Blair qualifies for playoffs with win over Magruder

The Blair Community ice hockey team is not affiliated or sponsored by the Montgomery Blair High School athletic program or Montgomery County Public Schools. The team is an independent group of Blair students.

Feb. 4- Blades Ice Rink

Eight seconds into the Blair Community Ice Hockey's game against Magruder, senior Brad Gee slipped the puck past the Magruder goalkeeper and Blair never looked back as they soared to a 10-5 victory. With this win, Blair will qualify for the playoffs for the first time in the team's history.

Blair's offense was in high gear as they generated their highest goal total of the season, which propelled them to the playoff clinching victory as their record improved to 5-3 overall and 3-2 in their conference. Blair's first line of Gee, senior Neal Vasilak and freshman Julian Shapiro led the team as the trio combined for nine goals and routinely provided the team with a needed spark.

The first period was all Blair as they went ahead 3-0 on the early goals by Gee and Shapiro, who netted his first hat trick of the season. Vasilak would also score mid-way through the period. Meanwhile, Magruder struggled to produce an offensive threat, as they didn't get a shot on goal until the 13:40 mark.

Blair's offense was boosted by the presence of Vasilak who scored four goals and had two assists. The majority of his goals were unassisted as he skated through multiple defenders and then faked out the goalkeeper. Vasilak troubled the Magruder defense all night with his quick skating and pinpoint passing.

Blair's success continued as the second period began with a power play goal by Vasilak. However, Magruder would show some signs of life as they answered with their own power play goals after Vasilak was called for tripping. The teams would trade goals again as senior Luke Hanlein would answer less than two minutes later as he scored off a rebound, which was answered by a Magruder goal after a breakdown in the defense. However, the three-goal deficit was as close as Magruder would get for the rest of the night.

Blair suffered a small scare as Magruder scored two unanswered goals with five minutes left in the game to bring the score to 8-5. But then, Gee and Vasilak would resettle the team as the two scored back-to-back brilliant unassisted goals. The game would end a bit sloppy as both teams got several penalties, including a misconduct on junior defensemen Lee Shields for a hard hit that got him ejected from the game.

The defense also played well for Blair as they only gave-up two goals in the first two periods. Senior goalkeeper Graham Mathews played a strong game making 21 saves and a couple spectacular glove-hand grabs. Sophomore Robbie Ginsberg played for most of the third period and made eight saves. He had little chance of saving the three goals scored on him and did make several one on one saves.

Blair now has one more regular season game against Springbrook on Friday, Feb. 11 at Wheaton Ice rink before they enter their first playoffs. Blair needed to beat Magruder otherwise they would've had to beat a tough Springbrook squad to qualify for the playoffs.