SPS 4 - Exeter 2 
Friday, January 9th
Hockey Center—Gordon Rink
Concord, New Hampshire

The St. Paul's School varsity boys hockey team played host to Exeter Academy in the Hockey Center on Gordon Rink and skated away with a four - to - two win. The St. Paul's Skaters played the game to honor "Hockey Fights Cancer," a cause that resonates with many people worldwide, and is a small way for the Millville players to live out a part of the school's mission statement: "service to the greater good."  The storyline for the contest was SPS Sixth Form goaltender, assistant captain,  Blake Truchon '27. Truchon stopped twenty-nine of twenty-seven Exeter shots on net. The "Big Red" goalie made several spectacular saves on Exeter grade "A" scoring attempts in the second period. Truchon's play between the pipes was his best performance to date this season and arguably the best game of his four-year St. Paul's School varsity hockey career. The line of Jai Perry-Pereira '29, Carter Doherty '26, and Jack Bentley '28  continued to play great hockey as they made their impact on the game at the halfway point of the first period when Doherty '26 dumped the puck in on net, Bentley '28 retrieved the rebound, and made a pass from the right corner to right defenseman Chay Simons '27. Simons then fired a low shot on the net and Perry-Pereira was at the net to collect the rebound and beat the Exeter goalie with a shot to the far left side. Exeter would tie the game up two minutes later in the first period when they scored on a cross-slot pass that deflected off a St. Paul's School defender into the upper corner of the net.                            

The teams remained tied for the rest of the first period and the first fifteen minutes of the second period. At that point, both teams were charged with penalties, and they played four- on-four hockey. The four Exeter skaters took advantage of four-on-four play, and they found their second goal of the game when they stymied the SPS attack in the defensive zone, and converted on the turnover they created. The "Big Red" headed into the intermission down by one goal and took the time to refocus their team game. Left shot defenseman Whit Fusting '28, tied the game up at the nine-minute mark when he wandered down into the left corner of the offensive zone, collected the loose puck, and made his way from below the goal line behind the back of the Exeter net to get above the goal line on the right side of the rink and then fired a low angle shot by the Exeter goal for his first goal in his St. Paul's School hockey career. Callum Green '27 scored the game-winning goal for the "Big Red" when he was on the ice to kill off a St. Paul's School penalty. Two and a half minutes later, Green '27 caused a turnover in the neutral zone and skated into the offensive zone with an Exeter defender on his back and beat the visiting goalie with a calm and calculating move to his backhand. Sixth Form, captain, Harry Dermody '27 put the game out of reach in the closing minutes of play and sealed the victory for the "Big Red" when Anderson Kilbourne outworked the Exeter skaters in the left corner of the offensive zone, won a loose puck, and moved it to Dermody for a shot into the empty net.