On Friday, January 8, in their most highly anticipated game of the season, the Harriton boys’ ice hockey team faced off against their rival, the Lower Merion Aces. Every Harriton-LM game is notable, but this game was special.

Ever since the combined Harriton-LM team split up years ago, the Aces have defeated the Rams in every single confrontation. This time, however, the Rams were certain of their superiority going into the game. They set out to prove it in a game that would not be easy, but would be historical.

LM showed early on that they would not go down without a fight, scoring their first goal less than a minute after the game began. This did not faze Harriton: The Rams fought back even harder, and it paid off a few minutes later when Will DeVerter tied the game with a goal off of a rebound.

Although both sides continued to struggle for control, Harriton dominated the rest of the period, with Nick Wert adding two goals to their tally, and the period ended with the Rams leading 3-1.

Harriton’s onslaught did not let up in the second period. Even when the Rams went short-handed after a penalty, Skyler Thomas was still able to score a goal on a breakaway. Soon after that, Sam Kirby followed up with a goal of his own, making the score 5-1 by the halfway mark of the second period.

This left the previously confident LM team angry and their fan section silent. The Aces channeled their anger into scoring one more goal in the period, but as the game entered its third period, the Rams were up 5-2 and were ready to make history.

With a comfortable lead, Harriton chose to focus less on offense in the final period and more on ensuring that LM did not score the three goals necessary to tie the game. This strategy proved to be effective. The Aces were only able to score one goal in the entire period.

As the game’s time struck zero, the final score was 5-3 in favor of Harriton, marking the first time in history that the Rams had defeated the Aces on the ice.  

There was an all-around great team effort that produced five goals, but the real star of the game was at the other end of the ice. Goalie Alex Krauss faced 35 shots in the game and saved 32 of them. Without this stellar performance, there would have been no victory for Harriton.

The Rams look to capitalize on the momentum from this win through the rest of their season, which includes another matchup with Lower Merion.