It had all the trappings of a postseason game. Two fired up teams. A large crowd.
But it wasn’t the playoffs. Last Wednesday night’s meeting between the Central Bucks South and Council Rock South ice hockey teams was a Suburban High School Hockey League regular season meeting at Revolution Ice Gardens.
CB South came out on top, 6-3, to remain in first place in the Class AA Division.
CR South dominated play in the opening minutes of the game, but failed to capitalize.
It was CB South drawing first blood, with a goal from Dominic Patrone at 9:47. Daniel Kvecher made it 2-0 for the Titians less than two minutes later.
Jeremy Purcell scored to put CR South on the board with 6:06 remaining and the period ended with a 2-1 edge to the Titans.
CB South extended its lead in the second period. The Titans began that frame with a power play and took advantage, as Matt Milanesi scored less than a minute into play.
Douglas Lopez scored for CR South to make it a 3-2 game, but Milanesi got his second goal of the day with 8:11 to go and the period ended with CB South ahead, 4-2.
Colin Abbonizio scored barely a minute into the third period to give CB South a 5-2 lead.
The third period was where things got a little wild, with 13 of the game’s 17 total penalties called in that stanza, most notably a five-minute major for high sticking and a game misconduct for CR South goaltender Jimmy Sweeney with 7:21 remaining. Carson Lopez finished out the game in net for the Golden Hawks.
Michael Roby scored a shorthanded goal for CR South with just over four minutes to go to take the score to 5-3, but Abbonizio put one in the empty net to round out the scoring for the evening.
“I was worried coming into the game,” Milanesi said. “I knew they were a good team, I knew we’d have to come out and skate hard. They were definitely all over us in the first period. We had to come out strong in the second period and we ended up putting a few in and getting a good lead.
“It was good that we got those two goals because we could step back and take a breather and then keep going.”
CB South had a 37-30 edge in shots. Mason Moyer made 27 saves in goal for CB South, while Sweeney made 27 and Lopez stopped four for the Golden Hawks.
“It’s disappointing but I think we made a statement,” CR South senior defenseman David Mueller said. “Not too many teams can stay with CB South. I think we did a pretty good job.
“We’ve got to do a better job of capitalizing on our chances but I don’t think this loss is a setback. We’ll come out stronger and build from this and keep working.”
The two met on Nov. 14, resulting in a 2-1 overtime win for CB South.
“The last time we played them it was really close so I came into this game excited about our chances,” Roby said. “We started off strong but we’ve got to stop taking stupid penalties. We’ve got to stay out of the box. That really hurt us.
“And we’ve got to get more quality shots on their goalie. He saw every shot. We’ve got to get in front of him. We were missing some of our better guys and that hurt us but we still should have worked harder and done some things better.
“I’m looking forward to playing them again if we get the chance.”
