It’s been a learning season for the young and inexperienced Whitman-Hanson boys hockey team, and their most recent lesson is that they are good enough to play with the best in the Patriot League.

The Panthers knocked the defending Patriot League champion Scituate Sailors out of first place with a 4-2 victory on Jan. 25 at Rockland Rink and followed up with a strong effort in a 2-1 loss to the Pembroke Titans at Hobomock Saturday before bouncing back with a 10-2 win over the New Bedford Whalers on Monday.

The winless Whalers weren’t the same level of competition as the two Patriot League powerhouses the Panthers played last week, and they were able get goals from eight different players in the win. Cam MacDonald and Jake Bowen each scored twice for Whitman-Hanson, while AJ Glynn, Anthony Villanueva, Jake Pendrak, Jon Emery, Chris Boussy and George McCafferty all lit the lamp once while Mike Bonavita and Ryan Small split the game in goal.

Bonavita made 25 saves in net in the losing effort on Saturday against the Titans, including 17 in the third period. After losing 6-0 to the Titans earlier in the season, the Panthers played Pembroke even through two periods, but a penalty on Glynn early in the third proved costly as Josh Golden knocked in a rebound for his second goal of with game on the ensuing Titan power play.

“It basically boiled down to that power play,” head coach Rich Manning said. “We were light a few bodies, so we could only run three lines today and we got tired, but everybody in that lineup played their butts off and we’re going to take pride in giving them a fight. It was a dead even game going into the third and we just ran out of gas, but I’m proud as hell of these guys and the hockey team that they have turned into over the past two weeks. Even with our record being what it is, these guys want to get better and they want to compete. It’s a feather in our cap that on back-to-back games we played the cream of the crop in the league and could have won both games. I know they’re going to keep playing like that the rest of the year.”

The Panthers could never regain any momentum after Golden’s goal as the Titans more than doubled their shots on net in the third period with a relentless attack.

Golden gave the Titans the lead in the first period after he knocked the puck free with a hard check on the end boards and fired a wrister over the shoulder of Bonavita less than three minutes into the game. At the other end of the ice, Pembroke goalie Bobby McElligot stymied the Panthers with six saves in the first period, but the Panthers broke through in the second when Boussy scored on a one-timer off a pass from Nick Pike.

“We’re never a team that’s going to pump 40 shots on net, we just don’t have that kind of depth offensively, but we’re doing what we need to do real well,” Manning said.  “Our defensive zone coverage is better, we’re not giving up great chances and our more talented offensive are carrying us while the younger kids get their feet wet.”

Emery also picked up an assist on Boussy’s goal playing on the line in place of Charlie Murphy, who was serving the first of a two-game suspension after getting ejected against the Sailors.

“Jon Emery really stepped up,” Manning said. “He stepped into the first line, and what a game he had.”

Murphy’s ejection came after a dangerous hit in the Scituate game, but it didn’t overshadow the biggest win of the season for the Panthers. Boussy picked up his first hat trick of the season to lead Whitman-Hanson to victory after the team lost 4-1 to Scituate in their first meeting this year.

“[Chris] has six of our last seven goals,” Manning said. “He’s a dynamic player, and our first line carried us. Everybody else won their battles and our goaltending was strong. We were hard to play against.”

The Panthers will try to win back-to-back games for the first time this season when they return to Hobomock to play the Silver Lake Lakers.

“Saturday versus Silver Lake is a huge game and a must win,” Manning said.