The Vermont Academy boys' hockey hosted Academy St. Louis this afternoon at 2:30 pm in an Associate Member NEPSAC match up at Choukas Arena. Vermont (11-7-2 Overall, 5-2-1 Lakes Region) started slow but found their groove to score eight unanswered goals to finish the game.

 

Academy St. Louis drew first blood when William Dionne stole the puck at his defensive blue line and went in on a breakaway against Vermont's Brandon McDonald '18 (Santa Clarita, CA). Dionne made no mistake beating McDonald low to his blocker side. Vermont would fight back in the period to get their scoring chances but just could not find a way to score against Academy St. Louis's goaltender, Phillippe Marquis. The teams would go into the first intermission with Academy St. Louis leading 1-0.

 

The second period would start with Nathan Smith '18 (Wildwood, MO) scoring three minutes in to the period by beating Marquis low glove hand. Academy St. Louis would regain the lead 2:07 later when Samuel Villa would stuff a puck past McDonald on the short side. But Nick Rashkovsky was not having it and beat Marquis just 48 second later on a shot from the slot. John Kondub would score six minutes later on a blast from the top of the circles that went just inside the far post.

 

Vermont would take over the game in the third period starting just two minutes in to the period when Hunter Krasnow '19 (Guildford, CT) would find the back on the net on the penalty kill. John Peloso '19 (Townshend, VT) would score 24 second later on the penalty kill as well. Two shorthanded goals in 24 second is quite a feet for any game. Vermont wasn't done there as Calvin Moise '18 (St. Eustache, QUE) would score two goals four minutes apart to provide some further insurance. The big goal of the night was Andrew Peloso '20 (Townshend, VT) as he netted his first career Vermont Academy goal on a shot from just inside the blue line. He is such a fan favorite that the bench went crazy on his behalf. His brother John would round of the scoring on a penalty shot which made the final score 9-2.

 

McDonald made 43 saves on the afternoon to bring home the win while Vermont threw 58 shots on Marquis.

 

Vermont is home coming up Wednesday, January 24 against Albany Academy at 5:00 pm at Choukas Arena.