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It was a long ride to the opposite corner of the state Feb. 23 for The Woodstock Academy boys’ hockey team.
The late night was worth it.
The Centaurs downed the Housatonic-Northwestern-Wamogo cooperative 5-3 to raise their record to 8-10 on the season and guarantee themselves a Division II state tournament berth.
“It was a big one,” Centaurs coach Mike Starr said. “It was important to get to that milestone. I don’t think a lot of people realize how young our team is this year and to see them compete with teams that are loaded with seniors makes the coaches very happy.”
The game-winner came off the stick of Jake Starr in the third period.
Jake Starr positioned himself in front of the Mountaineers net and got the puck that he was looking for. Defenseman Ryan Wojciechowski rifled one in from the blue line and Starr was able to re-direct it into the net for his seventh goal of the season to put the Centaurs ahead to stay.
Avery Riva added the insurance goal later in the period, his eighth of the season, and second of the game.
“It was great to see Avery get his scoring touch back. I think he had been a little snakebit,” Mike Starr said.
According to the Centaurs coach, the second tally by Riva was the nicer of the two. Jake Black made a long outlet pass that found Riva’s stick for the breakaway goal.
Matt Odom scored the first goal for the Centaurs who found themselves down, 2-1, at the end of the first period.
The Centaurs forged ahead in the second on goals by Guerin Favreau, his eighth of the season, and Riva’s first tally.
Dylan Shea made 20 saves in net.
Centaurs fall short
Tom Catsam had only scored one goal this season coming into the Centaurs boys’ hockey game Feb. 20 against the East Haven-Old Saybrook-Old Lyme-East Hampton cooperative.
The junior doubled his season output against the Yellowjackets.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to carry the Centaurs to the victory.
The East Haven cooperative scored their second win over the Centaurs in less than a week, 4-2, at the Jahn Ice Rink in Pomfret.
“It was really fun,” Catsam said of his two goals in a varsity contest. “I don’t get much playing time so I was trying to make the most out of what I get.”
Mike Starr had seen Catsam play very well in a junior varsity game against Auburn, Mass. the week before and, with a couple of players out, decided to give him some more ice time.
It was a sound decision.
East Haven took the early lead when Joe Consiglio put a shot from the point just under the left blocker of Shea just 52 seconds into the game.
“We saw them a week earlier and we scored kind of a long goal there at home against them so we came in with the game plan of putting everything to the net and play for some rebounds if they didn’t go in,” East Haven coach Lou Pane said.
Catsam tied the game up with 2:17 left in the first period when he converted a pass from Favreau from behind the net. Goalie Matt Twarowski went to his knees when the puck came out front and Catsam flicked it over the top.
But East Haven regained the lead 5 ½ minutes into the second period when Joe Pappacoda popped one in from long range.
With just 55 seconds left in the period, Catsam tied the game again.
Favreau sent the puck in from the point where it found the stick of Connor Starr. His shot was blocked by Twarowski but the rebound came out to Catsam who poked it home.
But Consiglio’s second goal of the game with 9:32 left put the Yellowjackets (8-6-1) up 3-2.
The Academy was forced to pull Shea with just over a minute left in the game to try and get the tying goal.
On the Centaurs first shot with the 6-on-5 advantage, the puck bounced out to center ice where East Haven’s Zach Paquin put his stick out and guided it down the ice into the empty net to account for the final.
The Centaurs finished up the regular season with a game on Monday (which finished too late for this edition). The conference and state tournaments beckon.
“I would match us up with just about anybody in the first round. If we play our game, 45 minutes of hockey, we can beat just about anybody in Division II. Unfortunately, I don’t think we will get into the top eight so we’re going to be on the road for the first round. That’s fine,” Mike Starr said.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
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