Notre Dame Comes From Behind to Trip the Indian Skaters 6-2

The North Haven Indians trudged through thirty inches of snow to face Notre Dame West Haven on Thursday. Unfortunately they skated into a blizzard, dropping a 6-2 decision to the much-improved Green Knights.

Indian coach Mike Violano hoped his club would stop a 4-game losing streak by using hard work and getting back to basics.

“We've worked hard every game. They came out with a good work ethic,” he said. “That’s one of things we promised each other—we would come out with intensity. We did that, but once again we gave up a couple of odd-man rushes.”

The early intensity in the first period paid dividends when the Indians jumped out to a 1-0 lead at the 4:22 mark. Defenseman Johnny Johnson collected the puck off the left wall and slapped a low shot on goal. Notre Dame sophomore net-minder Greg Harney made the save but NHHS center Tyler Hines swooped in and drove the puck home to score the game's first goal.

Notre Dame coach Bill Gerosa was concerned about his club’s mindset to begin the game.

He said, “We got to a slow start and I was very worried about this game. We didn't skate yesterday because of the snow. I didn't know how we would react to having the day off before having a game, especially because the focus was on shoveling and snow and what ever they did. We came out a little flat.”

When teams are playing well they respond quickly to adversity and Notre Dame did just that. They tied the game 1-1 at 6:49 off an aggressive fore check. Defenseman Kevin DeBrow poked a blue-line pass to defensive mate AJ Beckwith and the sophomore quickly slapped a bouncer past Indian Jr. goalie Mike Amarone. The period ended tied at 1-1.

Gerosa insisted that his defenseman are big contributors.

“We are fortunate to have 7 defenseman (including 2 freshmen) who can play the game. They have great chemistry. It allows us to do a lot of things on the ice. One of our unsung heroes is Kevin Dubrow. He is one of captains and many times he is covering the other team’s top players. He is also the first one out on the man down.”

According to Violano, “We showed fortitude moving into the second period.  That's there every game. We’ve kept puck in other team’s zone, even when we were up in Maine. We outshoot teams 2-1 and 3-1, but we also give up odd-man rushes.”

Notre Dame wore down the Indians and took a 2-1 lead at 9:12 of the second period. Junior winger Eddie Sherman fired a loose puck off the left circle for the lead.

 “I thought the second goal of the game by them was the turning point of the game,”  Violano said. “We had 2 power-play chances in the second period but came up empty. Yeah, we moved the puck well, tic-tac-toe. At times we had chances to shoot the puck and we dished it off. At other times, we took bad percentage shots and they blocked a lot of shots too.”

Notre Dame upped the lead to 3-1 at 11:48 of the second, capitalizing on an odd-man rush through neutral ice. Colby Cretella slipped a blue-line pass to a streaking Kyle Thibualt and he scored on the breakaway.

North Haven started the third period on the power-play that spilled over from the second. That advantage quickly turned into a disadvantage when Notre Dame’s Joe Travaglino tallied as the penalty time expired to make the score 4-1. Travaglino roofed a shot to the short side to finish off a two-on-one break at :25 seconds of the period.

Notre Dame's fore check was a key according to Gerosa,

He said, “Two of them (goals) came of great fore checking We had 3 or 4 kids sick today but we overcame that. Matt Merola kept his legs moving today.”

Travaglino and  Merola collaborated on a pretty goal at 7:32 of the third to put the game out of reach at 5-1. On the play, Merola worked the puck down low and centered a pass to a wide open Travaglino for his second goal of the game.

Merloa upped the lead to 6-1 when he rapped a R.J. Bishop point shot into the back of the net.

 Violano recognized his team defensive breakdown, noting “We did not play the body on 2 or 3 of those goals and that cost us.”

North Haven finally stopped the Notre Dame 6-goal outburst when Johnson slapped a power play goal past Harney to make the score 6-2.

“There are a lot of things to look forward to if we can begin to score goals,” said Violano. “We keep on pressing, but again we showed we can skate with a very good Notre Dame team but we’re not taking advantage of other teams mistakes as much as they have taken advantage of ours. These kids don't want to be in this position. They want to win too. We gotta keep working hard and go back to the drawing board tomorrow.”

North Haven has now lost 5-games in a row with a record at 2-5. Things will not get any easier for the Indians when the host high flying Xavier tonight at the Northford Ice Pavilion, starting at 8:00 p.m. Notre Dame (6-2) will host Notre Dame of Fairfield at 1 this afternoon at the Bennett Rink in West Haven.