The Northwood Junior hockey team traveled to Salem, New Hampshire for the second of a three weekend series at the New England Fall Prep League. The Huskies went 3-1 in 4 tough games.
Sophomore Cody Monds ’20 in the 2017 Northwood Invitational.
It was important for the Huskies to start off their big weekend with a win, and they did just that with a 7-1 victory over Rothesay Netherwood. ‘‘It was important to us to score early and get some momentum right away,” said Cole Leal (2019, Defense). The Huskies jumped out to an early lead, scoring 5 goals right away in the first period with help from Sam DiBitetto (2018, Forward) who added 2 goals along with Santeri Hartikainen (2018, Forward) and Logan Stewart (2018, Defense) who added their first goals wearing a Northwood sweater along with Cameron Plourde (2019, Forward) who scored his first goal. Later on, Plourde added his second and Tommy Bannister (2020, Forward) added one. It was a great team win and a strong showing by Jake Mucitelli ’19 in net.
In game two, the Huskies fell to the NEFPHL U19 selects, an opponent they beat the previous week. The Huskies fell short 5-3. they played a solid and fast tempo but couldn’t get enough pucks through the opposing goalie. Goals from Hartikainen, Leal and Plourde weren’t enough, even with a strong performance by Jacob Delorme ‘19 in the cage.
In game three it was important for Northwood to bounce back and show they were a resilient group that could pick up another win. The Huskies rolled over NEFPHL South with a 2 -0 win and the first shutout for Jake Mucitelli who was a wall in net. Goals came from the blueline both from Daniel Lambert (2018, Defense) and Leal with his second of the weekend.
The last game of the weekend was against NEFPHL SNE, an opponent who the Huskies beat the previous week. “Beating a team two times in a row is never easy but we were up for the challenge,” said Weston Batt (2019, Forward). The Huskies got their second shutout in a row with a score of 3-0, with the shutout going to Delorme, who made a strong 25 save performance. Plourde notched his 4th goal and Hartikainen added his 3rd goal of the weekend and Bannister added his 2nd tally.
Overall it was a great weekend for the Huskies who went 3-1. Coach Cassidy described it as “a big step for our team, especially being challenged in the second game, but I believe you learn more from failure than you do success. We turned it around Sunday morning. Obviously not giving up a goal was a really big step for us.”
The Junior team is off next weekend, Family Weekend; however they will be right back at it for another trip to Salem, New Hampshire the following weekend.
