Original Article

WENTZVILLE — Timberland forward Dominic Palazzola has a set pregame routine.

“Me and my line mates (Trevor York and Gavin Peimann) come out as a line and just get game ready,” Palazzola said. “We just talk, hang out and get ready to play.”

That ritual seems to be working.

Palazzola continued his torrid scoring streak with a hat trick to lead Timberland to a 6-1 win over Francis Howell North in a Mid-States Club Hockey Association St. Charles Division game at the Wentzville Ice Rink on Friday night.

Palazzola, a 5-foot-10 sophomore, has seven goals in his last two games and leads the Wolves with 17 goals this season.

“What I'm seeing from our team in general and Dominic's taking the most advantage of it, is we've been pushing the puck up the ice,” Timberland coach Jeff Hanne said. “We've made the simple plays that we've been asked to make all year. They’re finally buying in and we're getting some success with it.”

Corey Warden scored and had two assists and Trevor Peimann had a goal and an assist. Tyler Powell also scored for Timberland (6-8-1). Grant Chapman made 16 saves in goal.

Brandon Emert scored and Max Bante made 31 saves for Howell North (4-11-1).

Despite a 16-6 shot advantage for Timberland in the game’s first 15 minutes, both teams emerged from the first frame tied at 1-1.

Palazzola gave Timberland the lead at 3 minutes, 46 seconds by scoring on a backhander off a feed from Parker Myers.

Emert evened the game for Howell North with 19 seconds left in the opening frame after Matthew Wells found him in front from behind the net.

Emert had a chance to put the Knights ahead early in the second, drawing a penalty shot after being pulled down on a breakaway. But he hit the post after a slick backhand-forehand combination.

“If we get that shot you know morale’s a little bit different,” Howell North coach Chris Peak said. “Maybe it's something that we can capitalize on, hold on to the game. You know when they get that second one, the game’s a little bit tougher at that point you're clawing back again.”

Both goalies made tough saves early in the second to keep it deadlocked before Timberland took control with three goals in a span of 3:30.

Hanne said the Wolves’ chemistry showed after giving up the late first-period goal.

“Last year's team would have imploded on a thing like that, this year's team has more resiliency,” Hanne said. “These kids are really tight and we work together, we don't get down on each other.”

Powell got the Wolves going after his shot found its way through traffic with 8:13 left in the second.

Palazzola took care of the next two, making it 3-1 with 5:54 left and scoring on a breakaway 63 seconds later.

“We were just getting on the pucks, getting strong passes to the tape and getting them to net,” Palazzola said.

Chapman made sure the lead held up with a brilliant pad save to deny Howell North’s Aiden Stowers on a breakaway early in the third period and he stopped Stowers again on another quality chance a minute later.

“It just kind of makes me happy to believe that I can back up the team and make the saves and keep us in the game,” Chapman said.

Timberland capitalized on Chapman’s play with goals from Trevor Peimann and Warden later in the third.

“Tonight, it was mostly just kind of inconsistency,” Peak said. “I thought we had some good spurts early in the game, but as the game went on, a hard-nosed team we played against, I just thought they wanted it a little bit more than we did.”