New Hampton Defeats Lakes Region Rival Tilton

New Hampton faced rival Tilton Wednesday afternoon and walked away with a great win beating the Rams, 5 to 3. The Huskies had their best start to the season as they jumped out to an early lead. New Hampton converted twice on the powerplay to give them a 2 to 0 lead halfway through the first period. The first goal was scored by Mason Kesselring as he was planted in front of the net and popped in a rebound past the sprawling goaltender. A few minutes later, Marek Pechr, scored on a similar play. The junior forward found a loose puck in front of the net after a shot from the point and snuck it past the goaltender. New Hampton kept their foot on the gas as they scored again in the first period on a very nice 2 on 1 conversion. Rhys Jones slipped a past underneath the Rams defenseman to Jun Cha. Cha received the puck, moved it to his backhand, and scored to give the Huskies a 3 to 0 lead. Early in the second period, Pechr scored his second goal of the game off an aggressive penalty kill forecheck. As the Tilton goaltender was out of his net to play the puck, Pechr stole the puck from him and shot it into the empty net. This goal gave the Huskies a 4 to 0 lead. However, the Rams kept fighting back and scored in the third period to keep the game interesting. With the score 4 to 3, freshman Jimmy McCool, sealed the victory with an empty net goal. McCool also led the Huskies with 7 blocked shots in the game. New Hampton goaltender, Alex Bechard, was a brick wall in net. Bechard made save after save to lead the Huskies past the Rams. This game was the final home game at Jacobson Arena for the 2018-2019 season. Thank you for all the support, and good luck to the five seniors!