The East Haven and Hamden rivalry has dated almost as far back as that of West Haven and Hamden. With these old school rivalries, it is almost a given that the game will be a test of physicality, and that it was.
Let us start from the beginning. As soon as the puck dropped, it seemed like we were going to stay inside the Yellow Jacket's zone for a good amount of time. For a while we did, and Nicky Amarone lit the lamp again.
With under five minutes to go in the first, East Haven threw the puck deep in our zone, and engaged their forecheckers. What seemed to be an innocent dump-in led to a defensive zone breakdown, and the Easties slammed one past Varga to tie the game at 1. Though tied, we had no penalties in the first period, which is a relatively impressive feat.
In the second, the penalties came, and they came from both sides. Things got chippy right away, but forward Clifford Carignan put it all behind him, literally and figuratively, as he streaked up the left side, received a pass from linemate Jimmy Burt, and faked goalie Sam Gavigan to regain the lead at 2-1. The period ended all square, as Varga made a handful of big saves to keep it that way.
In the third, we let East Haven jump on us early, and they scored two unanswered goals. Paul Amarone expressed how he felt about this by answering back late in the third, tying the game at three. With just over five minutes to go, Hamden defenseman Mike Lee broke up-ice and "dangled the carrot" as coach would say, beating Gavigan to the right and taking the lead back, 4-3.
As the final seconds dwindled down on the clock, East Haven had a few chances but couldn't push the game into overtime. The final buzzer sounded and immediately it looked like a scene from Slapshot.
The piece I wrote in today's paper was about keeping composure. Unfortunately, it seems nobody in attendance read it. After a late tomahawk to the back of Burt's leg, the benches erupted. As coaches and managers tried to cool the situation, we were ordered to leave the ice without shaking the other teams hands, kind of disappointing as I thought it would have been nice to see a few friends.
Out of the scrum, we fortunately only lost two men to major penalties. Tomorrow I expect a major team meeting to occur in an attempt to battle the frequent loss of composure. All things aside, we pulled out another win, and that is always a good thing.
Saturday we face West Haven, a game sure to stay true to the title of "the ultimate high school hockey rivalry in Connecticut" at Bennett Rink.
Lou Pane should be ashamed of his team. They turned what would have been a pretty good game into a mockery of how High School Hockey should be played. I personnally saw #20 of East Haven throw at least 5 punches after the whistle as well as slash after the whsitle as well during the game itself. It is a shame that East Haven teams have to stoop to this level when they cannot put a good team on the ice. It seems that if the feel they can't beat you on the scoreboard, they turn into thugs. You cannot blame the Hamden boys for reacting the way they did. There was a blatant slash after time expired. Jim the went to verbally confront the individual. He was then hit by that individual. I think this is one of those times where you needed to stick up for your teammates. East Haven once again showed how utterly classless they can be. East Haven may have qualified for the tournament, but they will most likely not make it past the first round. Again Lou picks a soft schedule to get him to the tournament. Come on Lou let's play at least 65-70% of your games in div 1.
ReplyDelete"It seems that if the feel they can't beat you on the scoreboard, they turn into thugs."
ReplyDeleteSounds a little familiar hamden doesn't it?
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ReplyDelete^^GOTTEM
ReplyDeleteyou can only "stoop to a lower teams level" so many times RJ