NT_112918

50 | November 29, 2018 | The Northbrook tower Sports
northbrooktower.com
North tops South in pre-Thanksgiving battle
Gary Larsen
Freelance Reporter
The pucks came fast and
furious at Glenbrook North
goaltender Brennan Nein
to start this year’s annually
raucous rivalry game
against rival Glenbrook
South.
Nein was up to every
challenge, but in the game’s
first seven minutes, GBS’
offensive pressure gave
him no time to breathe.
That’s when North’s
fourth line took its place
in the spotlight in front
of a capacity crowd at the
Glenview Ice Center on
Wednesday, Nov. 21.
Momentum is huge in
hockey, and GBN didn’t
have it until a fourth line
led by Alex Adler, Michael
Rabkin and Matt Glowacki
grabbed that momentum by
the throat.
“Our fourth line turned
the game around,” Spartans
head coach Evan Poulakidas
said. “We weren’t
getting anything done, we
were skating in quicksand,
and they came out and did
a great job.
“They played loose, they
forechecked and had scoring
chances. And then the
next line followed and got
after it.”
After Adler, Rabkin
and Glowacki stepped up,
North took control, getting
first-period goals from
Casey Miller and Mikey
Day and going up 3-0 on
a shorthanded goal from
Matt Dahlke in the second
period.
Tim Burke and Charlie
Slovis also scored for GBN
in an eventual 5-2 win over
GBS, which got goals from
Nicolas Botvinnik and
Gavin Miller.
But the game didn’t turn
for the Spartans until Adler,
Rabkin, and Glowacki
stepped up.
“Our fourth line works
so hard and it really showed
today,” Burke said. “They
put a lot of pressure on,
they played the body, and
kept it simple. They were
great.”
North struck first on
a power-play goal from
Miller on a David Wilcox
assist, and Day made it 2-0
near the end of the first period
on a feed from Jonathan
Ovnanyan.
GBS went on the power
play midway through
the second, but Dahlke’s
shorthanded goal on a feed
from Burke made it 3-0. It
was Dahlke’s 10th goal in
North’s last 10 games, giving
the junior 21 goals to
lead the team.
“He’s been doing great.
The last couple games he
has put up multiple goals
in each game,” Burke said.
“His offense has been really
good out there.”
Even though GBS failed
to capitalize on early scoring
chances, Titans head
coach Jim Philbin liked
his side’s fast start. But he
believed North’s first goal
was a game-changer.
“They had their fourth
line come out and put four
shots on the board right
away,” Philbin said. “Their
next line followed up and
then we had a penalty and
they got a goal. The deflating
happened when we
gave up that goal. Then we
gave up a goal a little while
later, and that hurt. It’s hard
to come back against a
good team like that.”
South’s offense applied
Jonathan Ovnanyan shoots the puck.
pressure this year, and forward
Theo Papalas just
sees the need for some finetuning.
“We have to get more
people to the net and more
shots that hit the net,” Papalas
said. “We’re missing
high and wide and we have
to hit the net more. It has to
happen now and it’s just a
mental thing. We have to
make it click.”
Botvinnik gave South its
first goal on an assist from
Daniel McKay, but North
quickly answered with a
Slovis goal on a feed from
Alex Kim. Burke made it
5-1 on Wilcox’s second
assist of the night, and
South’s Joseph Young assisted
on Miller’s goal to
end the game’s scoring.
Nein finished with 27
saves for Glenbrook North,
while Glenbrook South
goalie Connor Wall made
31 saves. The Titans were
hit hard by graduation but
they’re confident that this
year’s team can find chemistry
with young talent.
“We had a couple mistakes
but that happens,”
Wall said. “But we’re all
friends here and we know
each other really well, and
that will start to show later
in the season.”
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A 22ND CENTURY MEDIA PRODUCTION
Glenbrook North goaltender Brennan Nein looks to stop a shot on Nov. 21 against
Glenbrook South in Glenview. Photos by Gary Larsen/22nd Century Media