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100th Career Point
Woodstock Academy senior Doug Newton shows off the puck that was used in his 100th career point, an assist to Guerin Favreau Feb. 9 in a 5-4 win over the Eastern Connecticut Eagles. Photo by Trent Peters/The Woodstock Academy.
Hockey player
scores his
100th point
It was a pretty busy weekend for Woodstock Academy senior Doug Newton.
It was also a very satisfying one.
The senior boys’ hockey player is a member of the Model UN at the Academy and that group was in Boston over the weekend.
But he also had commitments at home in Woodstock as the Centaurs had a pair of games over the weekend.
So, he and teammate Guerin Favreau did a little commuting back-and-forth and figured out a way to participate in both.
It made for a pretty memorable weekend especially with what happened on the ice.
Newton scored his 100th career point and assisted on his younger brother, Andrew’s, first career varsity goal as the Centaurs downed the Northeastern Shamrocks Feb. 8, 5-1, and the Eastern Connecticut Eagles, 5-4, Feb. 9.
The 100th career points in hockey, according to Woodstock Academy coach Kevin Bisson, is comparable to getting 1000 points in a high school basketball career.
“If you want to look at those milestone moments, it would certainly equate. The beauty of the 100 points is that you don’t necessarily have to be the one scoring, but you have to find people who will put the puck in the net. While Doug has certainly had his fair share of big goals, he has also been a playmaker, setting up goals. It’s one of the great things about hockey. You don’t only get rewarded and noticed if you score, you actually get rewarded for making great plays,” Bisson said.
Newton’s milestone moment came Feb. 9.
The Centaurs had already built a 2-0 lead over the Eagles on a goal from Kyle Brennan off the rebound of a shot by Nick Chubbuck and a breakaway by Favreau, both in the first period.
The Centaurs made it 3-0 with 6 minutes, 43 seconds left in the second period when, while shorthanded, Newton began a rush out of the defensive zone and found Favreau open near center ice.
Favreau deked his way past a defender, skated in front of the net, and backhanded the puck past goalie Rylin Fowler.
“Usually, I look to see what the goalie has been doing and the five hole (between the legs of the goalie) had been working against this kid,” Favreau said.
Newton was awarded the assist on the play for his 100th career point.
“It was awesome,” Newton said. “It should have come earlier. I will be honest; I wish it came earlier, maybe earlier this year or late last year. I’m happy to get it and now it’s back to work on Tuesday, playing hockey and trying to get as far as we can.”
It turned out Woodstock Academy needed that three-goal lead.
While the Centaurs were dominant offensively and Colin Liscomb had a good night in net, the hosts (12-4, 5-2 Nutmeg Conference) were also struggling just to keep their players on the ice.
Woodstock Academy was whistled for 10 penalties, Eastern Connecticut was guilty of only two infractions.
It meant the Centaurs had less than a minute in power-play opportunities, the Eagles had over 16 minutes of man-advantage situations.
The Eagles scored the next two goals following the Favreau tally to cut the deficit to one.
But the Centaurs responded when Jake Starr, off assists from Sonny Nielsen and Gabe Geyer, made it a 4-2 game with 12:21 left to play.
Woodstock Academy then got a goal from an unexpected source — Nielsen.
The senior defenseman had never put one into the back of the net in his high school career until Feb. 9.
He rifled a shot in with 6:13 to play and it turned out to be the game winner.
The Eagles scored at the 4:18 mark to make it a two-goal game again and with 18 seconds left added another to account for the one-goal differential.
It was the first victory for Bisson over the Eagles (6-8, 4-2) in his brief coaching tenure.
It followed on the heels of the win over the Shamrocks the night before.
It was a harder fought game than originally anticipated.
The Centaurs had beaten Northeastern on its home ice by six goals, but the two teams were locked in a scoreless tie after the first period.
Woodstock Academy was pounding the net early, but nothing went in.
“Their goalie was making a lot of good saves. Our guys were doing a lot of good stuff, a lot of zone time, a lot of offense. You kind of knew we would break through at some point,” Bisson said.
That point came in the second period.
Sophomore Brendan Hill broke the ice 5:55 into the second period with an unassisted goal and Favreau, who already has 27 goals this season, added another unassisted goal 4 ½ minutes later.
The Centaurs made it 3-0 when Favreau took a pass from Alex Wojciechowski with 2:10 left in the period.
It allowed Bisson to put in a couple freshmen who hadn’t seen any varsity time. On Andrew Newton’s first varsity shift, he took a pass from his brother, Doug, who recorded his 99th career point when Andrew Newton put the puck in the back of the net.
Tyler Green followed up in the third period with his first varsity goal.
The Centaurs opened the week with a come-from-behind, 5-3, win over the Burrillville (R.I.) Broncos.
Burrillville jumped out to a 3-1 lead before Doug Newton pulled the Centaurs back within one and Hill added a power-play goal a little less than five minutes into the final period to tie the game.
Brennan scored what proved to be the game-winner with six minutes left and Favreau added some late insurance, an empty net goal at the buzzer.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
..