Moving on
WEST KITTANNING — At the beginning of the season, Freeport's hockey team was unable to get the better of Westmont Hilltop.
The Yellowjackets' first two games of the 2013-14 campaign ended in a tie with the Hilltoppers.
Monday night, Freeport vanquished its PIHL Class A foe with a 6-2 first-round playoff victory at the Belmont Ice Complex. It was the 'Jackets' second win over Westmont in six days. Freeport won a regular-season meeting 6-3 last Tuesday in Johnstown.
“It had been a while since we got out of the first round,” said Freeport forward Mike Frazetta. “We kept telling ourselves that we weren't going to lose this game.”
The 'Jackets took control of the contest with a three-goal second period. They out-shot the Hilltoppers in the period 15-5 and received scores from Cole Hepler, Frazetta and Hunter Kepple.
Hepler's tally came just 59 seconds into the period. Frazetta took advantage of a power play and Kepple gave Freeport a 4-1 lead late in the second.
“That was the difference in the game,” said Westmont coach Art McQuillan of the second period. “Freeport gathered momentum and took the game to us. We took some uncharacteristic penalties and had to spend much of the period killing them.”
“After we got that lead, now they have to start taking chances,” said Freeport coach Dave Hepler of the Hilltoppers (13-7-3). “But we wanted to come out strong in the third period and we came out flat.”
Westmont managed eight shots on goal in the first 7:45 of the third. One of them yielded a goal when Brandon Leech's slap shot ricocheted off the stick of Adam McQuillan and past 'Jackets' goalie Matt Huston, cutting the Hilltoppers' deficit to 4-2 with 10:29 remaining in the game.
But the final seven minutes of the game belonged to Freeport (15-5-2), which increased its lead to 6-2 with goals from Stone Haberstroh and Hepler on a power play and empty net, respectively.
Huston made 24 saves in the win, several coming at key points in the game. With his team leading 2-1, he made three stops in a span of 75 seconds of the second period. Then, with the score 4-2 and under eight minutes left in the game, Leech stole a Freeport pass while the Yellowjackets were in the middle of a line change and took an uncontested slap shot that Huston gobbled up.
“I thought he did a great job tonight,” said Coach Hepler of his netminder.
Haberstroh gave Freeport a 1-0 lead with an unassisted goal 5:42 into the first period. Leech answered with a power-play score just over a minute later.
Contributing assists for the Yellowjackets were Hepler (2), Frazetta (2), Haberstroh and Nick Rusak.
Westmont goalie Sebastian Ragno stopped 23 of the 28 shots he faced.
While much focus is on Quaker Valley and Mars, who have played each other in the last two Class A Penguins Cup title games, Freeport is playing with confidence and has now gone 14-2 in its last 16 games.
“We beat Mars 4-2 (earlier this season) and we barely lost to Quaker Valley (5-4 on Feb. 23),” said Frazetta. “We know we can beat either of those teams.”
“We started out slow this season,” said Haberstroh of Freeport's 1-3-2 effort in its first six games. “But we have come together and are playing more as a team.”
