Rams drop regular season finale, prepare for playoffs

Much of the drama had been drained from Spring-Ford's regular season finale with Perkiomen Valley on Friday night, as the worst the Rams could finish was third in the division. The Vikings, meanwhile, had been guaranteed a spot in next weeks ICSHL playoffs, thanks to a loss by Methacton.

When the clubs took the ice at the Center Ice complex in Oaks, little more than pride was on the line, but when it comes to a PAC-10 ice hockey match up, that is the paramount motivator.

Perkiomen Valley celebrated their playoff invitation by playing one of their most solid defensive games of the season, emerging with a 4-1 win over the Rams to finish the regular season with an 8-8-0 record and 16 points.

The Rams. who had only dropped one game in their last six coming into Friday’ s action, may have watched a chance to compete for the Flyers Cup walk out the door with the loss, but the seeding from that prestigious tournament will not be posted until Sunday.

“I hope we still qualify,” said Rams head coach Bill Booth. “I am not quite sure how they figure it all out...records, opponents. Hopefully we didn’t lose that tonight. We didn’t come out with the intensity that I thought we would tonight. Again, we can be up some games and down some and this was definitely one of those down games but I don’t know why.”

The Vikings limited a potent Rams attack to just twelve shots on goaltender Dustin Jagiela, who was making his second start following a two game suspension. Jagiela did not allow a goal until Ryan Booth broke up the shutout with 10:39 remaining in the third with his sixth goal of the season.

The Rams may have been limited in the shot department, but battled Perk Valley for every inch of ice and out-hit the Vikings for the entire contest.

Spring-Ford's hard work in the offensive zone was rewarded by the Rams having two power plays in the last seven minutes, but Spring-Ford could not capitalize. They ended the regular season with 17 points, placing them third in the division.

Andre Clifford scored his 13^th goal of the season on a feed from captain Read Bohan to put Perkiomen Valley on the board at the 4:42 mark of the first period. Clifford added an empty net goal with 30 seconds left to close out the scoring.

"We'll be fine," said senior Tyler Hoffman. "We need to focus and get ready now for the playoffs. We know it's win or go home. We need to play our 'A' game everytime we take the ice."

The Rams (7-6-3) will face off against Unionville (9-4-2) on Monday, February 28^th at Ice Line Quad rinks in West Chester at 8:15 pm. If they advance, they will face the winner of the Boyertown/West Chester East game.

Check out the videos of Tyler Hoffman and Ryan Booth as well as coaches post game comments attached to this story.

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