HATFIELD – It was a good night to have the name Matt.
Senior captain Matt Barkley and junior Matt Stella accounted for seven of the Knights’ eight goals in Thursday night’s 8-4 victory against Wilson in the quarterfinals of the Flyers Cup.
North Penn (19-4-1) stormed out of the gates. They were playing with a high level of energy and aggressiveness, and it showed early on.
A little more than four minutes into the game, senior Caleb Witzaney notched his fifth goal of the tournament to give the Knights a 1-0 advantage; it was pretty, too. Witzaney, who scored four goals in the first round game against Conestoga, took the puck across the blue line, wrapped it around the lone defender in front of him, then brought it back across his body out in front of the net, which left the goalie in too awkward a position to make a save.
After Witzaney gave the Knights the early lead, Barkley thought they could use some breathing room, so, in a span of a little less than two minutes, the senior chipped in two goals to push the Knights’ lead to three. Another goal, this one from Stella, his first of four, had the Knights sitting comfortably on top of a 4-0 cushion.
The second period was a completely different story.
A little lackadaisical, North Penn allowed Wilson to claw its way back into the game. Wilson netted two goals in ten seconds, cutting the deficit in half. After Stella scored his second of the night, Wilson tallied two more scores in less than 50 seconds. All of a sudden, it was 5-4.
“We played a great first period and really got sloppy in the second period. We didn’t play as well defensively in our zone,” said head coach Kevin Vaitis.
Stella, already with two goals under his belt, closed out the second period with a bang. The junior forward scored his third goal of the contest with just ten seconds left on the clock, providing the Knights with some separation, a 6-4 lead heading into the final period.
“You gotta give [all the credit] to [Derek] Heckler. He worked hard getting it in the zone,” said Stella. “The puck came right to Peterson, the kid’s a great passer, he just laid it over to me and I had the net wide open for myself. I didn’t even know there was ten seconds left.”
Barkley joined Stella with a hat trick of his own, but didn’t make it out to be quite as big a deal as most would.
“It was nice, scoring three goals in front of the fans,” Barkley said.
Stella was just as humble as Barkley, turning the attention towards his teammates as opposed to his four-goal performance.
“I’m happy about the four goals, but I didn’t really do much myself. I had good line mates getting me the puck, finding me in open areas. I was just in the right spots at the right times,” said Stella.
Despite a poor showing in the second period, the Knights were able to fend off Wilson just long enough before returning to their normal selves
“We have a talented hockey team. I think they kinda gave us a bit of a wake-up there,” said Vaitis.
Last Thursday, in the Knights’ first round contest against Conestoga, Witzaney had the hot stick, gathering four goals and two assists. Last night, he shared some of that heat with Barkley and Stella.
“We can go deep. We have a lot of goal scorers,” said Barkley. “It’s not just Caleb, it’s not just me, it’s not just Stella. It’s everyone. We have three great lines that can put the puck in the net.”
Barkley and Stella weren’t the only two stars last night. Despite allowing four goals, goaltender Cody Matthews was rock solid for a majority of the game, saving 35 of 39 shots.
“He was phenomenal for us,” said Vaitis.
North Penn is fortunate enough to have two of the top goalies in the league, so deciding between Matthews and Jake Wolff is a problem any coach would love to have.
“We have two very good goalies in Cody and Jake, and Cody’s been playing out of his mind lately,” said Vaitis. “[Cody] deserves to start right now.”
The Knights’ will take on eleventh-seeded Parkland in the semifinals on Thursday night at Warwick Ice Rink at 8:45 PM.