Glastonbury Defeats Indians 6-3

The North Haven boys hockey team knew it had a golden opportunity to defeat a strong opponent in Glastonbury on Wednesday evening at the Northford Ice Pavilion. The problem was that a bad first period gave the Tomahawks an early 4-0 lead. Despite a rough start, North Haven managed to outshoot Glastonbury 26 to 21 in the game to make a valiant comeback attempt before falling 6-3.

North Haven drops to 4-8 overall while the Tomahawks improve to 10-4. Glastonbury got 2 goals (including an empty netter) and an assist from forward Ethan Holdaway, 2 goals from defenseman Alex Robinson and 1 goal and 3 assists from forward Sam Scannell. The Indians were led offensively by left wing Nash Garceau’s 2 goals.

The Tomahawks scored first on a 3-on-1 break, with Avery Clair beating North Haven junior goaltender Mike Amarone with the help of two assists from Aaron Mandell and Scannell at the 2:51 mark of the first period. Robinson then scored for Glastonbury on assists from Sean Carfi and Scannell to take a 2-0 lead. North Haven coach Mike Violano pulled his starting goaltender Amarone after he allowed 2 goals on 5 shots and put in freshman Chris Pullano who surrendered 2 goals on 4 shots in the remaining 10 minutes and 42 seconds of play in the opening session.

“A lot of the goals that we allowed were from lack of concentration and not being on your game for 45 minutes,” North Haven Coach Mike Violano said. “How do we stop breakaway scoring chances and 3-on-1’s and then allow a soft goal? Goaltending is mental. You have to be in the right spot but you have to think the game.”

The third Glastonbury goal was scored on a power play as forward Sam Scannell beat Pullano with  an assist from Ethan Holdaway at 8:36 after Mark Girardi was called for holding. The Tomahawks finished the period as Alex Robinson also beat Pullano with a shot  off the tip of his glove and into the net. He was assisted by Drew Mozzer and Scannell at the 12:56 mark, giving Glastonbury a 4-0 lead.

At the start of the second period Amarone returned to the net, his play much improved. In the second period both squads had 10 shots on net with the Indians controlling the game. North Haven started the comeback attempt as Richie Mauri scored off a crossing pass from Jared Wentworh. Glastonbury goalie Chris Hemhauser went down to his left and Mauri put the puck into the right corner of the net at 3:26 of the second period to cut the Tomahawk lead to 4-1.

At  13:45 of the second period, the Indians furthered their comeback attempt as Garceau poked it home off a rebound to make the game 4-2.

“Physical is the way we have played all year, “Violano said. “We go out and play hard and get some opportunities. We don’t give up. My team wins with class and loses with class. You can’t say more about a team like this. We know that we can do some damage. We have to go and correct our little mistakes. We have great attitudes and work ethic. We just missed a lot of opportunities tonight.”

North Haven skated three lines throughout the game compared to the Tomahawks two, and appeared to wear Glastonbury down with a physical style of play.

“I credit North Haven for their play in the last 30 minutes of the game,” Glastonbury head coach Ken Barse said. “North Haven took it to us. They played physical and back checked us. I haven’t seen our guys get caught from behind like they did today. I told my kids in the locker room that this is the first time that a team has made us look slow this season.”

Barse added,” It was nice to have the 5th goal heading into the 3rd period. Anytime you score 6 goals against a hungry North Haven team you have to be happy. It was a great hockey game. If you take away the first couple goals it is a different game. We made good decisions with the puck and made other good decisions that allowed us to cash in on the opportunities in the first period. North Haven really fought hard. Most teams that are down 4 goals,  take an easy exit. This is never true for Mike’s teams. They never lay down. Every time we play North Haven it is a battle and they knocked us out of the playoffs last year. We usually split games with North Haven. The games are very even.”

Amarone did give up the 5th Glastonbury goal when he came out of net and took a difficult angle on the puck. The defense was able to clear the puck from the attack zone, but Glastonbury’s Ethan Holdaway brought it back and scored on an assist from Drew Mozer. Glastonbury finished the third period with a 5-2 lead.

“To work that hard and to give up a goal (5th goal) that easy was tough,” Violano said. “We got beat at the blue line and then one of their guys beats 2 of our guys out of the corner. We’ve been beaten like this before. In our own defensive zone we can’t play that style against any team in the state and especially against a team that has recently been in the top 10.”

The Indians came right back just 13 seconds into the third period as Garceau scored his second goal of the night, beating Hemhauser up high to his glove hand side on assists from Tyler Benson and Mike Andreucci to make it a 5-3 game.

“Both seniors  Nash Garceau  and Richie Mauri add a different  dimension for us,” Violano said. “They are 2 great seniors. Nash is a tough hard-nosed player. Richie is a great kid and sees the ice so well. I can use him in a man down situation or the power play. They are good kids to work with. We have 4 senior captains and along with the other seniors they are taking the ball on and off the ice with leadership.”

Despite North Haven outshooting the Tomahawks 13 to 7 in the third period,  Glastonbury had enough offensive firepower to survive the Indians 2nd and 3rd period comeback attempts.

“Alex Robinson is big and strong and likes to dominate down low. He likes to play physical hockey. He had a good time and got the puck to the net. Our kid #83 (Ethan Holdaway) is tough to keep up with. North Haven did a good job of just putting bodies on him. (North Haven) was getting pieces of him to slow him down,” Barse said.”I thought Drew Mozzer played an overall great game for us. Aaron Mandell stood out. He is one of our quicker kids. Mandell controlled the puck and played a physical game.”

Holdaway scored an empty net goal at 14:12 of the third period after Amarone was pulled for the extra attacker with 1:46 to play.  North Haven called a timeout and sent 6 six skaters onto the ice.

Hemhauser made 23 saves for Newington on 26 Indians shots. North Haven got 13 saves from Amarone and 2 from Pullano and made a combined 15 saves on 20 shots. The Tomahawks empty net  goal was its 21st shot of the game .

North Haven hosts Amity on Saturday at Northford Ice Pavilion at 8 p.m.

“We’ll go back to practice and work hard tomorrow,” Violano said. ”We talked about what we need to do after the game and it was brought up by a junior that we need to start the game great and that will make it easier for us later. The guys will think about the game some more tonight and we will make some corrections and work on fundamentals tomorrow.  I'm not worried about the heart, attitude or the work ethic of this team.”