After a rocky finish to the regular season, the boys hockey team had to dig deep in hopes of making a playoff run. After beating one seed Glenelg in the first round, they lost to BCC in the second round in a thrilling shootout.

The team was given the 16 seed in the playoff bracket and their first round game was against one seeded Glenelg. Glenelg finished the season with an 8-1-1 record, and a strong resume.

The Bulldogs and the Patriots played on Feb. 20. The game was scoreless for a majority of the first period. Junior forward Nick Billingsley struck gold first, giving the Patriots a 1-0 lead. Mid-way through the second period, senior captain Scotty Colinson scored on a power play, assisted by junior defensemen Daniel Tomashevsky. Soon after, junior forward Brett Struass scored, giving the Patriots a 3-0 lead heading into the third period.

The Patriots played stellar defense for a majority of the third period. Glenelg scored their first goal with three minutes and 10 seconds left in the game. Just 30 seconds later the Bulldogs scored a second goal, making the score 3-2. This made the game gut wrenching, as the best team in the regular season had begun a comeback with time to score another goal.

The team held off any remaining goal scoring opportunities, and pulled off the biggest upset of the playoffs. “The key for us going into this game was to not look at Glenelg differently than any other team. We need to play our game to win, it doesn’t matter who were playing against,” senior goalie Colin Brick said.

The State quarterfinals match was against the Bethesda Chevy Chase Barons on Feb. 24. The Barons beat the Patriots on senior night, and the Patriots were seeking revenge. The Barons controlled the puck for most of the first period, but the game remained scoreless. In the second period, the Patriots began to control the puck better, and started to put more shots up on goal. In the middle of the second period, freshman forward Conor Harris had a shot bounce of the goalie’s leg pad, and he got his rebound and put the puck in the back of the net. This gave the Patriots a 1-0 lead. BCC tied the game up eight minutes into the third. The remainder of regulation was scoreless, and the game headed to overtime, which started off with a Patriots powerplay. The team put pressure on the goalie, but ultimately didn’t score. Time ran out in the overtime period before either team could score.

The shootout was nerve wracking. Tomashevsky scored the first goal of the shootout, and the Brrons responded with a goal of their own. It took five rounds, but BCC scored the final goal, and the Patriots season ended in a heartbreaking way. The emotions were pouring out at the end of the game, especially from the seniors who had just played their final game.