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Hockey Captains
Left to right: Senior captain Austen LeDonne (1 goal); junior alternate captain Guerin Favreau (5 goals) and senior captain Doug Newton (3 assists) all played large roles in Woodstock Academy’s 7-1 win over Northeastern last week. Photo courtesy of The Woodstock Academy.
The second period has been the nemesis for the Woodstock Academy boys’ hockey team.
So much so that in the first five games, the Centaurs had not gone into the third period with the lead this season.
That, fortunately, changed in the only game of the New Year’s week against the Northeastern Shamrocks.
The Centaurs rolled into the third period with a four-goal advantage and posted a 7-1 win at the Bolton Ice Palace.
It brought Woodstock Academy back to the break-even mark of 3-3.
“You evaluate every game, but you kind of compartmentalize and after five games, a quarter of the season, it really wasn’t looking good,” said Centaurs coach Kevin Bisson. “Inconsistent, undisciplined play, just not where we wanted to be when you look at the big picture. Looking at the opponents in those first five games, it was also a nice mix. It wasn’t like we played five No. 1 teams or five at the bottom, it was a good mix. It gave us a full picture of what we looked like and it wasn’t good.”
The second five got off to a much better start with the win over Northeastern (0-3).
The Centaurs made things happen early.
Junior Guerin Favreau scored the first goal of the game, 6:08 into the opening period off an assist from Zack Girard.
Jake Starr followed five minutes later with his fourth goal in the last four games, taking a pass from Doug Newton, the first of his three assists, and putting into the net with 3:44 left in the period.
The good start was made even better by the defense which held Northeastern scoreless in the opening period, something the Centaurs have also had troubles with this season.
“I told the kids, we can say we’ve had good starts, but please don’t think that’s true. In the first game of the season, we scored on our first shift and then, the (Eastern Connecticut) Eagles score on the second shift. That’s not a good start. We scored on the first shift against (Suffield), it didn’t matter much in the end result (a 5-3 loss),” Bisson said.
The good times continued to open the second period when Favreau made it 3-0 just 1 minute, 7 seconds after the break ended when Newton beat the Northeastern defense, pulled the goalie to the post and Favreau set up on the other. Newton got the puck to his linemate for the one-timer into the back of the net.
Northeastern followed just a minute later with a goal of its own, but Favreau reestablished the three-goal lead and netted himself a hat trick with another goal off a Newton assist with 9:11 left in the period.
The Centaurs went up 5-1 when Austen LeDonne, off an assist from Nick Chubbuck, scored his third goal of the season.
Woodstock Academy had more motivation than just a win going into the third period.
The contest was a physical one with Girard getting knocked out of the game in the first period and freshman Mike Burns going down in the second.
“I think the Burns injury was a huge motivator for us. We talk about discipline and composure with this group being a little bit of a problem, which has been clear. We talked between periods about not being out for physical revenge. We’re not trying to send people to the hospital. We are going to go out and play as a team and we will have the end result that we can point to as our response. We did it on the scoreboard,” Bisson said.
The Centaurs finished things off with a pair of Favreau goals, both coming in the final two minutes of the contest.
His five-goal effort put Favreau, who had only one goal in the last two games, back on his two goals per game pace.
The alternate captain of the team now has 12 goals on the season.
“It’s sometimes fair, sometimes not, but we expect him to score. That’s the bottom line. That’s the expectation we have for him. Sometimes, that is a lot of pressure knowing that’s what people are looking for from you. We expect a lot of him in all phases of the game and to see him get the reward for his hard work is great,” Bisson said.
Newton had a game himself.
He added three more assists bringing his total to nine this season.
“The biggest knock on Doug’s game for the last three years has been, ‘the kid doesn’t pass.’ That’s not true. If you look at his stats from last year (13 assists), he passes. He has been looking to make plays and (against Northeastern), he looked to make multiple plays,” Bisson said.
For the Centaurs, it was the first of four straight games on the road.
“That might not be a bad thing considering how we’ve played at home,” Bisson said.
The Centaurs will not return to the Jahn Ice Rink in Pomfret until Jan. 18.
“I was looking at the calendar and didn’t realize we don’t have a game (this past) Saturday and I was joking with my coaches about what we were going to do with two practices this week and then I said, ‘Hold it, we have four practices before the next game.’ We have to go back to film, really break it down, look at the things we need to improve upon and take that time over the next four practices to really focus in on those,” Bisson said. “It will be fun. It’s kind of crazy to say practice will be fun but we’re going to make the most of it.”
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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