BOBWHITES FALL JUST SHORT TO HORNETS IN SEMIFINALS
By JOHN BONNETTE
ST. ALBANS – The second-seeded BFA-St. Albans boys hockey team jumped out to an early 3-1 after the first period of Friday’s semifinal game against No. 3 Essex. The Hornets went on to rattle off four unanswered goals on their way to a 5-3 win over the Bobwhites.
After trailing by two goals after the first period, Essex took advantage of four BFA penalties scoring three times with the man advantage and adding a shorthanded goal enroute to the come from behind win.
“They (Essex) stayed very composed and it is no different than their quarterfinal when they were down by one and came back,” BFA Coach Toby Ducolon said. “We knew we could not take any penalties or very few penalties because they have a powerplay that can execute and that was pretty obvious.
“They scored five goals and had three powerplay and one shorthanded goal. You give that up to a good team and you are going to have a tough time beating a team like that.”
Things looked good for the Bobwhites early on, as they came out firing with their top unit of Aiden Savoy, Liam Wood and Sean Beauregard picked up right where they left off in the quarterfinal.
Savoy made a huge play to keep the puck in the Hornet zone and eventually worked the puck to Wood who circled toward the end boards before finding Beauregard at the bottom of the circle. Beauregard walked toward the net before sniping a shot just over the stick of Essex keeper Ian Boutin and under the crossbar to put BFA up 1-0 just 1:11 into the first period.
“It was a nice pass and a great look by Beauregard,” Ducolon said. “The pass down low was good he came out of the corner well and Beauregard did a nice job under the bar. It was a great goal.”
But the Hornets would answer back just minutes later, as Braedon Hemenway snapped a shot from the left point that seemed to fool BFA goaltender Michel Telfer (21 saves) as it bounced between his pads to even the score at 1-1.
The Bobwhites would then recapture the lead midway through the period, as they connected for a powerplay goal after Essex’s Patrick Monahan was called for holding after tackling BFA’s Matt Merill deep in the Hornet zone.
On the ensuing man advantage, BFA worked the puck around the Essex zone before Ethan Audy found Savoy in the high slot and Savoy wasted no time blasting a shot over Boutin’s glove to make it 2-1 BFA with 8:22 left in the first.
“That was a great shot under the bar he ripped it,” Ducolon said. “We always laugh about no stickhandling, he collected turned pivoted correctly and finished.
“It was a great goal for us especially when you have two seniors who score the first two goals and that is what it takes in a playoff game, we were rolling pretty good.”
But the Bobwhites first period dominance was not complete yet, as after a tough forecheck by Beauregard and Savoy the Bobwhites got the puck back to Ezra Lanfear at the left point. Lanfear directed a perfect low shot toward the Essex goal that Wood managed to redirect under the crossbar to make it 3-1 Bobwhites with 5:30 left in the first period.
“It was harmless shot from the left defensemen and we tipped it in,” Ducolons said. “It was great, eyes on the puck and that was a big goal for us.”
But despite being down Essex would come out in the second with renewed fight and with Beauregard in the box for goaltender interference the Hornet powerplay would sting the Bobwhites.
The Hornets powerplay did a nice job of controlling play in the BFA zone before the puck found its way to Hemenway the top of the zone. Hemenway quickly moved the puck Toby Cram at the right circle and Cram blasted a one-timer past Telfer to cut the Bobwhite lead to 3-2 with 13:30 left in the second period.
“We needed to move out feet we are a skating team and I did not feel like we were skating,” Essex Coach Chris Line said of his team’s earl play. “I thought we were very reactionary in the first period.
“I thought we were just feeling them out to see what they were going to do versus us rather than dictating what we wanted to do to them.”
Essex would then knot the game late as Cram would net his second powerplay goal of the period. The Bobwhite had just finished killing a 5-on-3 when Justin Prim found Cram for another one-timer that easily beat Telfer to even the score at 3-3 with 2:14 left in the first period.
“He had been working on that shot for a couple of weeks now,” Line said. “There has been a couple games recently where he has misfired on it. He has been working on it in practice and what do you know practice pays off.
“Our goal was to get Telfer to move a little bit laterally and once we were able to do that we had some success. I am very proud of Toby (Cram) anything you ask him to do he does. We have specifically asked him to work on that shot and he was getting opportunities but it just had not been working out for him but practice paid off tonight.”
Essex would use their third straight power play goal to take their first lead of the game just under five minutes into the third period.
After working the puck around the zone Essex got the puck low to Justin Prim. Prim’s one-timer bounced off the cross bar but out toward the front of the BFA net where Andrew Forcier was waiting to send it past Telfer to give Essex a 4-3 lead with 10:21 left in regulation.
“It is not the recipe you want (falling behind) but it is the sign of a team that is resilient we basically said it is not if, it is how,” Line said. “We were able to chip away and gain some momentum and continue to skate. Once you get a lead on BFA it is not that you can let off but you feel a little bit better because you are making them skate 200 feet.”
Despite being down the Bobwhites would have their opportunities as Essex was called for four straight penalties and BFA twice had 5-on-3 man advantages, but could not find the back of the net.
Then with 7:47 left while the Bobwhites still had a man advantage, Prim won a faceoff to the right of Telfer and the puck bounced to Cram who skated into the slot and drilled a shot past Telfor for a shorthanded goal to give the Hornets a 5-3 lead.
“It takes the wind out of you when you have chances you are not getting the bounces,” Ducolon said. “Then all of a sudden you just miss it and they get a bad bounce off a faceoff and it goes to Cram directly and that was a nice shot. He looked he did not panic but at that point he was confident.
“He (Cram) looked like a senior tonight and he had a wicked game.”
The loss ends the season for BFA (16-4) who will now graduate 10 seniors and one manager plus one head coach, as their season comes to an end. After 32 years, Ducolon announced earlier this season he was going to be stepping down as head coach of the Bobwhites.
“That is a great class ten guys is huge,” Ducolon said. “Some of these guys are good hockey players, but also just good guys we are going to miss them dearly next year I wish them all the luck and appreciate their hard work and I am extremely proud of them.
“It was a great way to finish as the head coach with them.”
