The Scouts Varsity Hockey Team made their season debut on September 11th, with the first game being against defending state champions, New Trier Green. Having lost many seniors last year, it was exciting to see how the 2024 scouts hockey team performed against the defending champions of the Scholastic Hockey League (SHL).
The Scouts came out strong and kept up with the Trevians for the majority of the first period. However, with two minutes left in the first the Scouts got a penalty giving NTG a man advantage. NTG worked the puck around in the scouts zone and eventually found an opportunity to get the first goal of the game with one minute and fifty seconds left in the first period.
Heading into the second period, the scouts were still down by one goal.
Sophomore goalie, Logan Marsch made exceptional saves which kept the Scouts in the game.
Later in the period the scouts received another penalty. The Trevians won the face-off back to the point and a Trevian defenseman put a low shot on net which gave off a rebound and led to a tap in goal. The lead was extended 2-0 with eight minutes left in the period.
From the first two periods the Scouts faced two power plays that led to goals. Despite the penalties the Scouts still played their game.
“We played them really well when we were even strength but being short handed against the very skilled NTG was our problem,” said senior defensemen, Will Frentzas. “I’m not worried about it since it’s the beginning of the year and we’re still trying to master the system of the penalty kill, so going forward the penalty kill shouldn’t be a problem.”
Shortly after the second goal, the Trevians had 2 on 1 and scored again with five minutes left in the second period, which put the Scouts in a desperate position.
With thirty five seconds to go, the Scouts sought out their first power play opportunity and made their best efforts to try to put one in the net, but were not able to convert on offense. The score remained 3-0 at the end of the second period.
Finally the third period arrived, and the Scouts continued on the powerplay but the Trevians killed it and were at even strength again. The Trevians continued controlling the puck in the Scouts defensive zone for quite a while but the Scouts played great defense keeping the shots down to a minimum.
The clock read zero and the Scouts unfortunately lost the game 3-0 and were outshot 32-16. The Scouts are looking for a bounce back win against Fenwick in their next game.
“We have about a week until our next game, so we’re going to use this time to practice hard and continue to run through particular systems we need to work on. Overall, it wasn’t a bad game. We just need to keep working as a team and build more chemistry,” said senior Tommy Swift.
