By Marcus Krum
Staff Writer
@marcuskrum
After all the action ended in Coppell’s hockey game against Highland Park on Thursday, Dec. 19, after the pucks stopped flying, the bodies stopped falling, the Cowboys came out on top with a 9-4 victory.
Coppell started off scoring with a quick goal from forward Matt Lasky, getting the assist from sophomore forward Larson Polk. Five minutes later, Highland Park answered, tying the score 1-1, then taking the 2-1 lead with another goal only one minute later.
“We need to improve on our starts and coming out a lot stronger than we did,” assistant captain and senior forward Scott Brownrigg said. “As you can see, we came out weak and it really affected us. We need to work on putting away teams in the first period.”
After the teams traded goals, the score was tied 3-3 at the end of the first period. Again, Highland Park took the lead, this time going up 4-3 with a long-range slapshot.
“Our intensity and speed did not really show up until the third period,” assistant coach Brian Harley said. “We let the other dictate the pace of play for the first two periods. We have to have a different mentality when we start the game, that the other team has to play to our pace rather than the other way around.”
Five minutes after Highland Park took the lead, the Cowboys went on a 13 minute stretch, starting with one minute left in the second period, in which they scored six unanswered goals, two of them coming from sophomore James Reaman.
“Our team is in good hands. We have some really good, skilled young players and I think they have what it takes to step up and take charge of this team,” Brownrigg said.
During the third period, the Cowboys did not allow a single goal, receiving some key saves from sophomore goalie Dailen Haapanen. They came out very strong defensively and kept the pressure on the Highland Park defense. They will try to extend this success into their next game in which they are facing John Paul II on Sunday, Dec. 21 at the Dr. Pepper center in Farmers Branch.
“We have a fairly deep team this year in comparison to some other teams in our league. We have received contributions from every position, and from both younger players as well as seniors,” Harley said.
