Another Wednesday night means another night of high school hockey in the Summit City. Last year’s scoring champion has officially left no doubt that he’s back for even more this year and the Vipers got in the win column after last week’s loss. How did it all happen? Let’s discuss…
Weekly Recap
Carroll 8, Leo 2
Carroll was a little slow off the blocks again, at least compared to how they get going later in games. Nonetheless, they found an early goal on a 2-on-1 from Brody Burge who made a beautiful move to cut across the crease and put the puck in on the backhand after Dylan Braun put the pass on his tape. Burge would return the favor to Braun on Carroll’s next goal, making a nice pass to a wide-open Braun in the high slot. Braun scored again in the last minute of the first period, cleaning up a rebound in front of the net. That gave Braun a point of Carroll’s first nine goals in FWAHA play and put him on pace for 101 points this season at that absurd and unsustainable rate, but it just shows how great his start to the season has been.
The second period was a similar story for Carroll, starting with Colsen White’s first FWAHA high school goal from the slot, an area Carroll did a good job finding open guys in during the early portions of last night’s game. At 6:12 of the second period Carter Gnau cleaned up a backdoor rebound, giving him his third goal of the young season. While Braun’s streak of earning a point on every Carroll goal in the league season came to an end on the goal by White, he wasn’t done being on the scoresheet and scored on a wraparound 3:46 after the goal from Gnau. That made it a 6-0 game and effectively put it away if it was still in doubt at that point. Braun would be held off the scoresheet the rest of the game but after two weeks of play, he’s already tallied six goals and four assists for a total of 10 points, nearly halfway to last season’s league-leading 24 points.
Leo got one back on the power play late in the second period, the only power play of the game for either side. Dylan Davis made things a little more interesting when he put a shot over the glove of Carson Carteaux with 8:54 to play. At that point, it was 6-2 Carroll. Still, a long way to go for the Lions but not an insurmountable lead. That hope lasted just 37 seconds before Finn Cupp reinstalled the five-goal Carroll lead, and AJ Baldwin would tack on his first high school goal at the end of the game for the 8-2 final.
Fort Wayne 4, Homestead 2
In the nightcap, the teams traded goals early in the first period. Darcy Koch opened the scoring at 3:04 when he scored over the shoulder of Homestead goaltender Connor Gould, getting his first start of the season for the Spartans. Exactly a minute later Cole Strick tied the game right back up, scoring a backhand goal on his second rebound attempt from in close. From there, special teams became a key factor in the Vipers’ eventual win. A hooking penalty to Landyn Szobody led to a power play goal for Koch, his second of the game. Koch was able to get his stick on a loose puck and slide it between the legs of Gould who was scrambling in the crease trying to find it before seeing it go past him.
Still leading by a 2-1 score, another power play chance came the Vipers’ way when Gavin Elkins made his way to the sin bin for a slashing penalty. Just five seconds later Jackson Bertels found the back of the net on a catch-and-shoot play with Logan Ormsby. Homestead has power play opportunities of their own in the second period but failed to convert on either of them and the Vipers went to the intermission leading 3-1 and 15 minutes away from notching their first W of the season.
The third period played mostly as the second did and it felt as if the Vipers would cruise to a 0-0 third period and walk out with the win. They did but how they ended up getting there is a little more colorful. Elkin’s tripping penalty with 6:47 in regulation offered up a golden opportunity for the Vipers to seal the deal and make it a 4-1 lead but for the first time all night, Fort Wayne was unable to score on the man advantage. This left the door open for Homestead and Mason Gutmann decided to walk through it. At 11:25 he launched a wrister from the left point past Ben Marques and got the Spartans within one and the intensity of the game grew for the final 3:35. With 1:10 on the clock and an offensive zone draw coming, Homestead Head Coach Jake Kirkpatrick elected to use his time out. The Spartans came out with six skaters on the ice and Gould on the bench. Homestead stacked three forwards in the slot leaving just Henry Loxton on the outside. An intense tie-up off the draw led to the Vipers eventually getting it over to the wall where it was cleared out by Keaton Rice. Homestead would get it back into the zone but a clutch shot block by Vipers captain Robert Gross and an empty net goal at the other end put the nail in the Spartan’s coffin with 18 seconds to play.
Power Rankings
Nothing to add here this week but we’ll reassess the situation next week when the first rotation comes to an end.
1.) Carroll Chargers (2-0; 4 pts.)
2.) Fort Wayne Vipers (1-1; 2 pts.)
3.) Homestead Spartans (0-2; 0 pts.)
4.) Leo Lions (1-1; 0 pts.)
Week 3 Predictions
Last Week: 2-0
This Year: 4-0
Perfect Scores (Correct Winner and Score): 1/4
Carroll 6, Vipers 3
Marques has been good for the Vipers but Carroll’s offense speaks for itself. I feel like six is a good number for Carroll to land on but the fact they just put eight on Baumert is at least slightly alarming on both sides of the equation. The Vipers haven’t exactly scored a lot this season. They’ve scored five so far and of their five goals three of them are power-play goals and one is an empty netter, so five-on-five isn’t their strong suit. Three goals might be optimistic for them based on all that but we’ll go with it. I also would like to give them a shoutout though for making me look supremely intelligent by winning 4-2 last night, exactly as I predicted.
Homestead 3, Leo 1
Leo’s follow-up performance to Week One’s big win left a lot to be desired, straight up. That game was not close last night after the first period. Multiple odd-man rushes for Carroll, an area it feels like the Chargers thrive in, and the Leo defense paid the price for it. Failure to pick up sticks in front of the net and the Leo defense paid the price for it. Chargers out in the high slot, you get the idea. Sometimes it’s just not your night and last night wasn’t theirs. Homestead on the other hand faces a new challenge to them. I’m sure it’s been a few years since they started the regular season 0-2 but here we are. They played a good team last night and as it was with Carroll in Week One, special teams hurt them. Special teams have given up two five-on-three goals, two short-handed goals, two five-on-four goals, and one six-on-four goal (if you count that as special teams), and scored zero goals. Only three of the ten goals they’ve given up have been five-on-five, so special teams seem like a clear spot to clean up in order to win some games. I say they manage it and get the job done next Wednesday.
