Newark, Del. — A two-on-one breakout in the final seconds of overtime capped by defenceman Paul Army’s third goal of the game gave the Appoquinimink Jaguars (1-2-0) their first ever win in Inter-County Scholastic Hockey League play, defeating Kennett (1-2-1), 6-5, on Monday (Nov. 12) at the Patriot Ice Center.
First-line wingers Shane Hindt and Nathan Panchisin used their explosive speed and teamed up for a pair of Appoquinimink goals in the first period, each assisting the other to give the Jaguars an early 2-0 advantage. The Blue Demons, despite only fielding 10 skaters, bounced back quickly, with Blake Richman fielding a backdoor pass from Hayden Ibarra-Blomgren and connecting on a 10-foot wrist shot at 11:18 to halve the Appoquinimink lead.
After nearly two-thirds of the second period went by without a goal, Jacob DellaVecchia notched the equaliser for Kennett, backhanding the puck past Appoquinimink netminder Dylan Hadley off a Thomas Halsted rebound at 10:46. Just over a minute later, Kennett leading scorer Christo Walker gave the Demons a 3-2 lead with a backhander to the top left corner from the outside edge of the crease, but Jonny Schwarz responded for the Jaguars at 13:49, crashing the net and finishing a Panchisin set-up with a net-front backhand goal.
Kennett once again broke the tie at 2:54 in the third period when Kyle Robertson cleaned up a hard shot from Matthew Ganly at the top of the Appo zone, only for Army to get in gear offensively after holding down the blue line for the first two-thirds of the game. At the 4:47 mark, Army stole the puck in the neutral zone, carried it to the right point and took aim from long range before a net-front punch-in at 8:44 lifted the Jaguars back to a 5-4 advantage. The lead appeared safe until Schwarz took Halsted’s feet out from him amid a Kennett breakout and was issued a tripping minor at 9:35. With two seconds left in the power play, DellaVecchia crashed the net, failed to connect on his initial shot, but put back his own rebound to tie the game at five.
With neither team able to break the deadlock in the final 4:27 of regulation, the game extended into a five-minute, three-on-three overtime. In the final ten seconds, Panchisin and Army entered the Kennett zone in a two-on-one rush. Panchisin, entering up the left side, centred the puck to Army, who fired a top-shelf rifle past Tyler Richman to seal the Jaguars’ first ever ICSHL win.
Hadley recorded 35 saves in victory for the Jaguars, while Richman saved 23 shots in defeat.
Appoquinimink is off until Nov. 26, when they host Sun Valley. Kennett returns to action Friday evening (Nov. 16), when they square off against St. Mark’s.
Father Judge 6, Salesianum 3
Three unanswered goals from Father Judge lifted them out of a 3-3 deadlock to defeat Salesianum, 6-3, on Monday at the Patriot Ice Center.
Matthew Ryan led the Crusaders with two goals and two assists, including the game-winner with 4:47 remaining in the second period, while Robert Werner contributed a goal and two assists. Ryan Kelly led Salesianum with two goals, while Jack Brady contributed a goal and an assist.
With usual goalie Graham Burke absent from Monday’s game, Henry Annone handled the netminding duties for Salesianum and recorded 27 saves in defeat.
