COLORADO SPRINGS – In three games this season, the Doherty Spartans hockey team had no trouble scoring goals, it just had an issue stopping opponents from their own net. That trend broke on Thursday as the Spartans fired shot after shot at the Air Academy net and kept the Kadets at bay to get a 6-1 win at the Sertich Ice Center.
In the first three games of the season, the Spartans (1-1-2 overall) averaged just under three goal per game but surrendered six in a loss to Chaparral and four in each game that they’ve tied this season.
To get their first win of the year, the Spartans decided that a viable defense was to put together an aggressive offense. They put 16 shots on net in the first period alone and continued that trend in the second. Through the first two periods, the Spartans had totaled 39 shots on goal, getting six of them by Kadets (0-4) goalie Brecken Douglass.
“The more shots you put on, the more chance you have to score,” Doherty coach Ryan Morin said. “Moving guys around and telling them to attack and having a team that we can that against was good for us. We’ve played a lot of top teams early in the season where we had trouble with that.”
Marek Kwiatkowski and Boein Miller netted early goals for the Spartans in the first, giving them a lead that they would never relinquish.
Alex Flat got the Kadets on the board with just over three minutes left in the period to cut the lead and half and seize some momentum, but the Spartans got it right back as Maguire Lind netted a short hander less than three minutes into the second period.
“We needed it,” Lind said. “It got the momentum going for our team. The first period wasn’t great for us and the second period we picked it back up.”
From there, it looked like Doherty was in complete control. Josh Gokey, Chase Chapman and Cavan Moehring all found the net to give the Spartans a seemingly insurmountable lead going into the final 17 minutes of the game.
Two power play opportunities in the first five minutes of the period gave the Kadets a prolonged man advantage, but they couldn’t capitalize on the opportunities. Overall, Doherty goalie Spencer Lehmkuhl faced XX shots and turned away all but one of them. This is the first game this season that he has faced fewer than 40 shots.
“(Our defenders) were just keeping them on the outside,” Lehmkuhl said. “They weren’t allowing them to make their way toward the net.”
This win for Doherty in their early-season battle for positions in the Class 5A South League. A tie against Chaparral served as a bit of a confidence booster but getting that first win of the year is always a good way to build momentum, especially with the winter break on the horizon. The Kadets are one of two teams in the 4A North League (Mullen being the other) that has yet to register a point in the standings this season.
They’ll head back to Sertich on Saturday to take on Palmer in their last game before heading into the break. The Spartans also have one more game on the slate as they host 5A No. 5 Valor Christian on the Olympic rink at the Broadmoor World Arena on Saturday.
“The momentum that we got here, we’re going to hit the ice tonight for practice,” Morin said. “The momentum that we have and the energy that we have in the locker room right now will really help us on Saturday.”