Friday, Dec. 05, 2008

Shootout win for hockey

By BRIAN HERNALSTEEN

News-Mirror Writer

On the Tuesday night before the Thanksgiving break, the Mansfield Hockey Team was on the ice. In the Nov. 25 matchup, Mansfield (7-3) escaped the Duncanville Dr Pepper Stars Center with a 4-3 shootout win over Coppell.

The win keeps them in fourth place in the AT&T Metroplex High School Hockey League, tied with Flower Mound at 14 points in the division.

Trailing 1-0 after one period of play, Zachary Nuss put Mansfield on the scoreboard with an assist from Jimmy Nemeth. It was Nuss’ 12th goal of the season.

Just a minute later, Nemeth would score and give Mansfield a 2-1 lead. Hunter Woody and Patrick Madigan assisted on Nemeth’s fourth goal of the season.

But unfortunately for the Tigers, Austin Mayrath scored late in the period to tie up the score before the final stanza.

Coppell would take a 3-2 lead in the third period.

But Mansfield scored a power-play goal just a few minutes later to tie it at 3-3. Cameron Varley’s seventh goal of the season was assisted by Nuss and Madigan.

With the scored tied up, the game went to overtime. Neither team scored, and a shootout decided the contest.

Nuss’ goal in the shootout gave Mansfield a 4-3 win.

Aaron Peart was in net for the team, and saved 41 of 44 shots. He is now 3-0 for the season.

The team was in action Thursday night against Frisco.

And just like last year, during the holiday break for the schools, the team will be traveling to Minnesota to take on some high school teams from up north. The team will be on the road Dec. 29-31.