D’town West returns to final

HAVERFORD » A stifling defensive effort for the game’s first two periods gave Downingtown West’s offense enough time to come through with a pair of early thirdperiod goals, as they topped Boyertown 4-2 to advance to return to the Flyers Cup final for the second straight season.

The Whippets will face No. 3 Perkiomen Valley, a 5-4 winner over Haverford in the opening tilt of the evening at the Skatium, on Tuesday at Ice Line.

Last year, the Whippets dropped the Flyers Cup final to archrival Downingtown West.

Matt Flinn scored twice for D-West, while Charlie Cliggett added a goal and two helpers.

D-West started their run to the finals with victories last week over Pennsbury and North Penn.

West appears to be hitting its stride at the perfect time, especially defensively. They limited Boyertown to only seven shots in the first two periods in supporting goalie

Anthony Cuba’s 11-save effort. The Whippets dominated shots on goal by a 43-13 margin.

“We knew (Boyertown’s Owen) Yancey was a fantastic goaltender,” said DTown West Coach Ryan Smith, “and we figured it’d take at least 40 shots (to win).”

The first period, played decisively in D-Town’s favor, paid off when Zak Spero and Charlie Cliggett struck about 90 seconds apart to give the hosts a 2-0 lead at intermission.

The scoreless second period featured a couple power plays for each side, with Cuba making perhaps his best stop of a Jackson Novak snap shot in the first few minutes.

Downingtown West put it out of reach when Matt Flinn and Charlie Cliggett connected twice within 55 seconds in the early third period to double their lead. For Flinn, they were his fifth and sixth goals of the Flyers Cup tournament.

Adam

Harman responded for the Bears at 14:41 of the period, his third goal of the Flyers Cup. With exactly seven minutes to play, a Boyertown powerplay led to a Novak strike on a feed from Harman to make the final minutes a bit less comfortable for the Whippets.

But the Whippets defense was just too much.

“In some ways, it’s tougher facing so few shots,” admitted Cuba. “But if I stay focused, I can relax as well.”

The 12 seniors on the DWest roster are on a mission, and they say it doesn’t end with Wednesday night.

“We plan to be raising that trophy on Tuesday night,” said Matt Flinn.