Landon Hockey 9 Archbishop Spaulding 2

The 4-0 Bears, in their most recent game, faced the more tested Cavaliers 5-4-6. The denizens of the Bears Den had not played in 30 days and were missing three skaters. The visitors played throughout the holidays, most recently tying Mount Saint Joseph’s on Monday.  Oh, by the way, the AS goalie made 28 saves in that game plus 62 against DeMatha in a 0-0 tie, 28 vs. Gonzaga in another tie (non MAPHL game). The AS hockey website says that Collin Berkehas a .961 save percentage and a 1.68 GAA. He also plays for Team Maryland 18U / NAPHL 18U – 19/20 plus was the WaPo 1^st team hockey goalie.

An imposing task was posed for the Bears and for the first few minutes the home team showed rust in its passes and movement. Add to that, they violated the ice hockey rule by giving up the 1^st goal at 7:38.

Coach Ericksen applied a layer of WD-40 and his charges began to make the passes/connections of the 2019-2020 Bears.

Oscar Smink, showing better hand/eye coordination that the red-sweatered opponent and stole the puck. He passed it to Will Lawrence, who dangled his way through 3 AS defenders, and beat the Cavalier G for goal #1 @ 7:35. From the next faceoff, the puck again was attached to Will’s stick and he dropped it back JH Lages whose slapshot from the point hit nothing but the net. Bears 2 Cavaliers 1.

@1:13 Will intercepted an AS pass and passed it to Joey Graham, who beat the netminder through the 5 hole, as he skated across the crease.

END OF 1^ST TRIMESTER BEARS 3 CAVALIERS 1

This period–Landon SOGs 15; Max Weinstein saves 8

Early in period 2, the Cavaliers were called for two simultaneous penalties. BAD IDEA—playing a PK of 3 visitors against 5 white sweaters was deleterious to a comeback. The Bear PP worked efficiently – 3 seconds into the advantage Joey fed JH who got the puck to Will (goal 2) who scored #10:06. Now with a 5 on 4 differential, Kareem Al-Azem slide the black rubber sphere to Oscar @ 9:01 for the home team’s 5^th goal.

What was especially notable was the quickness of the Landon skaters—all 4 lines and 3 D pairs. Many 1 v. 1 battles were won by the Den Denizens. The Canadians, who made head-manning-the-puck their style of play, would admire this Bear team. More significantly, the hypercritical recent hockey alumni (Messrs. Concannon, Gilbert, “Skip” Giles and Soraci) were impressed by the talents of their Den descendants!!!

The drive to the net continued. This was started by Brown-bound Bear Matt Brille who deked several AS skaters drawing sufficient attention to give Jordan Dinesman a great shot and a goal @7:10.

Then, Joey created a turnover and scored @ 5:35. Bears 7 Cavaliers 1

The hockey fates and/or the referees decided to test the Bears, first a two minute penalty against one of the forwards and then major penalty against another home skater. 1:44 one man down and 0:16 3 on five; the remainder of the major carried through for 3:46 the next period. The defenders played PK for over 6 consecutive minutes. The forwards were brilliant in their forechecking and the D (Kareem, JH, Ethan Goldman, Jacob Hookman-Vassa, Damon Pirku, Coby Shrensky, Ethan Weinstein and Nick Hebert) were stalwart. Ethan’s twin Max was strong on his blue ice patch. The Bears had more SOGs during this 6 minute segment than the AS PP SOGs. A couple Spaulding shots looked destined for the nets, but Max stopped them.

AFTER 24 MINUTES OF PLAY: BEARS 7 CAVALIERS 1

This period–Landon SOGs 22 (+15) Max saves 3 (+8) (running total)

AS showed tenacity at 8:43 of P3 when they scored on a breakaway.

Matt shot, Kyle Radimer who fired the rebound at the AS goal and then JH tallied@4:14 for the Bears’ 8^th goal.

The home team’s 9^th goal was a combination between JH and Will (hat trick) @ 1:25.

FINAL BEARS 9 CAVALIERS 2

NEXT GAME THE PURPLE EAGLES AT FT. DUPONT FRIDAY 1/10 8pm.