Hockey: Upper Arlington finds enough offense to get by Olentangy Berlin
Wednesday, January 31, 2024
By Michael Rich
mrich@cbussports.com
Upper Arlington’s Jason Davis (right) looks to maneuver around Olentangy Berlin’s Simon Lehigh during the Golden Bears’ 2-1 win Jan. 31 at OhioHealth Chiller North. Photo: Kevin Lam
Offense has been difficult to come by for the Upper Arlington hockey team this season. But the Golden Bears got just enough of it in a 2-1 victory over Olentangy Berlin in a Capital Hockey Conference-Red Division game on Jan. 31 at OhioHealth Chiller North.
UA, which improved to 13-12-2 overall and 6-5-2 in league play, is averaging just over two goals per game as it heads into the final weekend of the regular season.
“We struggled this entire season to score goals,” said Jason Davis, who scored the game-winning goal on a rebound of a Matthew Russo shot with 14 minutes, 10 seconds left in the third period. “Whenever anyone on the team scores a goal, it boosts our confidence. Scoring early in the third period helped us out so much. It gave us momentum for the rest of the game.”
UA (14 points), which played Berlin (15) to a 2-2 tie on Jan. 5, now trails the double-blue Bears by a point for third place in the CHC-Red.
Upper Arlington’s Henry Thackeray (right) celebrates his goal with Ben Adams, who had an assist on the play, during the Golden Bears’ game with Olentangy Berlin Jan. 31 at OhioHealth Chiller North. Photo: Kevin Lam
The Golden Bears face Olentangy, Cincinnati Moeller and New Albany this weekend to close out league play. Berlin, which fell to 15-9-2-1 overall and 6-6-2-1 in league play, hosts Moeller on Sunday in its final game.
Henry Thackery scored on a wrist shot with 6:31 remaining in the first period to give UA the early advantage. Charlie Thackery and Ben Adams assisted the goal.
“We had a couple of breakaways we missed a couple of posts on one shift,” UA coach Craig Hagkull said. “We had more chances in this game than we did in our last couple of games. We’re moving the puck pretty well and I thought our D made some nice plays at the point. Henry Thackery had a beautiful shot on that first goal. But the goals you’re going to score against a goalie like (Berlin’s) Kai Nelson are more like the ones that Jason Davis got.”
Olentangy Berlin’s Chris Brennan shoots the puck against Upper Arlington Jan. 31 at OhioHealth Chiller North. Photo: Kevin Lam
Berlin had an opportunity to turn the game in its favor on a five-minute major penalty for boarding was called late in the first period.
Instead, it played much of the advantage at even strength because of consecutive minor penalties and ended up not scoring.
“We gave it up and took two penalties of our own,” Berlin coach Tim Pennington said. “They were lazy penalties. I hate hooking penalties – that’s a lazy penalty that means guys aren’t skating. You can’t overcome that against good teams.”
Chris Brennan tied the game for the “Double Blue” Bears off a beautiful deke where he faked a shot low on the left side and then went around when the goalie committed to score on an empty net on the right.
Ultimately, it was an interference penalty that set up the Golden Bears’ game-winner.
“This was basically a tournament game today,” Pennington said. “The first period, we didn’t play very well, but the second and third period, we played a lot better. So, we build off of that. We know they can do it. But they’ve got to do it all three periods.”
Upper Arlington’s Zachary Teague (34) collides with Olentangy Berlin’s Myles Edgson during their game at OhioHealth Chiller North Jan. 31. Photo: Kevin Lam