Photo by Bill Croney, The Northfield News Northfield's Alex Start (in White) swoops around the Mt. Mansfield net last Thursday night at Kreitzberg Arena. The Ice Marauders had to go to overtime but they prevailed against the Cougars by a 3-2 score The Northfield High Boy’s hockey team picked up a pair of victories on Kreitzberg ice last week. The Ice Marauders went to overtime before getting by Mt. Mansfield 3-2 last Thursday night and on Saturday afternoon the Maroon & White Boys flew past MSJ by a 9-0 count. With the wins the Ice Marauders improved their record to 3-1.

“This week I thought we played some of our best hockey of the season.

The first two periods against Mt. Mansfield were superb,” said coach Paul Clayton. “The guys are excited and really working hard. If your first priority is to be the hardest working team on the ice then good things will happed,” the coach added.

Against Mt. Mansfield’ last Thursday night. The Marauders had plenty of chances but only hung on to a 2-1 lead after two periods of play.Although Northfield bombarded the Cougar goal, it was scoreless after the first period.

Just :34 ito the second stanza Northfield’s Jacob Audet-Ricker broke the scoring ice to put the Marauders up 1-0. But the euphoria didn’t last long. The Cougars came right back and evened things up just a few seconds later.

Senior forward Derek Mercandante put Northfield back in front with another Marauder goal midway through the second period and they went into the second intermission with the Ice Marauders clinging to a 2-1 lead.

“Mt. Mansfield played a lot better in the third period and we gave them power play chances by getting some penalties,” said coach Clayton.

The Cougars used one of those power plays to score the only goal of the third period and send the game into overtime all tied at 2-2.

Northfield’s Daegan Goodman didn’t waste any time in the extra stanza.

Just :34 into the overtime he tit the lamp at the Cougar end and sent everybody home. The goal capped a pretty play that saw Billy Whaley take the puck into the neutral zone and find Jacob Audet-Ricker going in on the left wing. He then threaded a beautiful pas to Goodman who fired the puck over the left shoulder of the Cougar netminder for the game winning score. The final: Northfield 3 Mt. Mansfield 2 in overtime.

Saturday afternoon at Kreitzberg was a different story entirely. The Ice Marauders scored early and often as they nearly burned out the goal lamp at the Mt. St. Joseph end and rolled over the Mounties 9-0.

Jacob Audet-Ricker had a hat trick and an assist for four points for his afternoon’s work while Loren Hart had two goals and Alex Green chipped in with one goal and an assist for the Maroon & White. Rounding out the scoring for the Ice Marauders were Jerry Passalaqua, Gavin Porter and Pat Barrett who each had single goals. Billy Whaley dished out three assists and in the goal Ben Albury and Grayson Lavigne made eight saves. The MSJ Goaltenders made 45 saves in addition to giving up nine goals for a total of 54 Northfield shots in the Marauders lop sided victory. “ The kids are learning that it’s not who you play but how you play that’s important. We could look across the ice and see the lack of numbers but our guys are coming out ready to play.

With the win the Marauder boys are 3-1 and will hot their own tournament, The Scott R. Boyce Memorial Tournament, this week. On Wednesday Lyndon and St. Johnsbury will link up in the first game at 5:30 p.m. and Northfield will take on Peoples Academy in the nightcap that is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. On Friday Night the losers of the Wednesday night games will meet in the consolation game at 5:30 and the winners will play in the championship game at 8 p.m.