The Parkland ice hockey team had size in numbers, and used that as an edge. Freedom just did not have the numbers to throw out onto the ice at the Trojans.

With nine healthy skaters, including their goalie, the Patriots could not even rotate two full shifts.

Even with those low numbers, Freedom (5-10 overall) kept the game close until the last half of the final period.

Trailing just 2-1 midway through the third period, all of those minutes of ice time may have finally caught up to the Patriots.

Parkland (12-0-1 in league games) scored four goals in the last eight minutes to win 6-1 last Friday night at Lehigh Valley Ice Arena.

"We knew Freedom was down a couple of players," said Trojan head coach Matt Chandik. "We felt that we would have a good shot late in the game to win because we had a couple of different lines to throw at them. I think they wore down because of that."

A big reason behind the Patriots good start was the play of goaltender Jarrett Ballister. Ballister made 67 saves, stopping 67 of 73 shots that the Trojans put on net.

"We put up 73 shots on Jarrett [Ballister] and they were still in it until the very end," said Chandik. "We started putting more traffic in front of him and making him move around more. That proved to be the difference."

The teams would go scoreless in the opening period, and then trade goals in the second before Parkland took the lead with a goal from Andrew Loomis.

Ben Zager opened the scoring just 25 seconds into the second period, but Brendan Driscoll tied it up with a goal of his own, his 19th of the season which is third-best in the league.

In the final period, the Trojans opened it up. With three or four full lines to throw at the Patriots, Parkland found the net four times. Zager tallied two, and Connor Breinich and Timmy Doe each contributed one a piece to put the game away.

The win comes one night after a tough nonleague loss to North Penn.

"It was good because we didn't have a lot of time to sit back and think about that one," said Chandik. "The kids just wanted to get back out there and taste victory again."

The Trojans have games remaining against Southern Lehigh and Northampton before playoffs begin in early March.