By David Fierro
The streak continues for Brunswick School’s ice hockey team.
Brunswick stretched its unbeaten streak to 14 games with a 6-3 victory against the host Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Conn., on Monday evening.
“It’s always tough to play the Bearcats on the road on a Monday and Brunswick had to dig in and gut this one out after trailing 2-1 after 18 minutes,” Brunswick coach Mike Kennedy.
Senior Charlie Vincent scored the first goal of the game for the Bruins, but Hotchkiss answered with two before the intermission.
The turning point certainly came early in the second, when the Bearcats had a nearly two-minute 5-on-3 power play but came up empty. The trio of seniors Jake Minella and Carter Hall (who broke his stick early in the shift but still found a way to be effective), along with junior defenseman Blake Stant, were key for the Bruins on the penalty kill – as was senior goaltender Will Baker, Kennedy noted.
Trailing by one goal, the Bruins tied the score after a great forecheck by the line of senior Ryan Wachtel and juniors Oliver Czaja and Tucker Spiess, with Spiess ultimately pushing a rebound across the goal line, evening the game.
Senior co-captain Sean Gibbons –a West Point commit – gave his team the lead before the end of the period on a well-executed offensive zone face-off and snipe from the half wall to the far top corner. The goal gave the Bruins a 3-2 advantage.
The teams traded tallies to open the third before Brunswick sealed the game with two goals in the final eight minutes. Gibbons scored one more goal, as did from Wachtel, who ended up with four points on the night.
Senior forward Brendan Giles registered his 17th goal of the season to climb within one goal of the NEPSAC lead. Brunswick is in action again on Wednesday when it hosts Millbrook School at 4 p.m.
