WESTON, MASS. – Sophomore Zach Whitehead's tally with under a minute to go in the first overtime delivered Kimball Union a 2-1 win over Rivers in one of two NEPSAC Elite 8 Tournament semifinals played Saturday afternoon. Whitehead one-timed a feed from Seth Stadheim who was breaking in the right wing on a two-on-one.
With the victory, the Wildcats will have a chance to defend their title on Sunday evening at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. Their opponent will be top-seeded Salisbury, a 3-1 winner over Dexter in the other semifinal. It is match-up the entire prep hockey world expected following the team's 1-1 tie in the Flood-Marr Tournament. Sometimes in sports the best team doesn't always win, but Sunday's championship match-up features the undisputed top two teams in prep hockey.
Vermont commit Logan Cash got the scoring started 13 seconds into the second period when he finished off a nice feed from UConn commit Thomas Samuelsen who had forced a turnover in back of the attacking net.
Later in the period, Rivers forward John Kantaros would ensure the game was tied headed to the third stanza. He slipped past the KUA defense as it was in the midst of a line change and received a nice homerun pass from defenseman John Corrigan, a Babson commit.
Both goaltenders were terrific. Senior Aidan Porter, the New England Hockey Journal MVP, was immense and kept the Red Wings in the game. The Princeton recruit might not be the best prospect in prep hockey, but he's the most valuable to his team. Fellow senior Sean Dynan was equally strong for the Wildcats.
Kimball Union heads into Sunday's clash with Salisbury a little banged up. The Wildcats were without defenseman Christian Felton, which forced head coach Tim Whitehead to use Cornell recruit Kyle Penney on the blue line. It also meant that 2018 NHL Draft prospect and Northeastern recruit Jordan Harris would log a ton of minutes. While he didn't factor into either of the goals, he was steady. He retrieved pucks and broke it up ice quickly. He was a little tentative at times, but that could just come from all the minutes he was logging. Defensive partner Bryce Dolan, a Holy Cross recruit, was also solid.
Kimball Union Lines
18 Logan Cash (Vermont) - 21 Andranik Armstrong (UConn) - 13 Thomas Samuelsen
19 Matt Egan - 20 Arlo Merritt (Ohio State) - 22 Drew Bennett
15 Zach Whitehead - 9 Seth Stadheim - 8 Sullivan Mack
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2 Jordan Harris (Northeastern) - 3 Bryce Dolan (Holy Cross)
17 Kyle Penney (Cornell) - 4 Devan Newhook
12 Jack Geraghty - 14 Ben Tardiff
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1 Sean Dynan
Rivers Lines
3 Billy Shea - 4 Teddy Wooding (Yale) - 6 Matt Cormier
2 John Kantaros - 13 Tyler Capello (Middlebury) - 22 Henry Mueller
5 Michael McEachern - 7 Phil Tresca - 9 Rory Casey
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15 Tony Andreozzi (Brown) - 20 Pat Lawn (Bentley)
8 Cade Webber (BU) - 18 Tommy Benjes
10 John Corrigan (Babson) - 16 Ryan Bell
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1 Aidan Porter (Princeton)
