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Some messages from coaches to their team go over well.
Others, not so much.
Woodstock Academy coach Kevin Bisson experienced that last week with his Centaurs boys’ ice hockey team.
His message to them, prior to their game with the Suffield-Granby-Windsor Locks cooperative Jan. 9, was to go out and get the lead.
Before the Centaurs knew it, they were down by two goals and Bisson knew what wasted breath meant.
But Jan. 11, he urged his team to change its pattern of figuring things out in the first period, pulling even in the second and pulling ahead in the third.
They had already played Tri-Town once this season and the early feeling out period the Centaurs seem to embrace was not necessary.
This time, the Centaurs listened and it produced a well-played, 4-1, victory over Tri-Town.
It capped off a busy week for the Centaurs who improved to 7-2 with two victories in their three games.
The week didn’t start off all that well.
Woodstock Academy traveled to Connecticut College in New London to play defending CIAC Division III champion and Nutmeg Conference foe, the Eastern Connecticut Eagles. The hosts walked away with the 4-1 victory and took control of first place in the conference.
Kyle Jacobsen put the Eagles (5-3) up, 2-0 with a goal 3 minutes, 20 seconds into the game and another in the first five minutes of the second period.
Woodstock Academy freshman Kyle Brennan cut the lead in half in the late in the second period when he scored his second goal of the season off an assist from Doug Newton.
But the Eagles put a little distance between them and the Centaurs just 57 seconds into the final period on a Ryan Huta goal. Evan Tower got the empty net goal with just 38 seconds to play.
The Centaurs had to rally for a 7-6 win over the Suffield-Granby-Windsor Locks Cooperative Jan. 9.
Bisson held a team meeting prior to the game and asked the Centaurs how many times they had scored the first goal in a game.
The SGWL game was their eighth of the season and Woodstock Academy had only scored the first goal in a game once all season.
Tyler Gazdik scored on the first shift and Mason Ferrari on the third, two goals in the first two minutes. Fortunately, the Centaurs countered offensively. Austen LeDonne scored his fifth goal of the season, but the shootout was on. SGWL added a third goal with 7:24 left in the first period.
Woodstock Academy rallied and tied it on goals by Newton and Nick Chubbuck, only to see their Enfield Twin Rinks hosts forge ahead with five seconds left in the first.
Five more goals were scored in the second period with Woodstock Academy getting three of those off the sticks of Matthew Odom, Ethan Thorpe and Guerin Favreau to send the game into the third period tied at six. It was a needed goal for Thorpe. The senior defenseman had a rough outing against Eastern Connecticut Jan. 7 and didn’t play until midway through the first period against SGWL.
Thorpe got what proved to be the game winner two minutes into the third period when he threaded the needle through traffic and found the back of the net. After 12 goals in the first two periods, it was the only one of the third.
That carried over into Friday’s match with Tri-Town which also was played at the Enfield Twin Rinks.
The Centaurs finally did what the coaching staff had asked. They scored first. Woodstock Academy was shorthanded 2 ½ minutes into the first period when Odom stole the puck from a Tri-Town player in the Centaurs end. A Tri-Town defensive player caught up to him but dragged him down from behind resulting in a penalty shot for Odom.
A little stick-handling gave him the opening he needed and he put the shot into the back of the net for his 12th goal of the season. The Centaurs made it 2-0 just 35 seconds into the second period when Liam McDermott took a pass from Odom and scored on the power play.
Tri-Town did make it a one-goal game later in the second period but Guerin Favreau netted his fourth goal of the season in the third period and Newton got his ninth into an empty net to account for the final.
“We’ve identified a bunch of stuff that we want to clean up,” Bisson said. “We had a good game Friday which was great, but there were things from Monday and Wednesday that I want to work on. This will give me an opportunity to ramp up the intensity and pace without having to fear that they will be tired for a game the next day.”
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy
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