Boys' Hockey: Wednesday's Wins and Losses (12/14)

I don't think I predicted a single game wrong.  Also, a lot of shut-outs in the big time games; can partially be credited to the fact that this was the first game of the season for all these new teams.

Simsbury 1 @ South Windsor 4
-Exactly what I expected here, encouraging for Simsbury that they scored a goal though.  Simsbury host North Haven on Saturday while South Windsor will play in a marquee game at Fairfield Prep on the same day.

North Haven 0 @ Xavier 1
-Some excitement in Middletown on opening night, Jack Gethings scored a powerplay top shelf goal with 3:16 left in the entire game to win the game for Xavier.  Credit Bryan Stanton with the assist.  Shane Baldwin had 22 saves in his shutout performance while Mike Amarone made 23 saves for North Haven.  XAvier will go out to Notre Dame-Fairfield this Saturday to face what is always a solid team and North Haven goes up to Simsbury on Saturday where both teams will be looking for their first win of the season.

Darien 0 @ Hamden 2
-Another low-scoring game on opening night in which both goalies played very well.  Andy Varga had 27 saves and the shutout for Hamden while Max Rothston saved 28 shots for Darien but Tyler Carangelo got one by him late in the first period off a Joe O'Connor pass.  Bill Reilly also scored for Hamden with 7 seconds left in the game with Brandon Dadio and Jeremy Germain picking up assists.  Darien can't feel too bad about this performance at all.  Hamden has a week to work on things a bit before traveling to Amity (rink in West Haven though) next Wednesday in what could be a very good game while Darien will play at West Haven (same rink Amity uses, Bennett Rink) this upcoming Saturday, which also looks to be a good game.

New Canaan 0 @ Notre Dame-West Haven 3
-The Green Knights scored one in every period to beat the team that finished last season and FCIAC tournament undefeated.  Casey Hoban scored in the first assisted by Anthony Astorino and Ryan Lynch, Greg Zullo in the second courtesy of Colby Cretella and Billy Vizzo and then Vizzo picked up his second assist of the game in the third when Cretella himself scored and Zullo also assisted on that goal.  Goalie Paul Sliwinki had 17 saves and New Canaan's Chris Koennecke had 19.  ND-WH host Greenwich this Saturday while New Canaan has the weekend off and travels to Darien on Monday in what should be a very good game.

St. Joseph 2 @ Glastonbury 6
-Strong performance by Glastonbury who will look to keep on rolling with this momentum at Ridgefield on Saturday.  St. Joseph needs to shake off the loss before they travel out to Guilford on Saturday night, a big game on their schedule after losing to Guilford, a DII team that was undefeated for quite a while, last year.

Cheshire 7 @ Conard 3
-Cheshire making exactly the statement they had to in their opener and quieting some of the doubters.  Beating Conard won't win them a DI title or even guarentee they will make the playoffs but a win of this magnitude against a mid-level DI team puts Cheshire exactly where they want to be right now during their first year in DI, 1-0.   They have another game against an even better DI team, East Haven, this Saturday at home (Wesleyan's Spurrier-Snyder Rink in Middletown).  Conard travels to Trinity Catholic this weekend.

Staples/Weston/Shelton 6 @ Newington/Berlin 2
-That's the kind of win a newly christened DII needs to come away with against an old colleague from DIII.  After a week break, S-W-S takes on DII Lyman Hall, a decent team for DII sitting at 1-0 right now after a 5-1 win against a DIII team in their opener.  N-B will again face a DII team this Saturday, big-time rival and legitimate player in DII this year, Wethersfield.

Fairfield Prep 3 @ Ridgefield 0
-The game of the day did not disappoint as fans got to see some very good hockey in the first period.  Both goalies were on their game and neither team could score.  Prep really stepped it up when they were down 2 men for 72 seconds but did not allow Ridgefield to score at all.  In the second period is was the same old Prep we are used to, striking three times and out shooting the Tigers 13-2.  Conor Peterson scored first for the Jesuits by deflecting a shot by Sean Henry from the blue line.  A few minutes later Tom Worsfold scored the rebound from Connor Henry's shot and then Sean Henry scored on a breakaway with 9:03 left in the period.  Nate Gliedman still had 35 saves in goal for Ridgefield while Riley Wikman only need 17 saves to secure the shutout and win for Prep.  Ridgefield now plays host to Glastonbury on Saturday, a game they will need to be ready to play hard in and Prep moves from a top team in the FCIAC to a top in the CCC as South Windsor comes to the Wonderland of Ice on Saturday seeking revenge for last year's 0-7 blowout at South Windsor Arena.

12/15 add-in:

St. Joseph 2 @ Glastonbury 6

St. Joseph 1 1 0 — 2

Glastonbury 1 3 2 — 6

Scoring:
1st—SJ: Zach Usinger (Christian Keator, Matt Julian) 10:22; G: Ethan Holdaway (Drew Mozzer) 12:11; 2nd—G: Drew Mozzer (Ethan Holdaway) :22; Ethan Holdaway 1:00; SJ: Dominic DeRosa 11:53; G: Avery Clair (Drew Mozzer) 13:59; 3rd—G: Drew Mozzer (Ethan Holdaway) :16; Drew Mozzer (Conor Thompson, Ethan Holdaway) 11:07;

Shots—SJ: 28; G: 43;

Saves—SJ: Ron Johnson 37; G: Chase Gabor 26;

S-W-S 6 @ N-B 2

Staples-Weston-Shelton 2 3 1 - 6

Newington-Berlin 0 1 1 - 2 

Scoring:
1st-S-W-S: Aaron Liu (Jack Mendillo, Eric Zurmuehle) 2:59; Wyatt Fern (Matt Weisgerber, Sean Steward) 14:46; 2nd-S-W-S: Sean Steward (Aaron Liu) 5:15; Aaron Liu (Mike Lynch) 12:04; N-B: Brendon Richard (Nick Briganti, Brandon Ralph) 13:05; S-W-S: Aaron Liu (Liam O’Leary) 14:34; 3rd-S-W-S: Liam O’Leary (Tom Meyers) 4:14; N-B: Brendon Richard (Tyler Mangiasico, Mike Davies) 14:57;

Shots-S-W-S: 23; N-B: 19;

Saves-S-W-S: Riley MacDonald 17; N-B: Drew O’Leary 17