Gage Gehris

All the seniors’ jerseys hanging above the bench after the game

On November 20th, the Boyertown Bears got the chance to play on NHL ice against Plymouth-Whitemarsh. A game like this has been unprecedented in the History of the Boyertown ice hockey club; never before has a Boyertown team played in an NHL arena, but the Bears did it, and they even won!

Before the game, senior night ceremonies took place for both Plymouth-Whitemarsh and Boyertown. They lasted for about 30-45 minutes before puck drop took place around 7pm. Boyertown opened the scoring as Jax Drost beat the goalie for the first goal of the game. The action died down for a little while afterwards until Gage Gehris took the first penalty of the game. Plymouth then took the opportunity to tie the game on the powerplay after Jason Segal scored; Shortly after the Plymouth powerplay, Jax Drost scored on an odd man rush to make it 2-1 Boyertown, which ended things in the first period.

In the second period, the penalties started to take over the flow of the game. Boyertown ended the contest with 9 total penalties compared to Plymouth’s 1. After a clear by Plymouth in the defensive zone, Drost passed it to Gehris, who dumped the puck back into the offensive zone. The ensuing puck battle lead to a Wes Beiber one timer that lands in the back of the net, and it’s 3-1 Boyertown. Later in the second period, around 7:00 minutes left on a deflected shot, Plymouth-Whitemarsh answered back, cutting the lead in half. The period ended with Boyertown leading 3-2.

Third period came around, and Boyertown kept taking penalties, giving Plymouth chances to tie the game. Then, with 9 minutes left, Tim Murphy tied it on a rebound shot that beat Logan Dugan. Both teams played the rest of the third period trying to find the game winning goal; however, nothing would give, and the game headed into overtime.

Overtime started, and Boyertown controlled the puck. It was only 24 seconds into overtime when Luke Hennessy ended the game, causing Boyertown to win 4-3 in the Wells Fargo Center. Boyertown came into the game happy to be there, playing because a previous team wasn’t able to, and showed up Plymouth on their home ice to put Boyertown hockey on the map. For the seniors, this game was the defining moment of their senior year, playing on the biggest stage, on the same ice that greats like Alex Ovechkin and Connor McDavid have played on. The season is just getting started, but it seems like this game was just a teaser of the good times to come this year.