The Blue Devils found themselves in a familiar hole, a penalty kill. Glen Rock would capitalize on the five-on-three advantage, however the 2-1 lead for Glen Rock didn’t last long. The ref dropped the puck at center ice, and off the faceoff the puck ended up on Michael Wilson’s stick. Wilson deked his way toward the Glen Rock goal and found the back of the net. The Blue Devils had tied the game, and they ran with it.
“We were able to pull away when we made things simpler, and really focus on getting the pucks deep and grinding in front of the net,” explained coach Brendan Hickey.
Junior goaltender Andrew Raber was spectacular Wednesday night. Throughout the first period Raber stopped several Glen Rock opportunities. With 6:09 left in the first period, two Panthers pushed their way toward Raber. A quick pass and shot ended in Raber’s glove, a spectacular save that sparked kudos from the bench. Coach Hickey highlighted the importance of Raber to the team’s success. “He’s going to go out and do his job, which lets his teammates have the freedom to go out there and do their job and focus on themselves,” he said. “Having the consistency start from the goalie, you know that he’s going to be a rock. It allows for everyone else to rock out at their positions.”
The second period started off with a bang for the Blue Devils. Less than 15 seconds into the period, Michael Wilson sent a screamer toward the goal, though it was blocked. However, captain Joey Tortorella was right there to put in the rebound to give the Blue Devils their first lead of the night. The lead didn’t last long though as Glen Rock quickly found the back of the goal and evened up the score at 1-1. The remainder of the second period continued to go back and forth with no real opportunities surfacing. The big chance for the Blue Devils during the second period came from freshman Andrew Lisnock who put a move on a Panther and made his way behind the net. From there he would make an attempt to put in a goal just off the left knee pad of the Glen Rock goalie, but the goalie was too quick, putting an end to the exciting play from the freshman.
The third period was an exciting one. The Blue Devils were able to extend themselves from the Panthers’ grasp after the Wilson goal electrified the crowd and swung the momentum back to the Blue Devils. Lisnock found himself with another big opportunity, this time finishing. With 3:30 left to go in the game he put a move on a defender, found himself alone with the goalie and whipped a shot into the top right corner of the net to break the 2-2 tie.
Finding themselves in a state of panic, the Panthers pulled their goalie in hopes of evening the score. This did not work in their favor. Senior Johnathan Gorski pulled away from the pack and fired a shot at the empty net, putting the game out of reach.
Westfield was able to pick up an important win in conference play against Glen Rock Wednesday. The Blue Devils have now won their third game in a row and will hope to continue to ride the streak into Hobey Sports Arena on Friday, where they will face off against Randolph, which holds a 9-2-4 record.
