goal.
The St. Paul's School varsity boys hockey team is back in action on Wednesday, February 12th, when they travel to the "Pop" Whalen Arena in Wolfeboro to take on Brewster Academy "Bobcats" for a 3:00 PM puck drop.
