Worcester, MA — Saturday was a great day of hockey as both the JV and Varsity teams faced off against the Auburn Rockets as the undercards for the Worcester Railers to take on the Maine Mariners as the main event. Fun fact, former Wachusett Ice Hockey standout, Connor Doherty (Class of 2011), is the Captain of the Maine Mariners and it was a great opportunity to reconnect with him, his friends and family. The varsity team was able to skate away with a 3-1 win over Auburn in the afternoon game. Solid goaltending and good team defense kept Auburn scoreless until the third period and each player on the first line was able to score a goal in the win. At 13:50 of the first period, Wachusett had a faceoff in the Rockets end. Dennis Jardine put a shot right on net off the draw. The puck caromed back to Thomas Willman who put a second shot on net and Parker Meyer was there to knock in the rebound giving Wachusett a 1-0 advantage at the first intermission. At the 7:07 mark of the 2nd period, Sophomore Matt Bjorkman was able to score a rebound goal as well. Meyer passed the puck to Braeden McKenzie at the point who fired a low hard shot through traffic in front. The Auburn goalie made a save and the puck rebounded out to his left where Bjorkman was able to capitalize putting Wachusett up 2-0. Just 22 seconds later, Wachusett had a 2 on 1. Meyer carried the puck across the blue line and dished to Jardine who made a move and shot the puck up off the crossbar. The puck bounced down off the goalie's back and crossed the goal line to put the Mountaineers up 3-0. The first line of Meyer, Jardine and Bjorkman combined for 3 goals and 3 assists in the game. Auburn would score just 38 seconds into the third period to make it interesting. On top of that, Wachusett found itself shorthanded for 7 minutes (1 minor and 1 major) in the third, but was able to kill off the power plays. Braeden McKenzie earned the game puck for his solid defensive effort and repeatedly getting the puck out of our zone. Meyer, Jardine, Xavier McManus, Clark Gardula, Kyle O'Keefe, Thomas Willman, Will Savino, Nick Brousseau and Alec Thibeault all contributed to the PK units and killing off the penalties. Casey Dmochowski had an outstanding performance in net for the Mountaineers stopping 28 of the 29 shots he faced. The team is now 8 and 4 on the season and will host Leominster on Wednesday night at NorthStar. Wachusett beat Leominster 7-0 last time they met.