HATFIELD- In the fifth matchup of the season for the North Penn ice hockey squad, a dominating performance on both sides of the puck with a total of 38 shots put on net and 3 players tallying up 2 goals helped propel the Knights over the Falcons Thursday night.

The North Penn Knights (2-1-1) hosted the Pennsbury Falcons (1-1-2) at Hatfield Ice Arena and sent the home crowd happy after the Knights skated their way to a 10-3 win over the Falcons. Following a tough 4-2 lost last week against CB South (2-2-1), the Knights were looking to let some steam off and take out some frustration on the ice and the Falcons felt every blow throughout the full 3 periods of play.

“We had a tough one last week against CB South, it was 2-2 going into the 3rd and they ended up winning 4-2, but I told the guys we have to come out tonight, get back on the winning streak here and we did that. We took control and set the tone,” explained Knights head coach, Kevin Vaitis.

The tone would be set for the game heading into the first intermission after North Penn put up 5 goals in the first period courtesy off a Jared Albano wrister in and out of the glove of Pennsbury goaltender Christopher Seiler, Tyler Greenstein to Luke Van Why back of the net connection, Greenstein’s wrist shot, Jake Nelson power play goal, and Nate Oh deek move to beat Seiler on a breakaway.

“We’ve been working a lot in practice on controlling the puck in the offensive zone and we know what we are doing down there, we have a lot of chemistry and that’s what we need for the big games,” stated senior, Nate Oh.

The Knights would head into the 2nd period with a 5-1 lead, and quickly tacked on to their score thanks to Greenstein who would send a wrist shot bullet into the top shelf part of the net to tally up his second goal on the night.

“We may not be the biggest team in the league, but we use our speed to our advantage to get around defensemen and create chances. We continue to pass the puck around, get everyone involved and throw shots on net,” said Greenstein.

North Penn would tack on two more goals to their 6-1 lead before heading into the final period of play where Pennsbury had been held to only 8 shots on net with one goal courtesy of a wrist shot by Beau Brusius-Yedman. With a show off performance by the Knight’s offensive side of the puck, another phenomenal defensive effort in the Knight’s end of the ice was on full force including a blocked shot by North Penn junior, Thomas Boyle, on a Pennsbury power play. The Knight’s goaltender, Nick Ebbinghaus also put up and exceptional effort with two-highlight reel saves including a redirected puck being batted away out of midair and over the crossbar to save a goal, as well as a flick of the glove save following a wrist shot by Pennsbury’s, Jake Machlovitz.

“The defense held out almost everything tonight and for the shots that did reach me, I was just prepared for the shot coming down on me and making an instant reaction helped me stop those goals,” said Ebbinghaus.

For the rest of the contest at Hatfield Ice, North Penn would continue to maintain their large scale lead, including two more goals in the third thanks to a backhand finish on a loose puck by Nick Rowland and a Jake Nelson wrist shot to the back of the net following a feed from Josh Kaufhold.

Pennsbury would put up two more goals in the third period after a 2 on 1 opportunity would be capped off with a bottom shelf goal by Jake Machlovitz and an Erik Eisler wrister would beat Ebbinghaus in net for the Knight’s. However, these last goals would be all she wrote on the opportunity for a Pennsbury comeback chance as North Penn would lock down the Falcons straight up to the last seconds of play in the game.

“We continue to talk about how it’s a collective effort and we did a great job of that tonight. We always want to try and limit the team to less than 7 shots per period and if we are able to do that we are gonna win a lot of hockey games,” stated coach Vaitis.

The Knights are on the road next Wednesday, the 5th, for a matchup with Abington at Revolution Ice Gardens.