Landon Hockey 5 Georgetown Prep 0 02.13.2020

Landon Hockey 5 Georgetown Prep 0

The 13-3-1 Little Hoyas earned the right based on their regular season IAC record, to claim the Rockville Ice Arena Rink #2 (a/k/ta the Bears’ Den) as home ice. [Bears 12-2-2]. That substantial advantage (right to put lines on ice last, short substitutions in periods 1 and 3) evaporated quickly under the heavy pressure of the Bears pervasive, aggressive forechecking, exceptional stretch passes and great structure.

All three of those elements of success have been the lesson plan of Coach Chowdah, Coach Farnström and Coach CC Camel from the 1^st day of practice. The Bears’ energy in the finals was electric on the ice for the full 45 minutes. To extend the batteries of the Bears, the coaches emptied their bench putting all 21 skaters to play.

The home team hit the ice with expectations of retaining their solitary IAC championships (02 ‘06’ ‘09 ‘10 ‘17 ’19) whereas the Visitors (2003, 2006–08 (co-champs all three years), 2009, 2010 (co-champs), 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016) in their gold sweaters were not ready to concede the 2020 trophy based on a prior 2-3 loss 1/24  at Cabin John.

The Initial period

The Bears’ forechecking contained the little Hoyas in their D zone, allowing the Visitors to launch 17 shots on the GP goalie with a 1.79 GAA. That pressure saw its first fruits @8:08 when Oscar Smink assisted on a goal by Matthew Brille. The scrum in front of the opponents’ net was fierce, but the Bear claws controlled the puck. Oscar earned his 2^nd point @5:53 on a goal with helpers from Matt AND Colby Shannon.

Perhaps the sweetest goal of the game was a beautiful left to right sweep by Ryan Giles whose shot beat the home netminder with A’s to Joey Graham and JH Lages @ 0:50.2.

END OF 1^ST PERIOD BEARS 3 LITTLE Hoyas 0

       L Shot on Goal 17 L Saves (Max Weinstein) 6

The onslaught continued in this next segment. This time the puck moved from to Ryan to Ethan Weinstein to Will Lawrence for goal #4 @ 12:02.

Will returned the favor by assisting on Ryan’s goal @6:32.

The first occupations of the penalty box consumed occupied the remainder of the middle period. Virtually offsetting penalties were lodged at 5:33 (GP), 5:24 (L), 2:22 (L) and 2:03 (GP). No goals were registered by other team

END OF MIDDLE PERIOD BEARS 5 LITTLE HOYAS 0

       L Shot on Goal 9 L Saves (Max Weinstein) 7

In the January game, GP intensified its attack in the last 15 minutes crashing the Bear nets with 7 shots, one of which squirted through a scrum. In the Championship game, the Little Hoyas did not put a shot on net until 5:40. The Landon D in numerical order (Arthur Smink,Jake Cohen, JH Lages, Ethan Goldman, Jacob Hookman-Vassa, Damon Pirko, Ethan Weinstein and Nick Hebert) stifled any offensive initiative of the WaPo #2 GP team. All of the Bear forwards forechecked and back checked furiously- lifting sticks, bodying the opponents off of the puck, dropping in front of shots and blocking/redirecting the GP passes. It was a masterful Bear D for the remaining 900 seconds on the clock.

FINAL SCORE BEARS 5 LITTLE HOYAS 0.0

       TOTAL L SOGs 35 L SAVES 29 with 0 goals

Next game at Bears’ Den 2/18 MAPHL 1^st round v. O’Connell (MAPHL #6 seed 4-3-3) @ 5pm Bears #3 seed 6-2-2