Sports
High School Ice Hockey: Vikings Eliminate Knights
Ches-Mont League Playoffs: Perkiomen Valley 3, Bayard Rustin 1
Generally speaking, ice hockey is a sport that requires a short memory.
If a player makes a mistake on a shift, he needs to forget about it and attack even more aggressively on the next one.
Noting that, it would have been nearly impossible for the Vikings to look across the ice Monday night at No. 1 seed West Chester Bayard Rustin and not pull up the memory of the season-ending loss suffered at the hands of the Knights in last year’s Flyers Cup semifinals.
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In an interesting strategy, Vikings head coach Robert Nielson chose to embrace the agony that his club endured last season and use it as fuel to motivate his underdog squad.
“I told them in the locker room before the game that they could beat this team,” said a jubilant Nielson after the game. “They beat us earlier in the year, but we were in the game all the way. We have been so strong defensively all season; it was just a matter of getting a couple of goals.”
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The Vikings (9-8-0) proved that their coach’s confidence in them was justified as they beat Rustin 3-1, advancing to play West Chester Henderson in the Ches-Mont league semifinal Wednesday night at Ice Line in West Chester.
The Knights (12-5) took a 1-0 lead when Mike Gunderson was able to sneak the puck by Dustin Jagiela on a redirection of a shot by Matt Gosik with eight minutes to play in the first period.
Perk Valley turned up the defensive screws following a scoring chance where Ryan Knox was wide open in front of Jagiela, but fanned on a one-timer attempt that would have given the Knights a two-goal bulge and all of the momentum.
Sophomore defensemen Brian Shaw, who would eventually get an empty net goal to close out the Knights, and freshman Bryce Womack were unbelievable in the Vikings end as the duo blocked four shots. Shaw was also able to make a diving poke check on a Rustin sniper sitting on the doorstep to keep it a one-goal game in the second period.
“Our defense has played like that all year,” said Jagiela. “As a goaltender, it’s great to know that once you make the first save, the puck will be cleared. My job is to keep us in it until we get our offense going, and tonight we didn’t have a lot of scoring chances, but we made the most of what we had.”
After a scoreless second period in which each team had one power play, Perk Valley found themselves trailing by one as they entered the final period.
The tension was mounting for the Vikings as they squandered two power-play opportunities early in the third period, and Read Bohon hit the post with 11 minutes remaining in regulation.
“All I could think off at that point was out first shift,” added Nielson. “We had the goalie pulled out and didn’t score the first time we had the puck. I was thinking, 'Please don’t let us lose like that, not on a play like that.'”
As it often happens in hockey, immediately following the “clank” of the pipes, the puck was headed in the Vikings net minder’s direction.
This time, it was in the person of Rustin’s third leading scorer Colin Clark (11 goals, nine assists on the season), who cruised in alone on a break away.
Jagiela didn’t bite when Clark tried to shift the puck to his backhand, leaving the Knights' sniper nowhere to go but inside of the short side post. Jagiela slid his pad to the left and kept the puck out of the net, keeping it a one-goal game.
“That was a game changer,” said Brian Shaw. “What a save Dustin made there. He makes great saves all the time, but none like that. That was so huge for us and it seemed to get us to kick it up a notch.”
Perkiomen Valley senior Andre Clifford has been involved with his share of big plays for the Vikings this season, having scored 14 goals heading into Monday night, but none as huge as his break away with 6:43 left in regulation.
Following a power play in which the Vikings failed to record a shot on net, Clifford was able to break free and beat Rustin Goaltender Zack Sheriko to knot the tilt at one.
“On a break like that, I always try to let them make the first move,” said Jagiela. “I saw that he (Sheriko) had Andre beat with the glove side. I was like, 'You better beat him to the left,' then I saw it get past him. That really gave us some jump, and after that, they started to get frustrated.”
That frustration for Rustin was quickly translated to a power play for the Vikings as Rustin captain Mike Gunderson was whistled for hooking with 5:55 left in regulation.
Again it was Clifford going to work in the Knights zone, as he deposited a rebound of Read Bohon’s shot past Sheriko to give Perk Valley its first lead of the game.
When Brian Shaw added an empty netter, the Vikings and their crowd that made the trek to West Chester could finally catch their breath.
“On the first goal, all I could think was, "Don’t miss,'” said Clifford. “We really got it going after that. On the power play it could have been any of us that got the goal. I got my stick and almost went nuts when I saw it behind him. These guys ended our season last year, and we all remembered what that feeling was like.”
“I told our guys with two games to go in the regular season that we are the Green Bay Packers,” said Nielson. “We needed to win both of our remaining games, then three in the playoffs to win the championship. I told them we are the Green Bay Packers, and this is our time.”