HATFIELD—There was no better time than Wednesday night for Pennsbury to get out of a funk. Having lost their last three SHSHL Class AA divisional games games, the Falcons needed to make a statement.

Which they did. Three first-period goals propelled Pennsbury to a 5-2 win over Central Bucks East in a game the Falcons (9-5-1, 5-5-1 in the division) needed badly to stake a claim on a berth in both the SHSHL playoffs and the Flyers Cup tournament. Simply put, there was no margin for error.

Ben Dous, Pennsbury’s captain, had no difficulty articulating the significance of the win. “It’s big,” he said. “We hit a rough patch and it was great. We came out here and I thought we played really well.”

Dous got things started during a power play at the 6:45 mark of the first period when he launched a shot from the high slot that Shane Siegmond tipped past East goaltender Chris McIntyre. Erik Eisler made it a 2-0 game on another power-play effort at 11:39 and Beau Brusulis-Edman added an even-strength goal at 13:55 to put the Patriots (9-4-1-1, 6-4-1-1 in the division) further back on their heels

“We dug ourselves a hole,” said East assistant coach Mike Capps. “Credit Pennsbury, they played their butts off. They played us right, They chipped it by us and went on odd-man breaks. They had a man coming in late because our center wasn’t picking up. They played well, they were well-coached tonight, they deserved to win.”

Joe Machlovitz scored the only goal of the second frame at the 7:37 mark and he and his mates appeared to have things well in hand.

In the third period however, the Patriots’ Sean Gorman made things interesting by scoring his 25th goal of the season off a turnover at the 5:18 mark, He added a second goal with 4:12 left in regulation that forced the Falcons to pay attention down the stretch but Dous added an insurance goal into an empty net with 22 seconds to go.

Pennsbury coach Ryan Daley feels his team is back on the right track. We definitely went through a lull there,” he said, “and I think we got some momentum. I think it started with our game against Truman (last Friday’s Pink Out game, a 7-3 win) and it definitely carried over to tonight.”

Ice Chips—Pennsbury had a 37-28 edge in shots but the Patriots outshot the Falcons 25-18 over the last two periods ...The SHSHL playoffs will be held the week of February 24, the week before the Flyers Cup. Class AA quarterfinal games will be played on Monday the 24th with semifinals in both classes set for Wednesday the 26th. The championship games in both classes will be played the following night.

Pennsbury 3 1 1—5
C.B. East 0 0 2—2
First-period goals: Shane Siegmond (P) from Ben Dous and Beau Bruslius-Yedman, 6:45 (pp); Eric Eisler (P) from Joe Machlovitz and Dous, 11:39 (pp); Bruslius-Edman (P) from Eisler, 13:55.
Second-period goals: Machlovitz (P) from Siegmond, 7:37.
Third-period goals: Sean Gorman (CBE) unassisted, 5:18; Gorman (CBE) from Aiden Schmidt, 11:48; Dous (P) from Bruslius-Yedman, 15:38 (en);
Shots: Pennsbury 37, CBE 28; Saves: Topher Seiler (P) 30; Chris McIntyre (CBE) 32