By Jeff Nelson
Special to The Washington Post
Saturday, February 2, 2008

Second-ranked Bullis is skating proof that depth at the high school level of hockey is overrated.

Playing with six skaters -- one line of five, plus one sub -- for almost all of last night's game against No. 3 Landon, the Bulldogs earned an 8-6 win at Rockville Ice Arena to remain undefeated.

Bullis (9-0) has two victories against Landon and one win apiece against No. 4 Georgetown Prep and No. 7 DeMatha. In all of its games against top competition, the Bulldogs employ the same six-man strategy. It's clearly working.

"We got skill," said Bullis junior Alec Helman, who had three goals and two assists last night. "Those five [starters], we just give it our all. We know what we're capable of and we just go out and do it."

Asked why he uses so few players, Bullis Coach Bobby Poulin said: "We have a small school. We don't have a whole lot of depth. Most of the guys on the bench have never played hockey before. When we play teams where we're winning big, [bench players] get ice time and I set up some [junior varsity] games for them. But you got to do what you got to do.

"When I took over here five years ago, I basically took a basketball mentality. Nobody questions it when they do it in basketball. Everybody questions it when you do it in ice hockey."

The Bulldogs came out flying against the Bears (12-7), scoring four straight goals in the first 10 minutes.

Landon answered with three consecutive goals and twice came within one of Bullis. But even as the Bulldogs tired -- and make no mistake, the players said, they get extremely tired -- the Bears couldn't beat Bullis goalie Mike Band (40 saves) for a tying goal.

"It must be frustrating for the other teams," said Bullis junior Nick Sorkin, who had two goals and three assists, "because we play with seven guys [including the goalie] the entire time. I don't know how we do it."

No. 2 Bullis 8 No. 3 Landon 6

Do It Again? : These two teams could meet twice more, first in the Interstate Athletic Conference tournament and then in the Mid-Atlantic Prep Hockey League playoffs.

For the Book: Landon junior David Mann had two goals and three assists. Bullis senior Steven Burke totaled two goals and two assists.