Guilford Holds Off Cheshire Boys' Hockey

Cheshire head coach Jim Riccitelli called a timeout with 1:55 to go in his team's boys' hockey game with Guilford Monday afternoon at the Northford Ice Pavilion.

With his team down by a goal, Riccitelli was preparing to pull his goalie and gave instructions for the Rams to pressure Guilford and get the equalizer. Cheshire got the pressure it wanted but not the goal.

"We changed up the forecheck a little bit and put two guys on the puck," Riccitelli said. "We'd been going with a different forecheck all game and it seemed to help. We got a good opportunity off of it but we just didn't capitalize."

Cheshire's best chance came when freshman Matt Muzyka had the puck kicked out to him from the boards and slammed a slap shot from the right circle. But the puck hit the pipe on top of the net and deflected away. Shortly after, Guilford's Jordan Drake got control of the puck and sent a shot the length of the ice into Cheshire's empty net to secure a 4-2 SCC Division II victory.

Guilford improved to 10-0-1; Cheshire is 6-3-2.

"Tough game. That's a great hockey game. It's a tough one to lose," Riccitelli said. "But the kids battled, we came back from a 2-0 hole. You know what, they put the puck away when they had to and we didn't. In the end, we had a great opportunity. But that's the way the game is, you get the bounces, sometimes you don't. It's a game of inches."

Guilford scored first on a breakaway by Jack Fitzgerald. Taking off with the puck from about three-quarters of the way up the ice, he deked right and shot high into the left side of the net past Cheshire goalie Tyler Carbone at 3:50 of the first period with an assist from Stephen Petrick.

The Indians got a second goal at 11:11 of the first on a mini-breakaway as Christian Cattaruzza broke free from about mid-ice and put the puck past Carbone with assists from Ryan Moore and Dave DeCaprio. Guilford's lead held at 2-0 at the end of the first.

"I told them, you've got  two periods to climb back in this," Riccitelli said. "We've got to put pucks in the net, which they did and fortunately we were able to tie it up."

Cheshire's offense ignited right at the start of the second as the Rams scored twice within 71 seconds.

First, senior captain Ryan Powers scored unassisted on a 20-foot slapshot from the left side past Guilford goalie Luc Amatruda at the 1:50 mark of the second period. Then junior Spencer Hackett put the puck in out of a scrum in front of the net at 3:01 with an assist from Muzyka. Boom, boom, 2-2.

"Cheshire's been a tough team over the years for us," Guilford head coach Ralph Russo said. "Last year, we had a two-goal lead (against them) and we ended up losing the game. Earlier this year, we had three one-goal leads and we tied the game so they're a tough team and have a great history of success in the SCC. We really wanted to measure ourselves with them. This was the tipping point of half-way past the season and they're a tournament caliber team and a team someone is going to have to play through to win, either in the SCCs or states."

Guilford scored the winner with just 27 seconds left in the second period when Moore got open to the right and almost level with the net and fired a shot past Carbone high and to his right. DeCaprio earned the assist.

"That was a tough one to give up," Ricchitelli said. "We made a mistake on the coverage and we left a guy open and he found the back of the net. We said the margin in this game between winning and losing is going to be very, very small."

The third period was scoreless until the empty-netter as Guilford played aggressively tough defense squelching any scoring opportunities for Cheshire with often three and four players back in the defensive end when a Ram took the puck across the blue line.

"Survival instincts take over," Russo said. "I think they were just trying to circle the wagons a bit, but we had to play that way, too. They were really pushing. We saw what they did with the two goals quick in the first four minutes of the second."

It's likely these two teams will see each other down the road in either the SCC tournament or the Division II state tournament.

"I did tell the kids, we could play these guys three or four times this season," Riccitelli said. "Both games have been great games and next time I hope it's our turn to win."