North Penn and top line rout Pennridge
HATFIELD TWP. >> KLM line, Legion of Doom and the French Connection are a few of the many great line combinations throughout hockey history. After some doubt about the status of forward Jake Hackenberger who missed some time early in the season the top line of North Penn clicked Wednesday night as they dominated a solid Pennridge team 7-1.
“In the beginning of the season he was playing on a high end travel team and I wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to play school and travel,” North Penn coach Kevin Vaitis said. “We were fortunate that he able to make it all work and is able to play with us the second half of the year.”
The line combination of Hackenberger, Alex Peterson and Derek Heckler accounted for ever point scored in the 7-1 rout. Every goal and every assist.
“We came out strong, (our line) scored two goals in our first shift and then we kind of sat back a little bit,” Peterson said.
Peterson is dominating the AA varsity level in the SHSHL right now and his stats bare it out. Peterson played in his 10th game of the season Wednesday, after missing a pair of games last week due to illness, scoring three goals that brought his season total to 30. Peterson’s four assists brought his point total to 55 on the young season.
“I scored a lot at the beginning of the season and then Jake came back and I started getting some more assists he’s helping out with the goal scoring so its nice to have him back,” Peterson said.
Hackenberger was the player most recently coming off of injury that was being reinserted into the line. The speedy forward was wreaking havoc on the Pennridge defense as his stick skills and speed allowed him to get prime scoring chances at the Rams net.
Hackenberger also matched Peterson with a hat trick on the night as Peterson assisted on his first two goals and his last goal, which stood as the final tally of the night, was unassisted and was the only unassisted goal in the game.
“Its nice to watch them out there on the ice they always when they get possession of the puck know where the other guys are going to be,” Vaitis said of the line. “They do a nice job of playing together and were able contribute offensively for us.”
With the win the Knights pull their record even to 6-6 on the season. It probably won’t be likely they run down the top two teams at the top of the Continental Conference in Central Bucks South and Central Bucks West, however, with a healthy Peterson, Hackenberger and Heckler, North Penn can make some noise come Flyers Cup time. But there’s still a lot of hockey left until then.
For the Rams, after being stunned by Peterson and company Wednesday night, they too are in good standing the Continental Conference at 7-5 and are in good position for strong finish as well as long, as they come with better efforts than Wednesday night.
“Tonight’s done. There’s nothing else we can do about this one,” Pennridge coach Matt Stabile said. “We have to forget about this one. Our results are in our hands now, we control our own destiny so its move forward forget about this one and keep going.”
