Wahconah Icers Fall at Ludlow
WEST SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Ryan Kurtz had a hat trick and set up a goal Thursday to lead the Ludlow hockey team to a 10-1 win over Wahconah at the Olympia Ice Center.
After Wahconah’s Devin Lampron opened the scoring in the seventh minute of play, Ludlow scored six straight to take a 6-1 lead midway through the second period.
But the visitors had a ray of light toward the end of that stanza when Ludlow’s Colby Palmer was whistled for tripping with 30 seconds left until intermission.
Wahconah started the third period with 1 minute, 30 seconds of carryover on the man advantage.
But the Lions’ Ben Corbin scored a short-handed goal just eight seconds into the third to kill off any hopes Wahconah fans may have harbored for a rally.
“It’s deflating,” Wahconah coach Matt Risley said. “We’re a young team. We’re trying to learn how to play together and learn how to win. We’ve got a ways to go with that.
“But we’ve got to build off of it and learn how to compete and get after it. We fell a little short on that tonight.”
Despite the lopsided score, Wahconah managed a more respectable margin of 31-21 in shots on goal.
Ludlow’s Tyler Charest and David Tassinari combined to make 20 saves.
Wahconah starting keeper Holden Kotelnicki made nine saves in the first period before Cameron LaFerrier took over the rest of the way.
Lampron gave Wahconah a lift early when he took a pass from Roshan Warriar and made a rush up the left wing before ripping a shot past Charest to make it 1-0 with 8:50 on the clock.
It took just 19 seconds for Kurtz to provide the answer, punching a shot home from the doorstep to tie the game.
Less than a minute after that, Wahconah took its first penalty of the night, and Ben Corbin made it hurt when he scored the eventual game-winner on the power play. Kurtz capped the first period with a breakaway goal with 12 seconds left before intermission to make it 5-1.
Although Ludlow’s Nolan Wikar scored the only goal of the second period, it was the best 15 minutes of the night for Wahconah, which outshot Ludlow by a margin of 11-7.
Several times in the period, Wahconah threatened with odd man rushes, but often it missed the final connection and could not get off a quality shot.
“A little bad puck luck there, but that’s hockey,” Risley said. “You’ve just got to roll with it at that point.
“But that’s a good team we played. We’ve got to get back in practice and work hard.”
Ludlow Thursday improved to 3-0 overall and 2-0 in the Fay Division. Wahconah slipped to 0-3 and 0-2.
Risley and his team head into the new year with hopes of keeping its players on the ice as it tries to turn that record around.
“We’re short-handed,” he said. “We’ve had people in and out of the lineup due to COVID and sickness and stuff like that. It’s been kind of tough to get some consistency.
“We don’t have a lot of depth, so when we do lose a person, it shuffles everything else all around. It’s a challenge, but, ‘Next man up.’ And we’ll do what we can do.”