On February 28^th, the St. Paul's School "Big Red" boys varsity hockey team hosted the Vermont Academy "Wildcats" in the first round of the Lakes Region hockey playoffs at 6:30 PM on Gordon Rink in the Hockey Center. Heading into the game, St. Paul's School was the 6^th seed and Vermont Academy was the 7^th seed. The winner would move on to play on Saturday afternoon against the winner of the Proctor Academy (5^th seed) vs. Brewster Academy (8^th seed) game; the loser would end their season. 
 
The "Big Red" pulled away from the "Wildcats" in the third period with a well-deserved 4-3 victory.  The two teams exchanged goals in the first and second periods. In the first period, Elijah Nacht ?26 (Denver, CO) made a beautiful indirect pass off the right side board from deep in the right defensive corner that caromed by the Vermont defenseman at his offensive blue line to Sixth Form captain Matt Vohra ?25 (Valley, NS) in the neutral zone. Vohra collected the loose puck in the neutral zone and raced through the neutral zone on the right side with Fin Kilbourne ?27 (Duxbury, MA) on a two-on-one. When Vohra crossed over the offensive blue line and was just above the top of the right face-off circle, he made a beautiful pass to Kilbourne, who was on his offside (a right-handed shooter on the left side of the ice). The Fourth Former and "Old Hundred" club member one-timed the puck past the Vermont goalie to give the "Big Red" a 1-0 lead. However, the St. Paul's School lead was short-lived. A minute after taking the lead, a Millville skater was whistled for an infraction, and Vermont Academy went to work on their second power play of the game, converting on their man-advantage opportunity.
 
Five minutes into the second period, the trio of Jaden Ficek ?26 (Bedford, NH), Gavin Code ?26, and Ryan Vohra ?26 (Valley, NS) continued their stellar play when Ryan Vohra won a puck battle in the right face-off circle of the offensive zone and slid the puck to Ficek down by the goal line. Ficek took a bad-angle shot at the goaltender's pads with Code crashing hard to the net, and the opportunistic forward from Littleton, Colorado, banged home the rebound to give the "Big Red" a 2-1 lead. Vermont Academy, a gritty hockey team, would not go away easily, and they capitalized on a St. Paul's School defensive miscue to tie the game at two. For the remainder of the second period, both teams skated up and down the Gordon Rink ice sheet, desperately looking for the go-ahead goal, but both goaltenders were up for the challenge.
 
In the third period, on the power play, Tommy Humphreys ?25 (Simsbury, CT) collected a Quinn Brandell ?26 (Plattsburgh, NY) pass along the right wall in the neutral zone. The "Delphian" club member cooly gathered the puck, spun to protect it, and then attacked the Vermont Academy defensive blue line. When Humphreys entered the offensive zone, he danced across the high ice past two "Wildcat" defenders to the top of the left face-off circle, where he released a "wicked wrister," waist-high, at the Vermont net. Ficek, who was around the net all game, was "Johnny on the spot" and redirected Humphreys' shot out of the air and into the left upper corner to give the "Big Red" the lead they were looking for with twelve minutes to play in the game. For the next eight minutes of play, St. Paul's School goaltender Blake Truchon ?26 (South Burlington, VT) made several key saves to secure the lead and allow his team to score the fourth goal and establish a two-goal lead. The "Big Red's" fourth goal came off the stick of Matt Vohra, with a little less than four minutes to play, when he flew through the neutral zone, splitting the Vermont defense to collect a Chay Simons ?27 (Atlanta, GA) clearing pass to skate in on a breakaway. Vohra deked the goalie to his left and shot the puck to his right for the all-important two-goal lead in the closing minutes of play. St. Paul's School would surrender one more goal in the closing two minutes of play, but Truchon and the "Big Red" team defense secured the lead and earned the opportunity to play Proctor Academy on Saturday, March 1st, at 2:45 PM on the Teddy Maloney rink for their last game of the 2024-2025 varsity boys hockey season.