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The season came to a close one day too late for the Woodstock Academy boys’ ice hockey team.
The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference cancelled its postseason winter state tournaments early last week due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.
Unfortunately, the Centaurs had already played and lost their first-round Div. II state tournament game to the Lyman Hall/Haddam-Killingworth/Coginchaug cooperative.
That means the Centaurs have to stew on the loss for a while.
But the ice hockey team had plenty to be proud of especially in the 2019-20 regular season .
The Centaurs will look fondly back on a season that saw them post 15 wins in 20 games.
“I have to be happy,” Woodstock Academy coach Kevin Bisson said of the regular season. “I thought we started out a little rough and then we got it figured out for a long stretch, nine (wins) in a row. The regular season was a success, 15 wins, compared to 12 wins the year before and seven wins before that.”
But Woodstock Academy stumbled in its last regular season game to New Milford, 2-0.
After such a long stretch of wins, a loss – while some may actually welcome it to get the target off the back – can sometimes be detrimental.
It was for the Centaurs.
It began an offensive drought that the Centaurs just would not climb out of.
Tri-Town downed the Centaurs 3-0 in the semifinals of the Nutmeg Conference tournament three days later.
The TerrorCats scored a goal 6:05 into the game and then added two more within three minutes of each other in the third to record the win.
It was the third straight year that Tri-Town prevented the Centaurs from reaching the league championship game.
That inability to put the puck in the net followed the Centaurs into the state tournament where the Lyman Hall cooperative skated away with a 5-0 win.
There were more chances as well as the Centaurs had nine shots on goal.
The Centaurs continued to get opportunities in the second period. They outshot the Trojans, 11-5.
Unfortunately, two of Lyman Hall’s shots went in and none of Woodstock Academy’s did.
Aidan Weir scored when a shot rebounded off the glass, came back to the front, and on to Weir’s stick on the right side of the net. He sent the puck over Woodstock Academy goalie Colin Liscomb’s left shoulder to break the 0-0 tie just 1:20 into the second period.
The Trojans went up 2-0 when T.J. Arduini scored his 13th goal of the season.
Lyman Hall put it away with three more goals by Weir, Jack Roberts and Matt Pettit, in six minutes in the third period.
The Centaurs were outshot in the final period, 15-4.
Bisson was confident in the offense prior to the final three games with Nick Chubbuck (4 goals), and Jake Starr putting some pucks in the net down the stretch only to see it all go away.
The Centaurs will have to reload in some areas next season. Defense will not be one of them.
Liscomb will return in goal for his senior year and he will have some capable people in front of him.
Sonny Neilson and Sean McCusker will graduate from the back line but Gabe Geyer, Chris Thibault, Brendan Hill and Alex Wojciechowski all return.
The Centaurs will have Favreau, their leading scorer (33 goals, 7 assists), back and Brennan (6 goals, 8 assists) will also return.
But they will have to replace Newton (9 goals, 20 assists), Austen LeDonne (4 goals, 8 assists) and Starr (9 goals, 6 assists). Bisson said he hopes the younger guys also take advantage of the opportunity that will be presented to them.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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