St Joseph's Prep Hawks

NEVILLE ISLAND - Thank you to Plum Hockey for providing this report ! The Plum Mustangs and North Hills Indians met at the Island Sports Complex in a battle for one of the two remaining playoff spots. The Indians dominated the early play, outshooting Plum 12-5 in the opening period; but Plum’s goalie, John Bronder, was able to keep North Hills off the board with several sparkling saves. Three minute into the second period, it was the Mustangs who were able to take the lead. Jonathan Smith came free on a breakaway, but North Hills’ netminder Kevin Gubish made the save. Gubish then stopped Ben Colosmo on the rebound, but Matt Giunta shoveled the second rebound over Gubish into the net to make the score 1-0. At 8:31 of the second period, Smith took a pass from Colosmo, skated to the high slot and blistered a wrist shot past Gubish’s blocker to put Plum up by two. The Indians halved that margin at 6:15. Nick Rostek walked out from the corner and wristed the puck off the crossbar over Bronder’s glove to bring North Hills within striking distance. Three minutes later, the Indians took advantage of a Mustang penalty. Plum was unable to clear the puck, and it was Rostek again finding himself all alone in the slot. Rostek waited patiently and beat Bronder with a wrist shot past the blocker to knot the game at two. The game remained tied into the third period. At 8:15, North Hills’ Dave Hansell came in free on a breakaway, but Bronder came up big with the save to keep the game tied. Plum went on the power play with seven minutes remaining, but it was North Hills coming up with several scoring opportunities on the penalty kill. Bronder stopped Rostek with two sharp leg saves, and the Mustangs were able to survive their own power play. With only 3:23 remaining in the third, it was the Giunta-Smith-Colosmo line coming up big again. Giunta carried the puck into the Indians’ zone down the right wing and spotted Smith trailing down the left wing. Giunta hit Smith with a cross-ice pass, and Smith one-timed the puck to Colosmo who came flying down the slot. Colosmo deflected the Smith pass toward the open cage, and the puck slowly trickled into the net to put Plum up 3-2. North Hills put the pressure on in an effort to get the game-tying goal. With 1:13 to go, the Indians pulled Gubish for the extra skater. North Hills had several scoring chances, the last one coming on a slapshot with five seconds remaining; but Giunta sacrificed his body, going down and blocking the shot out of the Plum zone to seal the victory. The Indians outshot Plum 30-24 in the game.