LANDON HOCKEY 3 DeMATHA 2

WaPo #1 DeMatha (15-3-1; 5-0 MAPHL) with wins over four WaPo top 10 teams (including Gonzaga) and only losses to teams outside of the DMV invited the Bears to the Gardens Laurel Ice House (their home rink). The Stags have been averaging 7 GF and 0.66 GA in local competition.  The Hyattsville, MD Trinitarian high school (862 students) is celebrating its 30^th season of ice hockey with a lot of expectations.

The Bears returned from its annual Valley Forge Winter Camp where the boys get a lot of skating, the Coaches get to experiment with combinations and the team gets to bond. Their first game home was a 3-0 shutout of O’Connell and have a 4-5-1 record. The team’s last visit to the Ice House was on February 19, 2016 and 8-1 win over Gonzaga.

The 1^st period had a fair amount of ebb and flow to it. The Stags skated aggressively and possessed the puck for much of the initial minutes in the Bear D end. As the home team started to realize that this was not going to follow the pattern of most of their season’s games in which they dominated their opponents, the Brown “sweatered” players, especially the ’19 and ’20 skaters gained confidence and moved the play to the other end of the ice. DM was in for a fight and they might have gained the momentum. Two plays might have gained the momentum. Ty Morton made two spectacular glove saves—at 3:42 and 1:38—and the visitors defeated this surge. All four Bear lines and two D pairs knew that they could compete.

Ty made 13 saves and Landon put 7 Shots on Goal.

END OF 1^ST PERIOD BEARS 0 STAGS 0

After 0:28 seconds the Bears staggered the Stags; Cole Gibson made a well-timed entry pass to Nico Kenary. The Argentinian Assassin took a shot at the DM goalie and as it approached the crease, Ryan Giles altered its course into the back of the home goal. (@16:32).

The first penalty of the match was called against Landon at 8:57 and DeMatha attacked its O zone. The Bears intercepted passes, iced the puck and effectively defended the potent DM forwards/defensemen. Ty successfully blocked the 4 SOGs.

Another Bear strike was started by a nice pass from ’20 Nicolas Khramtsov to ’20 Jake Davidson who skated behind the DM goal and the home defenders started to shift to the other side of the goal. As that movement began, Jake made a pass behind his back to a wide-open Owen Concannon who buried the puck past the opposing netminder @3:48.

The visitors did not relent. 0:31 later Spencer Davis moved the puck to Chris Morris who beat the DM goalie for goal #3 @ 3:17.

From 0:00 to 34:00, the referees let the boys play. The contact was physical but not over the acceptable line. The tic tac fouls now were called more frequently; two at the end of the second period two minor indiscretions were called evenly divided between the teams.

Ty stopped 15 of the DM shots and Landon had 12 SOGs

END OF 2^ND PERIOD BEARS 3 STAGS 0

From the drop of the puck and for the next ten minutes, Coach Farnstrom got his sixteen players (2 injured players and another netminder did not skate) to carefully follow a strategy. The forwards skated hard up the ice, took whatever advantage that was given, but once the puck went to a DeMatha stick, forecheck aggressively. They created turnovers, forced bad Stag passes and bottled up their opponents. The Bear D stood on their blue line, but made sure that the home team had no odd man pucks. It worked.

Then as a Bear hip checked a Stag so effectively that he fell to the ice (admittedly that’s the view of a non-neutral observer from a distance). The referees and linesman, after a conference, called a major penalty against that Bear. That meant Landon had to play short one skater for 300 seconds and the penalized Brown sweater could not release even if the opponents scored.

 

For 200 seconds the Bear man down 4 skater box was impervious. The Stags made Ty stop only 3 shots. The 4^th DM shot from point blank went in at 2:20. The remaining 0:39 of the major did not see another home team shot. Soon thereafter, the Stag netminder headed to the bench and a sixth skater entered the fray. At 0:59.7 the heretofore #1 team tallied its second goal, but to no avail. No further scores were registered.

For the last period, Ty made another 10 saves; game total 38. From the beginning of the O’Connell game until the DM first goal, Ty and his teammates blanked their opponents to NO GOALS for 99 minutes. The Bear O put 9 SoGs for this last period; game total 27

FINAL SCORE BEARS 3 STAGS 0

 

Good Counsel on 1/11 and Prep on 1/13 both at the Bears’ Den.