Last Friday, January 4th, the Hilliard Wildcats faced off against the Pickerington Prowlers.  The Wildcat’s varsity roster features two Jonathan Alder forwards in #94, senior Joey Dubosh and #22, senior Isaac Lee.  However, Jonathan Alder defender #12, senior Declan Costello, missed Friday’s game due to injury.

The first period was slow with no goals at the end, and only a few penalties.  Then, at the beginning of the second period, the Prowlers went on a power play and #97 Tanner Sabau capitalized by scoring the opening goal, making it 1-0 in favor of the Prowlers.  Almost immediately after, the Wildcats came charging back and John Pastirzyk evened the game up at 1 all. As the game went on it got more physical and both Jonathan Alder players can be credited with some decent hits away from the walls.

The score remained tied until the 3rd period where at the 15 minute mark Wildcat, Kaeden Boyd scored the go ahead goal to make it 2-1 for the Wildcats.  It only took two minutes for Hilliard to expand upon their lead when Ryan Mayr put away the 3rd goal for the Wildcats. The goals stopped coming for the Wildcats until the 3 minute mark when Kyle Heidtman scored making it 4-1.  In the final minute of the game Jonathan Alder forward Isaac Lee scored the final goal of the game allowing the Wildcats to beat the Prowlers 5-1. This was Lee’s 6th point of the season.

Senior Issac Lee takes the puck down the ice.

Part of the team’s success is because of good cohesion between the players.  As Lee said, “All season we’ve been working on trying to get lines that click well together and I think we’re finally at a point where we have all four strong lines. So, we can get the puck low, make good crisp passes and put pucks on net.”  Team chemistry is important for a team like Hilliard where the players don’t all go to the same school.

The Hilliard team plays in the OSHL (Ohio Scholastic Hockey League).  The goal of the OSHL is to provide high school level hockey to players whose schools don’t have a hockey program of their own.  Though the team plays in the OSHL there would be some benefits to playing in the OHSAA. Dubosh said, ”When we play against those teams, in like, exhibition, I feel like it makes us improve.”

While there are some added bonuses for playing in the OHSAA, both players said they would rather play on Hilliard’s team than for the school to make a Jonathan Alder hockey team.   

The Hilliard Wildcats are playing well this season with a 7-7-2 record and are currently ranked 3rd in the OHSL varsity division.  Between the posts, #30 Jonathan Szekeres has the lowest goals against average in the league and the second highest save percentage.

For those interested the Wildcat’s next game is against the Northeast Storm on January 11th.  Puck drops at 6:30 at the Chiller North in Lewis Center.