The Bethel-Brookfield-Danbury (17-5, 7-1) hockey team entered the SWC Championship game as the defending champs, by the time the game was over there was no doubt that the Watertown-Pomperaug (15-7, 7-1) team was the new title owner.
“The SWC’s are not easy to win,” BBD head coach Rusty Granacker said. “The kids worked hard, they played a little better.”
Scoring a goal with less then a minute remaining in the first period gave the Indians a 2-1 lead and momentum heading into the second period. They used that to their advantage as they completely dominated play the rest of the way in their 6-1 victory.
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“We learned a lot of lessons, losing leads, not playing full 45 minute games,” WP head coach Vic Vicenzi said of his team that had blown early leads in games in the beginning of the season. “This was out third game here this week, we built up big leads and we kept the pressure on them and stayed focused.”
Besides the goal surrendered by BBD in the final minute of the first period, they also surrendered a goal in the opening minute to put them on their heels early. Captain Brian Fay got the scoring going just 36 seconds into the game.
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“We discus this, the first minute of the period and the last minute of the period are the most important minutes of the period,” Granacker said. “It set’s the tone for the beginning and sets the tone going in.”
IceCats leading scorer Steven Segiet quickly erased the deficit by connecting on a slick backhanded shot at the 10:50 mark. BBD then seemed to take control as they outshot the Indians 11-9 in the first period but couldn’t get anything by net minder Trevor St. Onge.
“In the first period we did pretty well in transition, we had a lot of opportunities unfortunately we didn’t put any pucks in the net,” Granacker said. “Their goalie did a great job on the good opportunities that we did have, he shut them down.”
In the final minute of play the IceCats letdown and the Indians took advantage with Ryan Borsari slipping the puck by a sprawling Luiz Dibble.
The IceCats early opportunities in the second period were eliminated by Fay, who slid in front of two potential shots stopping them with his body.
“Brian prides himself on that,” Vicenzi said of Fay playing with complete disregard for his body. “We have some skill but we have to be a hard-working team to be successful. Those are the little things that need to be done and he’s a senior captain who leads by example.”
The Indians then drew a penalty on BBD and scored a power play goal for a 3-1 lead at 6:51 of the second period. Chris Spagnoletti scored on a rebound with captain Jack Murphy getting the assist. Murphy then was denied by Dibble moments later as BBD tried to stay in the game. St. Onge responded with a huge stick save of his own on the other end of the ice to maintain the two-goal lead.
“That was huge,” Vicenzi said. “Trevor is always making big saves for us all year and the past five or six games he’s been at his best.”
The IceCats had their last best shot to get back in the game when they went on the power play with just over three minutes remaining in the second period. Any thoughts of a comeback were quickly denied as the Indians scored a shorthanded goal at 2:19 to take a commanding 4-1 lead. Murphy got the goal with Borsari getting the assist.
“He’s the man,” Vicenzi said of Murphy. “He can finish, he likes doing it, he’s one of the most intense individual’s that I’ve ever coached and there’s not much that will deter him from getting the puck in the net.”
“Jack Murphy had a heck of a game and Mr. Borsari had a good game too,” Granacker said.
In the decisive second period WP outshot BBD 10-3 and that would continue in the third period as they went on to outshoot BBD 18-5 over the final two periods.
“That’s definitely not our normal game,” Granacker said of being shutdown. “We generally outshoot the opposing team, today it didn’t happen. Defensively they didn’t make a lot of mistakes.”
The IceCats held off a breakaway attempt and an odd-man rush in the opening minutes but couldn’t keep the Indians from lighting the lamp again. At 8:41 of the third, following extended pressure in BBD’s end, Phil LeQuellec scored, connecting on a spectacular goal as he was falling down. Kevin Murphy got the assist on the play.
On the ensuing face-off Derek Bizier got past the IceCats defense to score the Indians sixth goal just 15 seconds later. Bizier’s shot was initially deflected but it bounced off himself as he was sliding into the net taking the puck with him.
The two teams both have earned bye’s in the upcoming DIII State Playoffs and then will face tough competition in their opening games.
“DIII is pretty strong,” Vicenzi said. “The top five or six teams were beating all the teams that qualified for DII so it’s going to be some good games.”
BBD is the No. 1 seed while WP is the No. 4. If both teams win their second round games they will face each other in the semi-finals. It would be a rubber-match as BBD defeated WP 3-2 earlier in the season.
“We just got to re-focus for the next tournament,” Granacker said. “That’s what we discussed after this game, they can’t let this game effect the next tournament.”
