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Honored
Woodstock Academy boys’ ice hockey players, from left to right: Doug Newton, Jake Starr, Guerin Favreau and Colin Liscomb, were named Nutmeg Conference All-Stars last week. Photo by Kevin Bisson/The Woodstock Academy.




Teams are generally happy about wins.  But there are also times when losses aren’t so bad.
Such was the case Feb when Woodstock Academy finished up its boys’ ice hockey season with a 2-0 loss to New Milford.
“I tell these guys all the time, and it’s really just coach speak, that you learn more in a loss than you do in a win. The last game we won, I was not happy with a lot of different things and we won 6-3. Here, we lose 2-0, and I’m actually pretty happy,” said Woodstock Academy coach Kevin Bisson.
The loss ended a nine-game winning streak for the Centaurs and means they finish with a 15-5 overall record.
“I’m wicked happy,” senior captain Doug Newton said. “I would rather have taken a loss now than in a couple weeks when we hit States. The nine-game win streak is gone, now it’s time to start a new winning streak. We can’t lose from here on out.”
That’s what time of year it is. Lose and the tournament is over.
The Centaurs begin tournament play this week as they meet Tri-Town in a Nutmeg Conference semifinal game.
Woodstock Academy finished with the second seed in a coin flip with the Eastern Connecticut Eagles. The two teams finished tied atop the conference with identical 6-2 records and split their two meetings.
“The conference is really important to us this year. We want to win at least something and come out with a trophy in hand. Tri-Town on Tuesday is a good opponent. Last year, we beat them twice in the regular season and lost in the semifinal. We don’t want a repeat of that,” Newton said.
The Centaurs got a good warm up for that game Feb. 29. The Green Wave (13-6-1) was a pretty disciplined opponent.
The two teams played scoreless hockey for the first 30 minutes with junior Colin Liscomb making 15 saves in net for Woodstock Academy.
The Green Wave was just able to outshoot the Centaurs, 17-15, in the two opening periods.
There was only one penalty called in the entire game; a cross-check against the Centaurs in the first period.
The Green Wave broke the ice with 8 minutes, 31 seconds left in the game when Cameron Schopher took a rebound off a shot from Ian Donahue and poked it into the net.
New Milford got the insurance goal with point-two seconds left when Jarrett Rivera sent one down the ice that found its way into Woodstock Academy’s open net.
“They were pretty quick, matched up well with us. Do I think we should have won? Absolutely. We didn’t finish our opportunities. They finished theirs,” Newton said.
The Green Wave was also well-schooled. Much to the disappointment of Newton who found it annoying when the Centaurs top line rarely found itself matched up against New Milford’s second.
 “For a team that never had played us, it seemed like they had done some level of homework on knowing what to do and what to take away, and definitely matching their line with our line,” Bisson said. “Guess what. That’s what it is going to be now. The games are going to be close. The intensity is going to be high and you have to rise to the occasion.”
The Centaurs first Div. II state tournament game will be in a familiar environment.
The Centaurs will host the Lyman Hall/Haddam-Killingworth/Coginchaug cooperative March 9 in a CIAC Div. II first-round state tournament game at Jahn.
“That’s wicked nice. We haven’t had a (state tournament home game) since my freshman year so to be able to come back home and wear the (home white jerseys) again for sure will be great,” Newton said.
Woodstock Academy downed the Lyman Hall Co-op, 4-0, on Jan. 8.
4 Centaurs Honored
Four members of the Woodstock Academy boys’ ice hockey team were chosen as Nutmeg Conference All-Stars earlier in the week.
Newton (9 goals, 20 assists) and Jake Starr (9 goals, 6 assists) and juniors Guerin Favreau (33 goals, 7 assists) and Liscomb were named All-Conference players.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy

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