Huskies Fight Hard But Drop Season Opener

The New Hampton School Huskies hosted the Stanstead College Spartans Wednesday evening for the season and home opener in front of a fantastic, rowdy crowd. Stanstead jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period, one even strength and one on the power play, where the Huskies lacked physicality at the net. However, the Huskies responded late in the first on a power play goal of their own. Senior defenseman, Will Hilfiker, skated the puck through the neutral zone, turned back and made a pass to senior forward, Marcus Joughin, coming up the ice with speed. Joughin weaved through the Stanstead penalty killers and made a great pass to teammate and Dartmouth commit, Oak MacLeod. MacLeod received the pass and ripped a low shot past the goaltender. The score was 2-1 heading into the first intermission. At the start of the second, Stanstead jumped on the board early on a defensive zone lapse by New Hampton. The Huskies kept grinding and battled back again on another power play. After some quick puck movement in zone, Hilfiker zipped the puck high to low and found teammate, Jack Ring, on the goal line. Ring moved the puck cross crease to junior, Cole Hipkin, who crashed hard on the net and backhanded the shot by the Stanstead goaltender. This made the score 3-2 as the Huskies headed into the second intermission. The third period would go scoreless as the Huskies out-shot the Spartans 17-7, but couldn't find the back of the net, and ultimately dropped the contest 3-2. Post-graduate goaltender, Robbie Farrel, was strong in net making 24 saves and holding down the back-end. New Hampton battled hard in their first game of the season against a hard-working, talented Stanstead team who are well into their season. The Huskies look to bounce back after Thanksgiving Break when we take on Winchendon School on December 4th.