RallyNorth.net

Wed, Jan 23, 2008 07:10 PM @ Timberlane

Team	1	2	3	Final
Alvirne	0	0	0	0
Timberlane	0	0	3	3

Fox trots Owls to seventh-straight win

Thursday, January, 24 By Mike McMahon
Staff writer

SALEM, N.H. | The only thing hotter than the Timberlane Owls right now might be their sophomore center, Zach Fox.

Coming off a four-point game against Bow on Monday, Fox netted two goals just two minutes apart in the third period to lift the Owls to a 3-0 win over Alvirne, their seventh win in a row. Fox now has nine goals on the year.

"I sort of issued Foxy a little challenge last week," said Timberlane head coach Andrew Merrick, whose team improved to 10-3 on the season. "I just told him that I thought he could play a little better. I didn't think he was playing bad, but I knew he could be better. I'm happy to see him picking up his play. The last two nights, he's really carried us offensively."

The Owls looked sluggish in the first period, snapping just six shots on Alvirne goaltender Cory Kolden amidst neutral-zone turnovers and breakouts that were broken up before the Owls hit center ice.

The early minutes of the second period were much of the same, but Timberlane enjoyed three power plays, and totalled 13 shots. However, the game remained scoreless thanks to big saves from both ends of the ice.

While the Owls enjoyed their time with the man-advantage, the Broncos had two power plays of their own which resulted in numerous chances at the top of the crease. But Timberlane goaltender Ryan Rothwell made numerous point-blank stops late in the second, including a flurry with 45 seconds left.

Rothwell also made a beautiful stop on a breakaway by Tom Cummings with 2:28 left in the second period to keep the game scoreless.

"Wow, he made some big saves at big times," Merrick said. "In the first and second period, we were struggling and he really kept us in it. He made some breakaway saves that really kept us in the game. If those pucks go in, we might be talking about a different game.

"But, he's been that way all year for us. He absolutely deserved the shutout tonight."

In the third period, Fox, and the rest of the Owls, flipped a switch.

Fox netted his first of the game at the 4:28 mark, swooping in from the left-wing boards before firing a wrist shot over the top of Kolden. Junior winger Trevor DeVitto extended the lead to two goals 1:43 later, pounding home the rebound off a Nathan Morrill blast from the point. Fox tacked on his second of the game 27 seconds after that, when he blew past Alvirne's two defenseman and raced in alone on a breakaway before lifting the puck past Kolden.

"We didn't really change strategy at the end of the second, I told them that we needed to just work harder," Merrick said. "When we don't work hard, we're a very average team, and that's what was happening in the first two periods. In the third, we just worked a lot harder, won the battles to loose pucks, kept control of the pucks that we had, and we finished our chances. We had more control of the puck, and settled things down for us."