Comets are 18-2 on the ice

Penal­ties foiled the Invaders and the Comets defense locked down the Lions this week­end to remain the only unde­feated hockey team in their division.

Kevin Bur­gett got Amherst off to a fine start against Parma on Sat­ur­day with an early goal, then teamed with Con­nor Mor­ris to score again on a power play to end the first period 2–0.

The Invaders were called for six minor penal­ties and Amherst scored on each result­ing power play.

Four of the power plays required fewer than 25 sec­onds to capitalize.

The Comets had three penal­ties called, but were able to suc­cess­fully defend against each one.

Bur­gett led the team with four goals and two assists. Mor­ris was right there with three goals and five assists.

Michael Kuhn had two goals and Dakota Dill added a goal and an assist to round out the scoring.

Play­mak­ers were Caleb Gan­nelli with four assists and Austin Reid with three. Jared Andolsek had a pair of assists and John Reid added one.

Goalies Eli Bran­scum and Max McCarty each played half the game with­out see­ing much action. How­ever, they were able to keep the Invader’s score at zero for the duration.

While Saturday’s game was a high scor­ing affair mostly led by the for­wards, Sunday’s game belonged to the defense­men and was decided by a sin­gle goal.

The stingy Amherst defense­men, Gan­nelli, Andolsek, Jor­dan Reynolds, and David Bar­ti­zal, allowed Orange only eight shots on goal for the entire game while Amherst wore out the Lions goalie by fir­ing over 40 shots on goal.

Thirty sec­onds into the third period with the score still tied at 0, Orange was called for a hold­ing penalty. Amherst went into power play for­ma­tion and kept up a steady attack.

On the left side of the ice, Mor­ris and Gan­nelli traded the puck back and forth look­ing for an opportunity.

“It was a power play goal and (when) Caleb passed it across the blue line, I saw an open pass and then I went ahead and took the shot,” Reynolds said. “I think Dakota (Dill) might have actu­ally deflected it off the top shelf.”

That sin­gle goal was enough to secure the win for the Comets.

Next week, the Comets will com­pete in the South­west Con­fer­ence Tour­na­ment to be held in North Olmsted.

by TIM BRANSCUM | Spe­cial to the News-Times

Posted by Jason Hawk on Jan 11 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.