LF_030217

LakeForestLeader.com sports
the lake forest leader | March 2, 2017 | 29
Boys Ice Hockey
Scouts rout Naperville Central, earn date with champs
Derek Wolff
Sports Editor
To a man, every Scout
had one number in mind
before a tilt with Naperville
Central in the first
round of AHAI 2017 Illinois
State Hockey Championships
Red Varsity Division:
two.
It’s the number worn by
Redhawks captain Andrew
Maynard, who scored
twice and had four points
in a 5-1 win over Lake
Forest on Dec. 26, 2016.
The junior had a team-high
70 goals and 102 points in
26 games coming into the
playoff matchup.
With those figures in
mind, the No. 17 seeded
Scouts scored twice in the
first three minutes of the
contest en route to a 6-3
win over the No. 16 seeded
Redhawks on Feb. 22 at
Seven Bridges Ice Arena
in Woodridge.
“There was one guy
that we had to shut down,
(Maynard),” Scouts cocaptain
Ryan Gattari said.
“We shut him down and
we scored early, so it was
over at the beginning.”
Jack Barbour had a hat
trick on the evening, including
a pair of back-toback
goals that helped the
Scouts pull away with a
commanding 5-1 lead that
created a running clock in
the second period.
Barbour scored 41 seconds
into the first period
after crashing the net and
being set up by Jack Kaptrosky.
The Scouts scored again
less than two minutes later,
setting the tone early on,
Scouts head coach John
Murphy said.
“I would say that was a
key part Scoring those first
two really gave us a lot
Jack Kaptrosky wheels toward the net. photos by derek Wolff/22nd century media
of momentum,” Murphy
said.
Lake Forest earned a
power play with 14:10 remaining
in the period but
couldn’t convert on the
man advantage, a theme
shared by both teams on
the night.
Naperville Central
earned a power play just
over seven minutes into
the period, then went on
a 5-on-3 advantage for 22
seconds at the 7:48 mark.
But a lack of any sense
of urgency hurt the Redhawks,
who mustered just
one shot on the power play
and were listless again later
in the period on a third
opportunity, allowing the
Scouts to skate into the
first intermission with the
2-0 lead intact.
The momentum gained
from the success of the
penalty kill emboldened
the Scouts, Murphy said.
“We’ve got a really, really
good team,” he said.
“Like I’ve been telling
the guys all year, they’ve
been beating themselves
with these penalties. The
first period, we played a
good portion of that period
shorthanded and almost
beat ourselves, but
I thought the guys did a
great job and were very resilient.
We killed off those
penalties and from there
I thought the momentum
went our way.”
After both sides failed
to capitalize on power
play chances early in the
second period, Naperville
Central got on the board
after eight minutes of play.
Maynard picked off a
pass in the high slot near
the left circle and toedragged
around a lunging
poke check from Scouts
goaltender Colson Stutz
to cut the deficit in half at
2-1.
Lake Forest drew a power
play with 3:47 left in
the period and proved the
old adage true by converting
on their third chance.
Barbour potted his second
of the night near the right
side of the net off a goal
line pass, then completed
the hat trick 76 seconds
later.
After pushing the puck
through a defenders skates
on a breakout, Barbour deked
around Redhawks netminder
Daniel Longmire
and scored on the backhand
to make it 4-1.
“I thought the goalie
was going to play it at the
top of the circles but I beat
him to it and then he was
just out (of position) so I
went to my backhand and
tapped it in,” Barbour said.
Later in the period,
Scouts defenseman and
cocaptain Alex Riedel
seemingly stunned Longmire
with a high wrist shot
that caught the latter in the
mask. A minute later, Luke
Abbattista cashed in a rebound
through Longmire’s
Scouts forward Jack Barbour heads toward the goal
line during Lake Forest’s 6-3 win over Naperville
Central on Feb. 22.
5-hole with less than a
minute left in the period.
Abbattista’s goal created
a running clock for the rest
of the game, which accelerated
Naperville Central’s
demise in a whacky, chipper
third period filled with
penalties.
Lake Forest made it
6-1 when Graham Hickey
scored on a toe-drag backhand
two minutes into the
third period, but Naperville
Central got it back
two minutes later.
Maynard got his second
point on the night and 104
on the season when he
fed a saucer pass over to
Zachary Kill on a 2-on-1.
Kill buried the one-timer
passed Stutz on the stick
side.
The penalty kill magic
finally ended for the
Scouts when the Matthew
Wadhiwa scored with a
5-on-3 advantage with just
over eight minutes to play,
though Lake Forest did
limit the Redhawks’ power
play to a paltry 1-for-6 in
the game.
Aided by the running
clock, the Scouts controlled
possession en route
to the 6-3 final. Lake Forest
earned a second round
matchup with New Trier
Green—the defending
state champions— in the
process.
“They have some guys
that can play, so we just
have to play well,” Gattari
said.
Green had a BYE in the
first round and Murphy believes
that if the Trevians
overlook the game and
don’t treat it with the proper
importance, the Scouts
could play spoiler.
“If we can stay out of the
box we’re going to make
that game very competitive,”
Murphy said. “Typically
in any sport when the
opposition doesn’t respect
you that much, that comes
back to haunt you. We’re
a very good team and I’m
really excited about the
game. We’re looking forward
to it.”
Lake Forest will meet
Green on the ice at 6:40
p.m. on March 1 at The
Edge Ice Arena in Bensenville.