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For most of this season, the thought of the Hatters winning a game was a stretch. But winning two games in a row? As unlikely as that scenario seemed in the not too distant past, it turned to reality tonight as the team now finds themselves in the midst of a 2 game winning streak after squeezing by AA William Tennent 5 - 4 at Bucks County Ice.
Manny Billones and Pat Durkin provided the offense and, coupled with effective defense and goaltending, the Hatters took their 3rd win of the season (all 1 goal wins). Billones contributed another 3 goal hat trick giving him 7 goals in the last 2 games. Durkin chipped in with two goals, including a shorthanded tally to open the scoring. Logan Wright, who had a strong defensive outing and nearly scored on an offensive rush, was whistled for a holding penalty with 8:41 left in a scoreless first period. With only :10 elapsed on the penalty kill, Billones threaded a pinpoint head man pass to a breaking Durkin at the Tennent blue line. Durkin got behind the defense and slipped the puck through the five hole to put the Hats in front 1 - 0. The lead didn’t last long, :32 to be exact. Tennent’s Danny Gatto flipped a power play shot past Jordan Fromm from a goal mouth scramble to knot the game at 1 - 1.
With regular netminder Joe Dooney unavailable, the Hatters borrowed Fromm for the night from Wissahickon, in a move that was approved by all parties concerned. He was strong in the 2nd period, keeping Tennent off the board despite their tossing 13 shots his way. Fromm had a lot of help from his defense. Pat Downing, Billy Dannehower, Kevin Barrett and Wright were on point in the shot blocking department. Billones put the Hatters back in front when he raced around the Tennent defense to score an unassisted goal with 13:19 left before the 2nd intermission,
With goals seemingly tough to come by, Durkin’s second goal of the game with 11:07 left looked like a back breaker for Tennent. Durkin showed patience when, after taking a cross ice feed from Billones, he held on to the puck long enough for goalie Dan Deegan to commit before firing a wrister under the crossbar for a 3 - 1 Hatters lead. Game over? Nope. Two Tennent goals within :13 erased the deficit until Billones came to the rescue :50 later to restore the lead 4 - 3 with 8:50 left in the game. But the Panthers clawed back to draw even again with just under 6 minutes remaining. Neither team could reclaim the lead during the next 5 minutes and the clock wound down to :48 left when Billones struck again. Downing got a pass off to Lindsay Howard who set up Billones for his 27th goal of the season which turned out to be the game winner and the Hatters skated off with the 5 - 4 victory.
Just as things are starting to get interesting, the schedule is down to it’s final game. The Hatters get another week off before having to face Upper Dublin in the season finale February 16th at 7:00 PM at BCI.
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