Despite a late-night faceoff time of 10:40 p.m., the Oakton Cougars 6-2 victory over Stone Bridge High School on Friday enjoyed a rowdy crowd at the Ashburn Ice House in a game that went past midnight, not typical of high school sporting events.
“The hockey guys play early and late,” said Cougars’ head coach John Alexa. “That’s just what the schedule was. It's just the reality of the availability of the ice. I knew the guys were antsy to get started, though, with it being such a late start.”
Teams in the Northern Virginia Scholastic Hockey League often have to play at odd times because the locations of their games are not on school campuses, thus forcing them to fit in games in whenever commercial skating facilities have openings.
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Stone Bridge came out aggressive, posting a 2-0 lead early in the second period before a power play and a shorthanded goal late in the second period gave the Cougars a 3-2 lead going into the third. Catching up with the flow of the game, Oakton scored a goal on the very first shift of the third period to take a 4-2 lead.
“In the third period there we just stuck with our game plan,” Alexa said. “They're one of the top teams in the whole league, and we knew we were in for a challenge. It was a blue-collar effort. We just wanted to get pucks in deep with them, get in the trenches and get physical. Then we scored twice late in the third to seal the win.”
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Oakton out-shot Stone Bridge 35-26 as their strong defensive effort and 24 saves from goalie Jack Owens wore the Stone Bridge players down throughout the game.
Dustin Ward-Dahl scored two goals and two assists, while teammate Joseph Cochran also picked up a goal and two assists to lead the Cougars offensively. Oakton finished the game committing five penalties to Stone Bridge’s four.
“It was a big win, especially after our setback last week,” said Alexa referring to their tough defeat at the hands of Bishop Ireton, during which they almost pulled off a late game comeback.
The victory improves Oakton to 4-2 overall on the season. They get a one-week break from NVSHL action before returning to the Ashburn Ice House on Jan. 28 to face Loudoun County/Fredericksburg Christian HS.