Austin Packers boys hockey team falls to Rochester John Marshall 7-1 Thursday night

The Austin Packers boys hockey team was looking to get on the winning track at Riverside Arena Thursday night versus Big 9 Conference rival Rochester John Marshall, but it was the Rockets cracking the game wide open with five second period goals on their way to a 7-1 win.

JM took a 1-0 lead at 11:25 of the first period as with Austin’s Matthew Phanchan in the penalty box for tripping, Brock Clarey redirected a shot from Mason Decker past Packer netminder Ethan Knox, and goals from leading point-getter Ole Fevold and Damon Miller at 1:23 and 2:27 of the second period boosted John Marshall’s lead to 3-0.  A goal from Camden Williams at 4:46 of the period made the score 4-0 in favor of the Rockets, but Austin then gained a bit of momentum when sophomore forward Grady Carney cut JM’s lead to 4-1 with a goal at 6:50 of the period, with assists to Wyatt Thoma and Gahvin Schaefer.  The Rockets took momentum back with another power-play goal at 13:12 from Clarey, his second of the game to give JM a 5-1 lead, and Fevold tallied his second goal of the game with only :31 seconds left in the period to make the score 6-1, followed by an unassisted tally from Michael Greiner at 12:01 of the third period to account for the 7-1 final.

The Rockets outshot the Packers in the game by a margin of 46-24, and JM was 2-5 on the power play, while Austin was 0-4.  Ethan Knox made 39 saves in net for the Packers, while John Marshall netminder Cody Vlasaty turned aside 23 of the 24 shots he faced to earn the win between the pipes.

With the loss, Austin is now 0-3 in the Big 9 Conference and 0-5 overall on the season, and the Packers are now off until Thursday, December 22nd when they will play host to Farimont in a non-conference game, with face-off scheduled for 7:15 p.m. that evening.