Huskies Run Out Of Time In Comeback

The New Hampton Huskies host Proctor Academy this afternoon in the Consolation Game of Lakes Region Playoffs. Although, neither team is able to win the Championship, this game has implication on the playoff seedings for both teams in the Small School Tournament. The game started out great for New Hampton, as Isaac MacLeod scored, just over two minutes in on the power play. Cory Morris worked the puck up to Marcus Joughin on the half-wall, Joughin, then made a pass to MacLeod in the slot. MacLeod received the pass and ripped a shot far side, right over the Proctor goaltenders pad and inside the post. Thirty seconds later, Jack Ring made a nice backdoor pass to Adam Shuchart, who had snuck in from the point. Shuchart made no mistake burying the puck in the back of the net. The next five minutes New Hampton continued to put pressure on Proctor, almost adding to their lead a couple times. Then the tide turned when the Huskies took a penalty. Proctor scored on ensuing power play to cut New Hampton’s lead in half. Proctor scored two more times in the next minute and a half, to take a 3-2 lead over the Huskies. New Hampton was a little rattled after giving up their two goal lead and had to kill off some penalties to escape the first period only down a goal. The second period looked as if it was going to start off well for the Huskies, when Jake Dunlap was hauled down on a breakaway, sending New Hampton on a power play. However, it was Proctor that scored on the Huskies power play, to go up by two. Proctor scored two more times before the end of the period to take a 6-2 lead, after two periods of play. Something must have been said in between periods to the Huskies, because they came out a different team in the third period, playing desperate hockey. Alec Grace scored a power play goal four minutes in. The puck was worked to Greg Peterson on the half-wall, Peterson attacked the net and tried to shoot on the net but the shot did not make it all the way to the net. Alec Grace was coming out of the corner to the net, pick up the puck from Peterson’s attempted shot and then made a nice move around the Proctor goaltender before tucking the puck in the far side of the net. Two and a half minutes later, Greg Peterson won an offensive zone faceoff to Jack Ring at the top of the circle. Ring held the puck for a second, took one step to the middle and then fired a shot through a crowd, top corner. Ring’s goal brought New Hampton within two, with plenty of time remaining. In the final eleven minutes, the Huskies pounded shots on the Proctor goaltender, hitting a crossbar and a couple post, but just could not seem to score. New Hampton was tried hard but was unable to complete the comeback and lost to Proctor 6-4. Despite the loss, the Huskies finished as the 6^th seed in the Small School Tournament, setting them up to match up with The Rivers School on Wednesday, February 27^th. New Hampton and Rivers met once earlier this year, in the Belmont Hill/Nichols Tournament. The game was officially a tie, but Rivers defeated the Huskies in the second overtime. New Hampton will take tomorrow off to recover and the use the next couple days to prepare, before traveling down to Weston, MA to take on Rivers.