Memes

2020 Suburban High School Hockey League


Lowest price
cutting edge photo editing
and design!





NJ Youth Hockey Forum

Neighbors Sports


Of Southeastern Pennsylvania

Friday, Dec 23, 2022 | Youth Hockey Info


ICE HOCKEY

Special teams implosion dooms North Penn in Indians win


Seth Grossman converts a rebound after a shot from Nick Smith to go up 4-2.

By: North Penn News
STAFF WRITER

COLMAR, PA - It's been said relentlessly over the course of the season "turnovers are killing this team's chances to compete." The Knights constantly put themselves behind the eight ball with careless unforced turnovers, and last night's performance wasn't any different. The Souderton Indians converted nearly every unprovoked turnover handed to them on what seemed like a silver platter, scoring three shorthanded opportunities successively on clean breakaways. Not only is it seemingly not getting any better for the Knights, but it also appears they're drifting farther into the abyss of non-conform play. The Knights have now given up six, yes, SIX shorthanded goals over the last three games, three of which were in this game alone. If it were possible for the Knights to skip second periods altogether going straight to the third, things might look differently.


Tyler Porubski scores to put the Knights ahead 1-0

Without a doubt the first period for the Knights was the best they've played over the last six games, going all the way back to November tenth against Central Bucks West. Both teams were forechecking, playing the body, and limiting indiscretions while playing a good quality, hard-fought game. The first period was coming to a close and appeared as though the score was going to remain dead-locked at zero until Tyler Porubski started and finished a line rush into the Knight's offensive zone. Porubski moved the puck up ice from his defensive zone as he threw a cross-ice pass to Nolan Shingle along the far side boards. The pass eluded Shingle but he continued on to pressure the Indians' defensemen forcing the Souderton player to unload the puck errantly. Porubski was there to pick up the turnover, kicking it from his feet to his blade, ripping a shot through a screen, beating goaltender Noah Connor on the blocker side to put the Knights on the board and ending the first period by a score of 1-0.

Just about two minutes into the second period the Indian's Seth Grossman took a bad penalty, checking a Knights defenseman into the boards from behind. Grossman was issued a two and ten for his misgiving but as ridiculous as it sounds, this was the beginning of the end for the Knight's evening. What should have been a golden opportunity for the North Penn offense, turned into a disastrous meltdown allowing Souderton to take control of play. After about one minute into the minor, the Knights dumped the puck into the Souderton end, and as the coaching staff called for a complete offensive line change it gave the Indians a four-on-two opportunity and they took full advantage. Indian defenseman Patrick Callahan quickly identified an open forward up ice and threw a homerun pass to wide-open Max Ryon. Ryon went in one on none and beat goalie Nick Crist to even the score at one apiece. Forty-five seconds later the Indians' forecheck by Timmy Alexander forced John Stinson to turn over the puck behind the Knight's net leaving Nick Smith all alone in the slot as the rest of the Knights squad began its breakout Stinson went backward behind the NP goal and was stripped. Alexander passed to Smith who pumped the puck in without hesitation to go up 2-1 on back-to-back shorthanded goals. Later in the period, the Knights were awarded yet another gift-wrapped penalty. And in customary fashion, they turned over the puck on the power play and left Nick Crist hung out to dry on another one on none shorthanded breakaway, this time by Liam O'Neill. O'Neill had all day long to skate in as he put the puck through the five-hole increasing the Indian lead to 3-1. In all of my years playing and watching youth hockey I've never witnessed back-to-back-to-back shorthanded goals at any level, I guess there's a first time for everything. Whatever the case, the Knights converted on the same power play they were scored on shorthanded fifty seconds earlier. Sam Mostochuk set up in front of the Indian net and popped in a rebound off of a point shot from Gabe Dunn to close the gap to 3-2. With fifty-four seconds remaining in the second period the Knights allowed Seth Grossman to get behind everybody where he stationed himself on the right-side post in the North Penn zone. Nick Smith was handed the puck in the slot after a horrendous one-on-four unforced turnover by North Penn. Smith shot and Grossman tapped in the rebound to go up 4-2. Pro-tip, if there are two guys on the Souderton Indians who you don't want to give freebies to, it's Grossman and Smith.  As bad as the Knights were playing, Souderton kept letting them back in. Twenty seconds later, it was the Indian's turn to give away the puck. Matt Yothers picked up the turnover inside the Knight's defensive blueline, springing Derek DeLong on a one-on-one breakaway. Delong went around the Souderton defenseman and tucked the puck past the sprawled-out Indian goaltender to cut the lead to 4-3. The period ended with the score the same and the Indians ahead.

The final frame featured non-stop turnovers from both teams and though the score remained 4-3 for most of the period, it would be the Knights who made a costly mistake late in the game taking an unnecessary interference penalty. With a little over five minutes left in the game, on the powerplay, the Indians played keep away until the Knights overloaded on the right side and left Jaime Avaria alone along the left side circle. Grossman fired a shot low from the point and Avaria picked up the rebound depositing it into a wide-open North Penn net, nail-in-coffin. Max Ryon tacked on an empty netter for his second goal of the game sealing the deal for the Indians doubling up the Knights by a 6-3 score.


GAME RECAP

TEAM
    1ST
    2ND
    3RD
END
SOUDERTON
0
4
2
6
NORTH PENN
1
2
0
3

1ST PERIOD
16:07 NORTH PENN #28 Tyler Porubski (even strength) (unassisted)
2ND PERIOD
14:08 SOUDERTON #98 Max Ryon (shorthanded) (#3 Patrick Callahan)
13:35 SOUDERTON #11 Nick Smith (shorthanded) (#62 Timmy Alexander)
7:50 SOUDERTON #97 Liam O'Neill (shorthanded) (unassisted)
7:02 NORTH PENN #11 Sam Mostochuk (powerplay) (#18 Gabe Dunn, #48 Cole Pluck)
16:06 SOUDERTON #19 Seth Grossman (even strength) (#11 Nick Smith #83 Owen Watters)
16:26 NORTH PENN #23 Derek Delong (even strength) (#18 Matt Yothers)
3RD PERIOD
11:35 SOUDERTON #28 Jaime Avaria (power play) (#19 Seth Grossman, #3 Patrick Callahan)
16:29 SOUDERTON #98 Maxwell Ryon (even strength) (empty net) (#11 Nicholas Smith, #19 Seth Grossman)



Share on Facebook!Share on Twitter!