by Eddy Yang, Sports Contributor
photo by Roger Palferman
Eddy is a freshman who enjoys playing and watching hockey. He plays on South’s junior varsity hockey team.
Before the Lions’ last home game of the season, goaltender junior Roger Lehr said he felt optimistic about the team’s chances against crosstown rivals Newton North.
“I believe if we play hard and get pucks in deep and force North to chase pucks in the defensive zone, we’ll win,” he said.
The Lions would do just that, sending their seniors off in high fashion.
Throughout the first period, South kept constant pressure on North and fired 13 shots on Tigers goalkeeper Gavin Doucette. North tried to retaliate but only got three shots on net, all of which were saved by Lions goalkeeper Dylan Zukowski. The first period ended with a score of 0-0.
When asked in between periods, South Coach Chris Ryberg said he thought the Lions could be more aggressive.
South kept the pressure on as the second period began, eventually paying off. Two minutes into the second period, they broke through North’s defense, and defenseman Elliot Wood scored on Doucette. Three minutes later, forward Declan Daley doubled the advantage, with assists from Tim Kasynov and Sam Rudenko. At that point, North began to run out of energy, and the Lions added a third a minute later when Nick Pratt set up Rudenko. The Lions didn’t relent, and Daley fired in yet another with five minutes to go in the period. The second period ended with South leading the game 4-0.
Despite the lead, South Coach Alex Klapes said that his team needed to finish strong.
“We played two full hard fought periods which led us to a 4-0 game. We need to seal the bag in the last 15 minutes with two points,” he said before the third period.
Early in the third period, Daley intercepted a pass and scored his third goal, earning a hard-fought hat trick. With two minutes remaining in the period, Tim Kasynov scored to cap off a magnificent 6-0 victory for the Lions.
The big victory lifted South into the playoffs on a high note, which will begin next week.
Massive shoutout to the team’s seven seniors for four years of great hockey: Declan Daley, Charlie Jin, Ben Rishikof, Lucas Rishikof, Zack Rubinoff, Jim Tarmey and Dylan Zukowski.
