Severna Park Hockey Team Heating Up On The Ice

Zinsmeister Helps Falcons Get Off On The Right Foot

By Amy Russell
The Severna Park High School boys ice hockey team impressed fans as well as themselves putting up a tough fight against the league’s top team in route to a 5-3 loss to highly touted Kent Island.
Going in, Kent Island had allowed only seven goals in their last five games while pummeling the competition with more than 40 to post a lopsided 8-1 scoring advantage. Severna Park, on the hand, had played closer contests tallying a 3-1-1 record with 21 goals for and 19 against. Despite being a clear underdog in the fight, the Falcons managed to give Kent Island all they could handle.

“Honestly, with what we heard about them going in, I thought we were going to get run oout of the building,” said Adam Zinsmeister, who racked up a goal and two assists. “But I think we surprised ourselves. We played up to our potential tonight, but there’s always room to get better, which we’ll do here on out.”
Kent Island started the scoring just under three minutes into the first period, but a determined Severna Park squad answered back 22 seconds later. Zinsmeister found an open Dylan Bechil, who notched his first goal of the season when he slid the puck under the keeper to tie it at one.
After Kent Island regained the lead five minutes later, the Falcons appeared to be settling in behind some solid defense, but the potent Kent Island attack left no doubt about its superiority scoring two goals ten seconds apart with just under a minute left in the period.

The shorthanded Falcons were given an unexpected boost when Zinsmeister followed his own shot and blasted a quick backhander past the Kent Island goalie to narrow the gap to 4-2. And when the smothering Park defense held Kent Island scoreless for the entire 15-minute period, the stage was set for an action packed final stanza.
The third period opened with fierce intensity and just minutes in Zinsmeister connected with Ben Bouma, who scored the team’s second shorthanded goal of the night to cut the lead to one. Down just 4-3, the re-energized Falcons fought hard for a shot but Kent Island scored with six minutes to go to seal the 5-3 victory - their closest of the year.
“They have really destroyed every other team they played… 5-3 is not bad,” said head coach Chuck Fox afterward.
The game was Severna Park’s first since early December due to the holiday break. “I know I am really out of shape, so I think playing them first thing back from the break was definitely a factor for us,” said Zinsmeister. “But we fore-checked great and crashed the net really well.”
Anchoring Severna Park’s defense, which held Kent Island to its lowest output of the season, senior Mike Campbell finished with a whopping 44 saves.
“I think we surprised ourselves tonight,” said Campbell. “Defensively we did a really nice job. In the first period we definitely had a couple of breakdowns, but we were able to stop their cross-ice path a few times and that was crucial. I think we proved we’re one of the better teams in the league tonight, and I expect us to really bring it to Kent Island in the playoffs.”
In terms of sheer numbers, both squads are on the smaller end of the spectrum in the league, a factor that came to benefit the Falcons. “We only have 11 players and a goalie, so we’re a small team, but we’re doing really well this year,” said Fox. “Even though they are the best team we’ve seen they’re also one of the smallest, so we had the opportunity to wear them out a little bit, which we can’t usually do. We really made them work for it.”