On Wednesday, February 5^th, the New Hampton School "Huskies" traveled south on Route 93 to take on the St. Paul's School "Big Red" in the Hockey Center on Gordon Rink for a 2:30 puck drop. The contest was the first of the home-and-away matchup. 
 
Four minutes and twenty-six seconds into the first period, the "Huskies" jumped out to a quick start and capitalized on an early 5v3 power play. The St. Paul's School skaters did not get rattled by giving up a goal early and stayed with their game plan. With a minute and seventeen seconds left in the first period, the "Big Red's" Colin O'Leary '27 (Winthrop, MA) got the "boys of winter" on the board when he took a Harry Dermody '26 (Bedford, NH) pass from deep in the left offensive corner to the left side of the offensive blue line. He brought the puck into the middle third of the rink and fired a wicked snapshot to the upper corner to tie the game at one. Fin Kilbourne '27 (Duxbury, MA) set a good screen in front of the New Hampton goalie, so O'Leary's shot sailed through the air uninterrupted, and the home team took a lot of positive momentum into the locker room for the first intermission.
 
In the second period, the "Big Red" capitalized eleven minutes into play when Pat Cooley '25 (Rutland, VT) and Fin Kilbourne teamed up in a man-down situation for the home team's second goal of the game. Cooley picked up a loose puck high in the defensive zone, carried it through the neutral zone, and then retrieved his own dumped puck in the left corner of the New Hampton defensive zone. The "woodchuck" shielded the puck from three New Hampton players and then passed it to the lone Kilbourne standing in front of the "Husky" goalie all alone. The "Old Hundred" forward knew exactly what to do with Cooley's pass, and he one-timed it by the New Hampton goalie to give St. Paul's School a lead they would not relinquish. Like the first period, the "Big Red" scored their third goal of the game with less than two minutes to play when Mitchell Smith '27 (Thunder Bay, ON) picked up a Harry Dermody pass off the right half-board in the offensive zone. He skated the puck into the center of the high slot and fired a low, hard shot on net that Dermody redirected to give the St. Paul's School skaters a commanding 3-1 lead heading into the second intermission.
 
Heading into the third period, the Millville skaters knew the "Huskies" would not go away quietly. New Hampton started the third period firing on all cylinders. Their work effort on the first shift of the period caused a St. Paul's stick infraction, and they quickly went to work on their man-advantage opportunity by scoring their second goal on a breakaway to make the score 3-2 with sixteen minutes and fifty-three seconds left to play in the game. For the remaining sixteen minutes of play, the teams skated furiously up and down the Gordon ice, trying to create offensive opportunities and shut down each other's desire for a goal. In the closing minute of play, with the New Hampton goalie on the bench for an extra attacker, Harry Dermody won a face-off on the right neutral zone dot on the defensive side of the red line directly to captain Matt Vohra '25 (Valley, NS), who one-timed the puck into the empty net to make the game a 4-2 score in favor of the home team for another good Lakes Region Hockey Conference win for the "Big Red."
 
Blake Truchon '26 (South Burlington, VT) posted another strong game in net for the "Big Red," stopping twenty-six of twenty-eight "Husky" shots to give his team the defensive stability it needed at crucial moments of the game.

The two teams will meet again on Friday, February 7^th, in Jacobson Arena on the New Hampton School campus at 3:45 PM.