Ice Hockey dominates DC Stars

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

ROCKVILLE ICE ARENA, Dec. 2—

Blair ice hockey (1-1) beat out the DC Stars with a final score of 9-1 on Friday night. Strong defense, solid goalkeeping, and an explosive offense allowed Blair to gain an early advantage, leading to a big victory.

The first period was scoreless, but Blair managed to put up nine shots on goal while the Stars had five. Junior goalie Michel Devynck was able to protect the net from DC's forwards, who had most of their opportunities in the first period.

The second period started off strong for Blair, with freshman defender Sebastian Rubinstein scoring two goals in a row. Devynck believes that Rubinstein's goal was a pivotal moment in the game. "Definitely the first goal was the turning point," he said. "It gave us momentum."

Junior forwards Rudy Carson, Ryan Henson (Northwood HS), Alex Ortiz, senior Dan Friedman and freshman forward Tynan Wilson (Einstein HS) also scored goals. Assistant coach David Cannon says that this was the first goal for three of his players.

The third period kept Blair in the lead and ended with a last second goal by Wilson that gave Blair an eight-goal win. Blair had many more opportunities than the Stars on the offensive end, finishing the game with 28 shots on goal to DC's 17. The Stars had a smaller team with fewer players on the bench, which also helped give Blair the lead.

Cannon believes that Blair had a good game and played well together, but he still sees room for improvement. "It was more of a team effort than other games," he said. "We have got to work on our positioning. Defense especially." Because the team has many younger players, Cannon also wants to work on training them for the rest of the season. "We have pretty good players. We want to work on developing the young guys."

Devynck echoed Cannon's thoughts. "We've done pretty well so far, it's just a matter of practicing," he said.

Blair ice hockey will play its next home game on December 16.