There was little rest for the Northwood Junior Team as they were set off to face Gunnery right after Christmas break. As other students were enjoying break, the Huskies were ready to go to battle, playing Gunnery at RPI and then Union College.
Senior Shane McGrath advances the puck.
The Huskies already beat Gunnery earlier this year by a score of 3-2. “We knew they wanted revenge and that they would come ready to play,” said Jared Lambright (Defense, 2020).
The first game took place at Union and it was a defensive battle right from the get go. Gunnery took a 1st period lead, but that was the only mark after two periods. However in Period 3 the Huskies came ready to play and scored 4 goals. They came from Cole Leal (Defense, 2019), Cameron Plourde (Forward, 2019), Cody Monds (Forward, 2020) and Stephen Panico (Forward, 2019). It was a great win for the team, and they started off the new year the right way, especially Jake Mucitelli (Goalie, 2019) who stopped 36 out of 37 shots.
The next game was set at RPI, and both teams came out hungry. It was important for the Huskies to jump on them early and sustain pressure in Gunnery’s zone, and they did just that. Sam DiBitetto (Forward 2018) scored early in the first to give Northwood an early lead. Pat Callahan (Forward 18’) buried another one to give the Huskies a controlling 2-0 lead in the first stanza. However, going into the second period Gunnery responded by adding 3 goals to take the lead. The Huskies started to settle down and play their game in the third period. Defenseman Leal would add his second tally of the weekend to tie it at 3. Each teams would both add another goal to tie it at four and force overtime. Overtime was a back and forth battle, but unfortunately the Huskies lost off of a funny bounce that went in the back of their night. Rico Dimatteo (Goalie, 2019) had a solid effort in the cage despite the loss.
Sean Bunting (Forward, 2019) said “it wasn’t the result that wanted, but we have to bounce back and get ready to have one of our biggest weekends next weekend at Saint Andrews.” The Huskies would be facing off against three of the top prep programs in the United States: Culver, Nichols, and Shattuck. All three games will be a battle.
