As Thanksgiving traditions go, it’s right up there.
The annual Suburban High School Hockey League matchup between league and district rivals Central Bucks East and Central Bucks West has been held on Thanksgiving Eve for many a season and it’s always an intense game.
This year’s edition was no different. CB East came away with a 6-2 win on Wednesday evening after a hotly contested game at Hatfield Ice.
The Patriots got on the board quickly, when Patrick O’Brien stole the puck and netted an unassisted goal barely two minutes into play.
It was the first time in the rivalry game for O’Brien, a sophomore, who is a transfer from Plumstead Christian.
“After the first couple of shifts it kind of settled down, but those first couple of shifts really got my adrenaline going,” he said.
“I really bonded with the team over the past couple of weeks and it was just a really fun experience coming out here and playing with them.”
A little over a minute later Corey Kosick put one in for CB East, and the Patriots had a 2-0 lead.
“I kind of knew we were going to win after that, but we still had to keep battling to keep the lead,” CB East goaltender Cole Breen said.
CB West wasn’t quitting. Samuel Poliak netted a power-play goal with an assist from Luke Tremmel at the 9:15 mark to make it 2-1 in the first period.
CB East answered with goals from DJ Brown, assisted by O’Brien, and a power-play goal by Carter Keiser from Jaden Young to take a 4-1 at the first intermission.
Less than six minutes into the second period, Young put the puck in the net with an assist from Carter Keiser.
CB West battled back with a goal by Anthony Dowd to make it a 5-2 game.
CB East capitalized on a power play with the final goal of the game when Charlie Keiser scored with an assist from Drew Trask.
Breen made 29 saves on the 31 shots he faced. It was the second win of the year for Breen, who shares time between the pipes with Matt Mangiacapre, who also has two wins.
“It was a good team win,” said Breen, a sophomore. “We’re 4-0. I think the key has been everyone doing their job, and we’ve been getting the wins.”
After the game, the Patriots were presented with the trophy awarded annually to the winner of this game.
“It’s a big win for us,” Breen said. “We like bringing that trophy home. I think it’s the fourth year in a row for us.”
Tremmel, the captain of CB West, agreed with Breen’s win tally.
“I’m a senior, and we’ve never won this game since I’ve been here,” he said. “This is a heartbreaker.
“They scored two right away and that wasn’t ideal for us. Our goalie (Kyle Fasolak) usually plays with a fisheye mask and apparently that’s not allowed anymore in USA Hockey rules, so he had to put on our back-up’s cage and that messed him up a little so that was an unfortunate circumstance.
“I think we played a pretty solid game. A lot of chances came off of scrambles. Both of our goalies played well against the straight on shots. It was just pushing the net, getting people to win the scrambles, I think that’s what they beat us at and that’s how they scored their goals. That’s how we scored ours, too.”
Fasolak and Liam Rogers split time in goal for the Bucks.
The two teams meet again on Friday, Jan. 6.
“We’re looking forward to it,” Tremmel said.
The Patriots are back in action on Thursday evening, taking on Pennsbury at Hatfield Ice at 8:30 p.m. while the Bucks will next play Wissahickon on Wednesday, Dec. 7 at Hatfield Ice at 9:10 p.m.
In the earlier Thanksgiving Eve game at Hatfield, defending Pennsylvania state champion Pennridge came back from a 4-1 second period deficit to defeat Souderton, 6-5. Shane Dachowski had two goals and two assists, Kevin Pico netted two goals and had one assist, Andrew Savona contributed one goal and four assists and chipped in a single tally for the Rams, while Jacob Gilbert made 16 saves in goal for the winners.
Pennridge held a 52-21 advantage in shots on goal.
The Rams (2-1) next play Bensalem on Thursday at Grundy at 9 p.m.
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