Landon Hockey 6 St. Albans 0

The Bears returned to the Bears’ Den after a month long hibernation. Back from the Mountain School, the line-up included a veteran Jacob Ruttenberg and the roster included a new skater, Culver VanVleck. The opponent was the all too familiar St Albans Bulldogs, populated with players from the football, lacrosse and other teams as well as guys who play as teammates with our boys on other teams.

One of the early “friendly” encounters defined this as a physical game when one of the StA players collided with a Landon player. All of that exertion by the visiting team resulted in an abundance of shots propelled by the Bulldogs at the home goalie, Sean O’Brien, who frequently faces these opponents on the diamond. In tonight’s 1^st period this Sean O’Brien turned away all of the StA’s9 shots (on his way to what would be known as a shutout in baseball and a total of 19 saves). He received solid help from his blue liners–Jack Barton, Trevor Wolf, Jacob and Brian Jordan.

Though outshot 8-2 at the time, 50% of the Bears’ shots found the back of the net. Colton Rupp passed to his linemate, Alex Norwinski for the first score at 10:51Bears 1 Bulldogs 0. With 2:01 left in the initial stanza, the Bulldogs big defenseman was sent to the penalty box. Ten seconds later, Brian Jordan moved the puck to Alex who found Colton Rupp and he buried the puck to make it Bears 2 Bulldogs 0 @ 1:51.

During the middle period, the primary play was to test who could dominate the bodies of the opponents. Crashes along the board, direct collisions, an occasional elbow and the like were the predominant mode of this fifteen minute segment. The Bears were called for a penalty and the Bulldogs spent four minutes in the penalty box. Landon gained the advantage in SoGs with a two period tally of L 16 StA 13, but no goals.

The Landon bleachers were filled with a large number of supportive Bears plus several faculty members. That energy flowed onto the ice. Alex found Drennan Greene for the 3^rd home goal @ 10:53.  Later Brian passed the puck to a flying Tommy Crittenberger who nailed the opposite corner of the StA goal @ 2:02. A Bulldog player incurred the wrath of a referee who indicated that this Saint had committed a foul at 1:10. The Bears set up their powerplay and Jack Barton was able to pass to Alex for the Bears’ 5^th and final goal.

The game was an example of how Landon will be successful this season—smart checking, breaking the puck out from the D zone, getting it down low and cycling it, supporting point of attack on O and D and solid goalie play. When the Bears do those simple things with energy and smarts, they will win a lot of games.

LANDON 5 St. ALBANS 0

NEXT GAME vs. Mt. St. Joe (MAPHL 0-2) 1/13 away 6:15pm