Huskies Could Not Find Offensive, In Loss to Tilton

The New Hampton Huskies travel fifteen minutes south to arch-rival, Tilton School, this evening for the Semi-Finals of the Lakes Region Playoffs. New Hampton and Tilton have played one another twice in the regular season and once in an exhibition game this season, making for a game with no surprises. Both New Hampton and Tilton know exactly what to expect from one another and with no love loss between the two teams, tonight’s game is going to be a battle. The Huskies did not come ready to play at the start of the game and Tilton did. Tilton put pucks deep and put pressure all over the New Hampton defense right from the start. Matt Sayles made several point blank saves in the first ten minutes to keep the scored tie at zero. Just past the ten minute mark, Tilton pressure resulted in them taking a 1-0 lead over New Hampton. The goal by Tilton seemed to wake the Huskies up, and the rest of the period saw a much better effort by New Hampton. At the start of the second period the Huskies were down 1-0 and came out strong looking to tie the game. Despite controlling the first eleven minutes of the period and having several power plays, New Hampton remained snake bitten, being held off the scoreboard. Tilton found a way to score twice during that time to take a 3-0 over the Huskies. Thirteen seconds after Tilton went up 3-0, Greg Peterson got New Hampton on the scoreboard. Alec Grace carried the puck in to the offensive zone and lost the puck trying to make a play. Peterson picked up the puck and ripped a shot top corner. In the final six minutes of the period, the Huskies continued to create offensive opportunities but were unable to beat the Tilton goaltender. After two periods of play New Hampton trailed Tilton 3-1. The third period started off with both teams competing hard to score the all-important, next goal. Unfortunately, it was Tilton that struck six minutes into the period to take three goal lead, taking the wind out of the Huskies sales. The rest of the game neither team created much and New Hampton lost 4-1, to Tilton. New Hampton will have a quick turnaround in the consolation game tomorrow, playing Proctor, who lost to Kimball Union Academy, in the other Lakes Region Semi-Finals. Tomorrow’s game at Jake, will have important Small School Tournament implications for both teams.