With the Thanksgiving Break in their sights the Quakers left it all out on the ice in their two victories last weekend continuing to show that this team is a force to be reckoned with. The team picked up a league win Friday night against Scranton 7-4 and a blowout win against Georgetown Sunday afternoon 10-4 both at home.
Friday night the Quakers welcomed in a much-improved Scranton Royals team to the Class of 1923 Arena coming off a two consecutive CSCHC victories. After facing illness and injuries woes the week before the team had recovered and was able to bring a much deeper roster to this league contest. That didn’t keep the Royals from coming out of the gate fast and giving Penn their best early. Within the first four minutes of the game Scranton was able to quickly get on the board scoring two goals and showing the Quakers this game wasn’t going to be a free. But as good teams do the Quakers quickly regrouped and went on the offensive. Sophomore Griffin Bond cut the lead to one with a beautiful top shelf goal with an equally beautiful pass from Freshman Chris Bugliosi to get Bond the puck in the neutral zone. Not to be out done less ninety seconds later Senior Ethan Abraham marched through three Scranton players out of the corner to put one past Scranton goalie Carlton short side to tie the game at two apiece. With both teams settling in it and finding their footing in the defensive zone it wasn’t until there was less than one minute left in the period that the tie was broken. Once again Bond lit the lamp after a great charge to the net burying a rebound off a shot from Senior Spencer Touhy to give the Quakers the lead after one period of play. After going down two goals early in the period Penn showed their poise scoring three unanswered goals finishing the first period up 3-2.
The Royals were not going to go away quietly in the second period. Just like in the first period Scranton came out hard at the start of the period and found the back of the net at the 4:24 mark once again tying the game. The Quakers continued to fight and show their grit as they always do in this physical contest. It wasn’t long until one of their most deadly weapons was able to give the team the lead once again. Scranton made the mistake of leaving Touhy alone with puck in front of the net and he made them pay for it, rocketing a goal top shelf giving Penn the 4-3 lead. With the game once again their favor Penn continued to pepper the Scranton netminder eventually finding the back net once again this time on the powerplay. Freshman Jacob Qian scored an incredibility athletic goal finding the puck in midair and tipping it into the back of the net for the 4-2 lead closing out the scoring for the period. In the third period the Royals were able to find the back of the net on a 5-3 powerplay moving the lead for the Quakers back to one midway through the period. With less than three minutes to play in the third Assistant Captain Calvin Alifervo put the game away with a hard-fought streak to the net and a spot-on pass from linemate Abraham increasing the lead to two. In need of two goals Scranton pulled their goalie with two minutes to play in the period giving Bond all the motivation he needed to find the back of the net one last time for his hattrick showing that he truly had a License to Kill that evening giving the Quakers a 7-4 victory!
With this three-goal performance Griffin Bond was named MVP of the game. This victory moved the Quakers to 6-3 in league play this season.
Sunday afternoon the Quakers welcomed in the Georgetown Hoyas’s in a non-league hockey matinée before the Thanksgiving break. Getting his first start in the red and blue was graduate student goaltender Taggart Weiss in what turned out to be an absolute blow out for Penn. With few opportunities to face teams outside of the Colonial the caliber of team the Quakers are this was not an opportunity the team was going to waste, and that was clearly demonstrated off the opening faceoff. Off the opening draw Captain Dhruv Raman got the puck to Alifervo who muscled his way through the offensive zone to put the Quakers up 1-0 less than seven seconds into the period. For the Hoyas’s the day would not get better from there, over the next ten minutes of play the Quakers would score four more goals to put them 5-1 and by the end of the period they would be leading the contest 7-1. Just an absolute barrage of offense by the team in what can only be described as a statement period against a non-conference team. Alifervo and Touhy both scored two goals in the period. Bugliosi and Zach Qian both had one goal and most impressively Abraham finished the period with five points: one goal and four assists.
The Hoyas’s didn’t give up the rest of the game but the deficit was insurmountable. They were able to score three more goals before the end of the game but those three goals were matched by three goals from the Quakers providing them little room to inch back into the contest. Abraham was able to find the back of the net two more times earning him his third hattrick of the season as well as goal by Jacob Qian to round out the scoring by the Quakers earning them a 10-4 victory at home and earning Weiss his first win in this Penn career. At the conclusion of the game there was little doubt who the better team was in truly a great win for the team.
Taggart Weiss was named MVP of the game in the first as a Quaker. Quakers move to 9-3 overall after this win!
The team is off next weekend for the Thanksgiving Holiday but will be back to face Bryn Athyn and West Chester on the road the following weekend in two important league matchups. From all of us in the Penn Hockey organization we wish you all a very happy and safe Thanksgiving! #GoQuakers
You can rewatch the Quakers victory over the Royals HERE and their victory of the Hoyas HERE!