Ephrata Icers clinch Tier III title
- 04 February 2009
The Ephrata Mounts Ice Hockey team clinched the Tier III title for the regular season on Friday night with a 4-4 tie against Susquehanna Township.Both teams entered the contest with three games left with the Mounts six points ahead, although two earlier victories assured the Mounts of the title in case the two teams finished with the same record.
"Tonight was important that we got the win to settle it by points and no one can touch us," said Coach Keith Davis.
Susquehanna took an early 1-0 lead 1:26 into the contest when Cody Bockelkamp jumped on a rebound. Ephrata goalie Ryan Groff saved the initial shot but the rebound escaped to his left where Bockelkamp had an open net.
Three minutes later, a similar rebound landed near Dylan Rothenberger's stick but Groff denied this chance with a glove save.
Shawn McHugh tied the game with 9:38 left in the first when he buried a Bobby Lee cross ice pass, Nathan Good picked up the second assist.
Both teams had chances to take the lead in the first but goalies Groff and Bobby Shutts stood tall to send the game into the second still tied.
Keith Sauder nearly opened the second period scoring when he seemed to surprise Shutts with a hard back-handed shot, Shutts was able to save that one, but Cody Williams staked the Mounts to a 2-1 lead at the 13:52 mark. Standing at the point on a power play, Williams shot the puck after it drifted out from a crowd near the net and the puck made it through the crowd for the Mounts' second goal. Lee got the only assist.
Lee put the Mounts up by two with his 37th goal of the year when he found the puck at center ice and sped away from every Susquehanna player near him for a breakaway. When he reached just outside the crease, he unleashed a wrist shot that Shutts had no chance to stop.
Lee's 59 points ranks him fourth among all CPIHL players.
Momentum shifted for the rest of the second as the Mounts began to take penalties and the Indians took full advantage with power play goals. Bockelkamp picked up his second goal of the night from a goal mouth scramble with 8:43 left and Chris Kohl tied the score with three minutes left in the second.
Nathan Franklin's 11th goal of the season at 9:12 of the third gave Ephrata a 4-3 lead.
"Off the face off, I got the puck back to (Sebastian) Gomez," said Franklin. "He took the shot and kind of fluttered it. It went straight up in the air, hit some guy and landed on my stick. I shot it and it went in under his glove and above his pad in a natural hole a goalie makes."
The lead stood until Adam Marso scored with 5:10 left in the game to set the final tally at 4-all.
Ephrata's record stands 14-1-2- for 30 points going into the final regular season game on Friday.
We here at www.ephratamounts.com are proud sponsors of the Dodgeball for Diabetes tournament.