Heading into post season, the hockey team sits on a 7-5 record, below the teams expectations for the season.
The Patriots faced off against rival Churchill on Jan. 7. Junior defensemen Jason Liu got the scoring started. On a power play he scored, assisted by sophomore forward Nate Barrow midway through the first period. Churchill responded with a late first period goal to tie it up, 1-1. The student section began to get rowdy, as the Patriots and Bulldogs had to share one section.
The Bulldogs scored the only goal of the second period, giving them a 2-1 lead. Less than one minute into the third, the Bulldogs scored and went up 3-1. The Patriots did not concede; junior defensemen Daniel Tomashevsky scored two late goals to tie the game at 3-3. Both goals were assisted by Barrow. The final score was a 3-3 tie.
The Patriots faced Richard Montgomery on Jan. 17. The Rockets scored two goals in the first period, and gave up no goals. Sophomore forward Jack Yielding scored late in the second to make the score 2-1. RM responded with nine seconds left in the period to take a 3-1 lead. The teams swapped back and forth goals in the third. The final score was 5-3, a Patriot loss.
The team had an exhibition match versus Georgetown Prep on Jan. 22. The game was not close: Prep won 8-1. “It’s good for our team to have a chance to play the private schools, so we can play a high competition game,” junior forward Brett Strauss said.
On Jan. 24, the Patriots faced the Quince Orchard Cougars. QO scored the first goal of the game, two minutes into the first period. Junior defensemen Nick Billingsley tied it at 1-1 on a power play goal. QO held the Patriots scoreless in the second period and went ahead 3-1. Strauss scored a goal in the third, but QO held onto their lead for the remainder of the game. winning 3-2.
The boys played Walter Johnson on Jan. 31. Freshman forward Conor Harris got the scoring started early in the first period, giving the Patriots a 1-0 lead. The Wildcats quickly responded, and the period ended 1-1. WJ scored in the second minute of the second period to take a 2-1 lead. The score remained the same, until the last minute of the game when Tomashevsky tied the game at 2-2. The game ended in a tie.
Senior night was Feb. 7; the team played Bethesda Chevy Chase. BCC took a 2-0 lead in the first period. Harris scored in the first minute of the second to make it 2-1. Billingsley tied the game up in the middle of the second period. BCC scored in the final minute of the second period to take a 3-2 lead. Strauss tied it up in the sixth minute of the third. The Barons went on to score three unanswered goals and won 6-3.
The first playoff game had not been announced as of press time.