Sometimes, a close hockey game turns into a rout, especially when you take too many penalties.
Trailing Central Bucks South 4-1 after two periods, Central Bucks East (4-3) was outscored 4-0 in the final frame and fell 8-1 last Friday night at Bucks County Ice Sports Center. East was tagged with 26 minutes in penalties in that last period including a pair of 10-minute majors.
The Patriots accumulated 38 minutes in penalties to just 12 for the Titans.
“Our game plan was just play hard, move the puck, don’t do anything stupid and let them do the stupid stuff,” said CB South forward Jeff Kvecher.
With the score tied at 1-apiece, Kvecher flipped a pass in front of the net to Joey Slobodrian, who tapped the puck into the right side of the net for the winning goal with 26 seconds remaining in the first period.
The winning strike came on a power play and Kvecher tallied a power-play goal of his own off a feed from Sean Cutter to put the Titans up 4-1 with 33 seconds remaining in the second period.
“It (the power play) was better tonight and it was nice to see that for the boys,” said CB South head coach Shaun McGinty. “They need that confidence.”
“Five on five, we’re a strong team but special teams is what wins. It’s goaltending, defense and special teams.”
Kvecher was one of four goal-scorers for CB South in the first eight minutes of the third period and by that time, the battle was out of the reach of the Patriots.
“It’s a big rivalry – we hate them, they hate us,” added Kvecher. “We were just really determined to beat them and it worked.”
Captain D.J. Lindenmuth opened the scoring by poking the puck into the net less than two minutes into the battle with help from teammates Jake Stepp and Aidan Linso. Lindenmuth leads CB South in scoring with 10 goals and two assists.
“He’s a great captain, great player, great leader,” stated Kvecher, who has six goals and six assists. “He’s stepping up and making the big plays for us.”
The Titans are averaging 5.9 goals per game on offense and more importantly, South is limiting opponents to just two goals a game and just one in this one.
But they gave up a shorthanded goal off a turnover in their own defensive zone late in the first period that helped East tie the score at 1-all. The Patriots’ leading scorer Corey Kosick took full advantage, netting his 13th goal of the season with 2:04 left in the initial stanza.
“We had some guys who were trying to fly the zone a little earlier than normal and not doing their job – protecting the house as we call it,” said McGinty. “That stuff is going to haunt you against the CR Souths, against the Pennridges, against a team like East when they’re firing.”
“But we played solid D-zone tonight and we did our job. We held a good team to one goal and that was nice.”
At 6-1-1 in the SHSHL National Division after the win over CB East, the Titans are hot on the trail of second-place Pennridge (7-0) and league leader Council Rock South (8-0).
“We’re right where we want to be; we’re at the top of that food chain,” stated McGinty. “It’s nice for us to be back to where we haven’t been for quite a while.”
“I think we’ve earned the opportunity to be where we are and I think teams need to be ready to play us but we also have to be ready to play every night.”
South outshot East 31-14 in this duel while senior goalkeeper Dom Varacallo stopped all but one of the shots he faced in notching his fourth win of the season.
“He’s been really solid this year,” said Kvecher. “We have a goalie we can trust and that’s always good.”
Nate Napolitano has the other two wins for the Titans.
Jake Kunkle, Ryan Frey, Colin Mendham and Jake Stepp also scored for CB South in the victory over East. Linso came through with three assists in the battle and Cutter had a pair.
Including a 10-1 triumph over Council Rock North Dec. 6 at Grundy Ice Rink, the Titans have outscored their last two foes 18-2.
And CB South scored an impressive win over Pennsbury Nov. 30 at Hatfield ice. Trailing the Falcons 1-0 after the first period, the Titans netted goals in each of the last two frames to come away with a 2-1 triumph.
Right wing Keith Waldron tallied a power-play goal off a feed from Linso and Kvecher to tie the game in the second period then Lindenmuth tallied shorthanded strike off a feed from Cutter early in the final frame.
“They’re a scrappy team so they played us hard,” explained Kvecher. “But we’re near the top of the table, every team wants to beat us so we got to be ready each and every game.”
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