Cheshire Pulls Win Out at the Wire

Cheshire had multiple chances to score in sudden-death overtime of its boys' hockey game with East Catholic-Manchester Wednesday afternoon.

Time was winding down and with less than a minute to go in the  eight-minute extra period, freshman Matt Muzyka wrested the puck away from one East player at mid-ice and carried it into the Eagles' end with two others hanging all over him.

Muzyka managed to get a pass off to his left and found Spencer Hackett just inside the left circle. Hackett promptly fired a hard, high slapshot past East goalie Anthony Beir with 44.9 seconds left and the Rams had taken home a 4-3 non-conference victory at Champions Skating Rink in Cromwell.

"He's a converted defenseman," Cheshire head coach Jim Riccitelli said. "He's got a knack for scoring and we were fortunate he put that one it."

"Tough for us. That's a tough way to lose," East Catholic head coach Drew Clarkin said. "We executed our game plan, tried to see if we could be the aggressor. Thought we had a nice forecheck going today and force some turnovers. But tough to lose with 44 seconds left, that's for sure."

The game was as even in aggressiveness and puck control as the score indicated. In many cases it came down to the play of each team's goalie.

"East Catholic played hard. They took space, they beat us to the puck," Riccitelli said. "They really played well. Our goalie made some big saves in the beginning. We've been waiting for him to help us win a game and today was the day. He held us in there."

Cheshire goalie Tyler Carbone made 29 saves, some exceptional, particularly in the first period when the Rams had to stave off three penalties, the first two virtually back-to-back with only 39 seconds between.

East (10-8) put a lot pressure on Cheshire (11-5-2) early and controlled the puck much of the first, but they came out the other end of it down 1-0. On a 5-on-3 power play of their own, the Rams scored when Muzyka converted at 13:06 on a hard slapshot from just inside the blue line directly on goal.

"We put a little pressure on their D," Clarkin said. "We rotated very well on our forecheck that created some opportunities for us that at least put the puck on net. We weren't successful in scoring the first period but we gained a little bit of confidence that we could at least penetrate and get some scoring opportunities."

Cheshire made it 2-0 at 2:25 of the second as freshman Luke Vendetto put the puck in from action right in front of the goal with as assist from Joe D'Errico.

East got one back on a nearly unbelievable shot. Garrett Richardello fired the puck along the right sideboard meaning to pass from just inside the blue line. The puck caromed crazily half way down to the corner and took off like a guided missile past Carbone at 3:37 with an assist from Nick Tallo.

East scored the equalizer  at 1:07 of the third as Jared Nelson took a pass from in back of the net and lifted a soft slapshot from about 20 feet right in front for the goal, assisted by Patrick O'Connor and Michael Scanlon.

The Rams scored what appeared might be the winner at 7:55 on Ryan Powers' powerful slapshot from the right side at the blue line with an assist by defenseman John Cunningham.

But East answered on Richardello's second goal of the game at 10:30 from the top of the right circle on a power play. Eleven penalties were called in all, six on the Rams.

"We skated well in spots," Riccitelli said. "Give East Catholic credit. They outplayed us a lot of times out there. They killed off a lot penalties themselves."

The matchup had postseason intensity and the Rams, who have two regular season games left, may use the experience gained down the road.

"They're all going to be tough now," Riccitelli said. "All the teams left, Lyman Hall is trying to get in the tournament, Wethersfield's trying, they're all going to be tough. I told the kids that this is the time of year, you can't have a bad period, you can't have a bad game because the season will be over quick."