Sports
Southern Lehigh Ice Hockey Team Plays For League Title Tonight
Best-of-three series with Parkland tied 1-1.
The Southern Lehigh ice hockey can win the Lehigh Valley Scholastic Hockey League title tonight in the deciding game of its best-of-three series with Parkland.
The game is set for 6 p.m. at The Rinks at Lehigh Valley in Whitehall Township. Parkland won Game 1 by a 6-2 score on March 4. The Spartans rallied and took Game 2 Monday by a 6-4 count.
In Game 1, Parkland came out with a quick goal by Dylan Rzonca but Southern Lehigh fired back and went into the second period with a 2-1 lead. In the second period, the Trojans scored four goals -- led by Daniel Plinke. He scored on a power play and again at full strength.
Daniel Barnaby scored on the second power play and assisted on the other three goals. Rzonca recorded his second and Parkland a 5-2 lead heading into the final period.
Parkland finished off Game 1 with Barnaby netting an early third period goal to open a 6-2 lead. Robbie Stock was stellar in net, The Trojan goalie stopped 28 of 30 shots on the night.
Southern Lehigh rallied in Game 2 to hand Parkland its first loss of the season.
Zach Mondschein put Parkland ahead nearly five minutes into the first period with a quick rebound but as a prelude to the rest of the game, Southern Lehigh would not quit and continued to put pressure on the Trojans, tying the game less than two minutes after Mondshein’s goal.
Josh Campano, using his speed to break away from the pack, gave the Trojans a 2-1 lead on a short-handed goal with 4:04 left in the first. But once again, Southern Lehigh came right back with two minutes left in the period and scored to take a 2-2 into the second period.
Six minutes into the second, a turnover in Parkland's defensive zone proved costly as Southern Lehigh scored to retake the lead at 3-2. Josh Krawiec retied the game at 3-3 thirty seconds later, but once again the Spartans came back to retake a 4-3 lead.
The Spartans took a 5-4 lead into the third period and never looked back, tacking on an additional goal to win, 6-4.