The boys J.V. hockey team went on the road again on Saturday for their 8th straight game away from Deerfield. This team hasn’t played a home game since December 8th. The key to the game was to get off to a good start. Deerfield would score the first two goals in the game early on. Matt Gardner would score the game’s first goal on a nice shot from the point. On the same shift just seconds later, Peter Marchese would score a goal off a scramble in from of the net. Matt Shea assisted on both goals helping to create loose pucks with his aggressive play around the net.
Hotchkiss began getting their play more elevated and they would come back to score the next goal. That line of Shea, Philie, and Marchese continued their excellent play and this time Matt Shea scored from the high slot area giving Deerfield a two-goal cushion once again. With less than 10 seconds remaining in the first period Hotchkiss cut the lead in half with their continued hard work around our net. The first period would come to an end with Deerfield holding a 3-2 lead.
Midway through period two Hotchkiss would tie the score at 3-3. The play was going back and forth with both teams creating good scoring chances. Hotchkiss would receive a major penalty called on them and their player was ejected from the game giving Big Green a lengthy power play opportunity. With time running out in the period and in the penalty freshman defenseman George Darling scored the go ahead goal from the point beating the goalie low and stick side. The score after 2 periods was Deerfield 4 Hotchkiss 3.
With under 3 minutes remaining in regulation time Hotchkiss would score the tying goal. Both teams had golden opportunities to score in the remaining two minutes of regulation time. Colin Olson was fantastic, once again, in the goal.
The two teams played a 5-minute sudden-death overtime period. Both goalies made spectacular saves and the game would end in a 4-4 tie.
The team looks forward to playing at home this Wednesday against the always skilled Cardigan Mountain varsity team.