Wildcats open 2020 with a win

KUA and New Hampton faced off in Meriden, with each team coming off a long break. The first period saw end-to-end action with neither team able to score. AJ Noel put the Wildcats on the board first with an assist from Isaac Bliss, but New Hampton countered to knot the score at one going into the mid-second period ice make. AJ scored in the first shift on the new ice, with an assist from Andrew Hadlock, and then scored again on a KUA powerplay late in the second. One of the Wildcats’ advantages was the fact that they had almost twice as many players dressed as New Hampton, but, to their credit, the Huskies played harder and harder as the game went on and pressured the KUA net on multiple occasions early in the third. With about eight minutes left, the Wildcats were assessed two penalties that put them two men down for a minute and a half which gave the Huskies a potential opening, but the KUA penalty kill unit worked hard to protect the net, and then AJ earned his fourth goal of the game almost as soon as the teams were back at full strength. The Huskies pulled their goaltender for an extra skater with three minutes remaining and scored quickly to pull within two goals, but the Wildcats kept them away from the goal after that and Cole Gueldenzoph fired a shot from the neutral zone into the upper back corner of the open net to end the game at 5 – 2. AJ Noel is unquestionably the number one star of the game with four goals to his credit, but all 17 skaters contributed, and Mica McGinley-Smith was strong in the KUA net. The teams will meet again at New Hampton in late January.