Hill School bests Lawrenceville in rivalry game
POTTSTOWN >> For just one brief moment, the Hill School-Lawrenceville rivalry was put on hold during pregame warm-ups inside The Hill’s Thomas Eccleston Jr. Rink on Wednesday afternoon.
Hill School captain and Quebec native Tony Levesque skated to center ice, tapped the stretching Lawrenceville goalkeeper Karl Szabo on the knee pad, and the two both smiled and exchanged some words.
“We went to the same high school back in Quebec City, Canada,” Levesque said afterward, referencing Academie St. Louis in Quebec. “We talked a little bit — said good luck to one another and that was it.”
That was about the only kind sentiment throughout the next 54 minutes, which featured a physical 7-3 Hill School win in a game that was played much closer than the final score indicated.
Levesque, who was one of seven Hill scorers, notched a goal and an assist along with sophomore forward Tyler Paquette as the Blues overcame an early one-goal deficit with four unanswered scores during the early going.
“Anytime we go up against Lawrenceville, there’s always a little extra motivation,” said Levesque. “Even when we got down early, we never got down on ourselves. We know that there’s a lot of history in this rivalry, and that really motivated us leading up to this game.”
The Hill School and Lawrenceville boys hockey teams have been playing against each other since World War II, with the first matchup taking place during the 1941-42 season. The rivalry has continued uninterrupted since 1954-55, including a home-and-away series each year. Wednesday served as the 146th meeting between the two schools, with Lawrenceville now holding a 67-66 series lead. There have also been 13 ties.
That rivalry was on full display in a game that featured a combined 12 penalties, plenty of core-shaking hits and a board-rattling, feet-stomping Hill student section.
“It’s an easy game to get up for,” said Hill head coach Chris Bala. “The intensity takes care of itself.
“As we said to the kids throughout the week — when you’re playing in this game, you become something bigger than yourself. The rivalry between our schools is really special. To have a little page in it is awesome.”
Trailing early following Pito Walton’s opening goal, the Blues rattled off three goals in the final five minutes of the opening period.
Michael Rockovich evened it up off a feed from Wade Ashford. Paquette followed with an unassisted goal a few minutes later, followed by Brandon Picard’s score with assists from Ryan Long and Gilford Daley with seven seconds left in the period.
“We had a good opening stretch and clicked on our first power play opportunity,” said Lawrenceville head coach Etienne Bilodeau, “but we couldn’t push that early lead up to 2-0. We didn’t close out the first period the way we would have liked to.”
Hill goalie Drew Hutchinson was strong on the back line, where he finished with 19 combined saves. His counterpart, Szabo racked up 37 saves on 44 shots faced.
Jared Katz and Peter Burke each scored during the second period to pull Lawrenceville within one heading into the final period.
That one-goal deficit was short-lived, though, as the Blues scored three unanswered goals to close it out and seal the win. CJ Duvall, assistant captain David Hill and Jake Hutchinson each lit the scoreboard to put it away.
“We got some really good contributions up and down our lineup which was great to see,” said Bala. “We’ve identified the way we want to play — we want to play with speed, we want to win and manage the pucks and we want to be physical in all three zones. Tonight we were able to stick to that gameplan and it worked for us.”
Levesque and the Blues will have another chance to meet with Szabo and Lawrenceville next month when the two teams meet again on January 7.
Both sides were already well aware of that fact.
“This was definitely the spark we needed,” said Levesque. “We know we’ve got to go up against these guys again, so we’ve got to bring this same intensity with us.”
“We’re taking positive steps in the right direction,” said Bilodeau. “We’ve got to be ready for them next month.”
Think Outside The Box
The Hill had seven penalties and served 10 minutes and 31 seconds inside the penalty box. Lawrenceville capitalized on two of the Hill’s penalties.
Lawrenceville served seven minutes and 37 seconds in the box on five penalties. The Hill scored twice on the power play.
