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By Ben Reese
HATFIELD — It was deja vu all over again.
With a nod toward Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra, it was Plymouth Whitemarsh and Hatboro-Horsham playing again at Hatfield Ice with first place in the American Division of the Suburban High School Hockey League on the line.
This time, the Colonials came out on top, breaking a 4-4 tie in the third period en route to a 7-4 victory. The win gives PW first place in the division and a bye in the first round of the upcoming playoffs.
Plymouth Whitemarsh rode the back of its captain and leading scorer Dan Guller in this one. He scored four goals including the one which broke the third period tie.
Oh, yes, it was 4-4 in the third period like last week’s game when the Hatters scored in the final minute to grab the 5-4 win. This time in was PW’s turn.
After Nate Nemchinov scored for Hatboro in the first 14 seconds of the stanza to tie the score, Guller came back 11:20 later to untie it, added a second goal in the period, his fourth. Dan Molony finished up the scoring for PW at 13:34.
“I just think in the third period when Hatboro tied it up, I think we needed to set a tempo,” said Guller. “Crashing the net was our gig and that’s what we talked about all season.
“That’s pretty much what I did. (I) got the loose one and got the goal.”
How did you avoid what happened last week?
“The boys showing up, like we showed up an hour and a half before the game,” Guller explained. “We were mentally ready in the (locker) room and then we took it out on the ice.
“It wasn’t our greatest game, but we pulled through with the win and we’re pretty happy.”
The four goals give Guller 17 on the season. If you add them to his 31 assists it puts him second in the American Division in scoring.
“Scoring goals is nice,” Guller said, “but I give credit to all my teammates because they make it easy for me.”
PW coach Vine Forti certainly appreciates everything Guller does for the team.
“He’s our captain for a reason,” Forti said. “He’s the one who always shows up, always locked in, always gives us 100 percent.
“(He’s) absolutely skilled, but he comes in, puts in the work shift after shift. If it doesn’t happen one shift, he just goes back out and gets it the next shift.”
Both teams were shorthanded for various reasons. The Hatters were missing four forwards and two defensemen, meaning they only had three defensemen available, and the Colonials had four players unavailable.
“We were very shorthanded,” said HH coach Shane Smith. “We had some guys play almost the entire game out there.
“It wasn’t just the fact that we were shorthanded. We were extremely shorthanded with four of our quality players and two defensemen out.
“It ended up the perfect storm for us. They fought like hell and just finally ran out of gas.”
Despite the win, and the bye, Forti wasn’t totally pleased with the game.
“I think we just knew we weren’t playing the way we should have been playing,” he said. “I think we kind of let them stay in the game by not playing to the level that we are capable of.
“We know they’re a good team and we don’t take them lightly, but we knew they were a little shorthanded. We were missing some guys too.”
As for the bye, well, to Forti it’s nice but not great.
“It’s nice, but it doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “We were in the same spot last year and couldn’t get the result we wanted.”
Smith acknowledged that his team had lost the bye.
“This definitely gives us second place,” he said, “unless something happens and upsets PW, we’ll be second place, playing the play-in game to get into the championship. We just ran out of gas at the end.”
Plymouth Whitemarsh started the game off quickly. The Colonials got goals from Carson Wooldridge at 2:58 of the first period and Morgan Hullitt at 6:14, but the Hatters stayed in it with a goal from Vince Graziani at 7:32, sending the game to the second period at 2-1.
Guller scored his first goal of the night with only 23 seconds elapsed in the second stanza and added his second 6:31 later for a 4-1 lead. It didn’t last as Hatboro got goals from Nate Nemchinov and Graziani to cut the margin to one goal heading into the third.
Nemchinov tied it at 4-4 14 seconds into the period and it began to look like a repeat of last week’s game But Guller’s two goals and one from Molony put it away for the Colonials.
Not to be overlooked was the stellar effort in goal by PW’s Max Yoder, who turned away 54 of 58 shots he faced. The Hatters held a 58-36 advanatage in shots.
Plymouth Whitemarsh 7, Hatboro-Horsham 4
Plymouth Whitemarsh 2 2 3 — 7
Hatboro-Horsham 1 2 1 — 4
First period: 1, Carson Wooldridge PW (Luke Smith) 2:58; 2, Morgan Hullitt PW (Cooper Kanze) 6:14; 3, Vince Graziani HH (Luca Staffieri, Evan Snow) 7:32.
Second period: 4, Dan Guller PW (Kanze) 0:23; 5, Guller PW (Kanze) 6:54; 6, Nate Nemchinov HH (Snow) 7:40; 7, Graziani HH (Aiden North, Snow) 13:55.
Third period: 8, Nemchinov HH (Graziani) 0:14; 9, Guller PW (Liam Kelly) 11:34; 10, Guller PW (unassisted) 13:02; 11, Dan Molony PW (Kanze) 13:34.
Shots: PW 36, HH 58. Saves: Max Yoder (PW) 54, Dominic Sestito (HH) 9, Pat Murphy (HH) 20.
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