The Vermont Academy boys' hockey hosted North Yarmouth Academy today at Michael Choukas Arena on Vermont's campus. Vermont (8-3-2 Overall, 4-0-1 Lakes Region) was down 2-1 at the end of the second period and exploded for five unanswered goals for a 6-2 win.

 

Vermont would strike first in the match up scoring just 1:55 into the game on a shot from Steven Hepensteil '19 (Wilton, CT). Hepensteil beat NYA goaltender, Xander Kostelnik, from the slot of a pass from Hunter Krasnow '19 (Guilford, CT). Vermont would dominate the rest of the first period outshooting NYA 2-1 but they just couldn't get the puck past Kostelnik. Vermont would take a 1-0 lead into the intermission.

 

The second period was a different story with NYA scoring two power play goals to tie and move ahead of the Wildcats. Ryan Baker would score first to NYA on a nice play in front of Vermont's Brandon McDonald. McDonald would make the first save but a shifty little move by Baker beat McDonald to tie the game. Five minutes later NYA would strike again on the power play when Reese Farrell came across the blue line and whistled a wrost shot past McDonald inside the far post. NYA would take the lead and keep it in to the Third period.

 

The third period would start out with NYA on the power play but Vermont killed it off and went to work. This time the Wildcats were on the power play and Robbie Ferreira '18 (Salem, NH) found himself with the puck on the door step and he fired it short side top glove on Kostelnik to tie the game. Kevin Quirk '18 (Belmont, MA) would beat Kostelnik 33 second later to give Vermont a 3-2 lead on a shot from the blue line which would be the eventual game winning goal. Next John Kondub '19 (Monroe, CT) would get in on the action 19 second later to increase the Wildcat lead to 4-2. Six minutes later Nick Rashkovsky '19 (Northridge, CA) beat Kostelnik on a shot form the slot just inside the right post and Quirk would add an empty net goal with 25 second left to secure a 6-2 victory.

 

McDonald would finish the night 39 saves on 41 shots to claim the victory and Kostelnik would stop 44 of 49 shots in the loss.

 

Vermont is right back at it tomorrow, January 7, as they will host Berwick Academy at 2:00 pm at Choukas Arena.   Vermont faced Berwick earlier this season at the Proctor Jamboree beating them 5-3 and at the Roxbury Latin Showcase tying 2-2. This match up should be a good game to catch.