After suffering their first defeat of the season, the Londonderry High School Hockey team got back to winning with a 5-1 victory over the Trinity Pioneers followed by an exciting 5-4 overtime win against Pinkerton Academy.
On Sunday afternoon, Jan. 28, during the rematch between the Lancers and the Astros, in a game that was postponed from earlier in the week, due to weather, it took four periods for the LHS squad to defeat PA for the second consecutive time.
The two rivals had met in the second week of January, with Londonderry taking an 8-2, one-sided, victory as the visitors.
Sunday’s rematch was quite a bit different, with just two penalties called in the game and a close scoring battle throughout the contest.
The Lancers got on the scoreboard first, with junior forward, Brett McKinnon, evading defenders in the center of Pinkerton’s zone for a wrist shot into the net at 7:24 in the first. He was assisted by senior forward, Jayden Hamilton, and sophomore Brendan Fitzgerald.
In the second period, Pinkerton tied the game 1-1, at 9:22, following a successful penalty kill by LHS.
LHS senior forward, Owen Carey, put the Lancers back in the lead, at 3:24 in the second, with shot from the right side of the net, assisted by Hamilton and senior captain, Brandon Morin.
Pinkerton answered quickly, knotting the game at 2-2, two minutes later, with just a minute left in the period.
In the third, the Lancers seemed to take control of the game with two successive goals, giving LHS a 4-2 lead.
Carey got his second of the game, at 14:25, off a precise pass from the left side by Mike Maloney to the opposite side and an open net.
Less than a minute later, Fitzgerald made it a two-point lead, getting around the PA goal tender with a pass from McKinnon on a two on one breakaway.
The 4-2 lead didn’t last unfortunately, with the Astros battling back to a 4-4 tie, scoring at 12:27 and at 8:43 in regulation.
With both teams unable to score in the final nine minutes, the game went into an overtime period, where Londonderry came away with the dramatic goal.
Maloney was able to put in the game-winner with a slap shot served up from a pass sent to him by freshman Gavin Karoul to the front of the net.
One day earlier, in the game against Trinity High School, in a game that was originally scheduled for St. A’s, but moved to the JFK Arena, the Lancers tallied their eighth win of the season with a 5-1 win over the Pioneers.
Carey had another two-goal game and other points coming from McKinnon, sophomore, Taran Bower, and senior Matt Boyon.
The now 9-1 Lancers Hockey team are scheduled to face the undefeated Concord Crimson Tide on Wednesday at home and then will on the road to face the Bedford Bulldogs (4-5) on Saturday, Feb. 3, starting at noon.