North Penn keeps rolling with shutout of rival Souderton

HATFIELD TWP. >> The conference wins are piling up for North Penn.

“Can’t get enough of them,” said Josh Kaufhold, who scored a goal and had two assists Wednesday night against rival Souderton.

North Penn’s 8-0 victory over Souderton lifted the Knights’ Continental record to a perfect 7-0, and showed that North Penn is intent on raising its level of play as the postseason approaches.

“We were just trying to work as a team, and trying to develop good habits for the playoffs,” Kaufhold said. “We know we wanna be in the playoffs so we have to develop our good habits now so that we’re ready.”

North Penn controlled the puck from the start, dominating in shots by a whopping 45-11 margin. The Knights built a 2-0 lead in the first period and then blew the game open in the second.

“We were pretty good – 45 shots I believe,” Kaufhold said. “We just have to keep up the offense every game. And that will win games. If we put up shots like that, we’ll be fine.”

Asked what was key to choking Souderton’s offensive output and limiting shots, Kaufhold said: “Our solid defense – they’re all really good. They all move the puck. They all can skate well, can shoot, so we’re good back there.”

The Knights got goals from six different players, with Tyler Greenstein and Zach Cline putting in two each.

Kaufhold, Thomas Boyle, Joe Morrissey and Tony Tuozzo accounted for the other four tallies. The Knights led 7-0 after two periods.

“It was a good win,” Knights coach Kevin Vaitis said. “We had all three lines contributing tonight. And that’s what we want to see.

“We’ve been playing some good hockey the last several weeks and we have a big game coming up Friday night against Council Rock South.”

North Penn put on the pressure early and kept it on throughout.

“We did a pretty good job of moving the puck,” Vaitis said. “We had a number of guys who contributed on the scoresheet and put a puck in the net.

“It wasn’t one or two players that we were relying on. Everybody sort of got involved and that’s what we wanna see.”

Souderton goalie Jonathan Pritchard was under heavy pressure but made 37 saves for Big Red (3-5-1 Continental).

Nick Ebbinghaus stopped all 11 shots he faced for the North Penn shutout.

“Defensively, we’ve been playing very sound,” Vaitis said. “The last couple games, we’ve had a very strong defensive group and they’ve been kind of leading the way for us.

“And Nick’s been playing great.”