Early Fairfield flurry ices Sheehan

 

By Stephanie O’Connell
Meriden Record-Journal
March 12, 2008

George Wooster moves the puck up ice during Sheehan's Division II semifinal game against Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe.

 

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT - If everyone deserves 15 minutes of fame, then the Mustangs of Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe lived out theirs in the first period of Tuesday’s CIAC Division II state hockey semifinals at Ingalls Rink.

The No. 7 ranked Mustangs scored three goals in the opening period en route to a 4­1 victory over third-ranked Sheehan to earn spot in the Saturday’s state final against Amity.

It took the Mustangs five minutes to register their first shot but they made it count as senior forward Peter Silvestri gath­ered a deflection from Titans goalie Cameron Sidwell and gave the Mustangs the early lead.

Silvestri added on to that lead four minutes later during a power play, as he collected a pass from Joe Mc Keon and snuck one past Sidwell.

Just thirty seconds later, the Fairfield co-op was at it again as John Pettit fired a slap shot to give the Mustangs a 3-0 lead with four minutes remaining in the period.

“After that first period there was only 15 minutes gone,” Titans head coach Ralph Shaw said. “We still had a lot of hockey left to play. We wanted to come out and refocus our energy and go from there. We were relaxed and focused and we did not capitalize.”

The Titans came out strong in the second period, fir­ing four quick shots which added to the 11 they got off in the first, but it would be the Mustangs who would capi­talize on another goalie deflection. Chris Genova scored the fourth and final goal for Fairfield, leaving the Titans down four with 20 minutes of hockey to play.

“Our idea was, ‘Hey we can come back from this. It is not something that we cannot accomplish,’” said Shaw.

The Titans took advantage of a power play to start the third period as captain Brendan Kane’s slap shot only 42 second into the stanza left the Titans trailing by three. But that would be as close as Sheehan would get as the Mustangs defense held strong and goalie Dan O’ Rouke continued to emulate a brick wall in net, stopping 20 shots on the night.

One of the Titans many goals at the beginning of the season was to make it to make a deep postseason run and while the outcome may not have been a storybook finish, they still finished their season 17-6 overall.

“You are always disappointed but you have to look at the season you had and be proud of what you have ac­complished,” said Shaw. “Getting to Ingalls rink was a goal for us. So it is disappointing, but when you look at the positive things we have done I am very proud of the team.”

 

 

 

 

 

Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe defeats Sheehan 4-1

 

By Dan Nowak
New Haven Register
March 12, 2008

 

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT - Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe goalie Dan O’Rourke put on a clinic with 17 saves, and his teammates backed him up.

In the first period, Chris Kittredge scored off a breakaway down center ice, deking left and sending the puck into a wide-open right side of the net for a 1-0 lead at 3:53. Peter Silvestri scored a power-play goal to make it 2-0 at 9:23, and 50 seconds later, John Pettit made it 3-0 off another breakaway.

The Mustangs (13-9-1) padded the lead at 4-0 in the second period when Chris Genova scored off a rebound.

For the most part, O’Rourke stymied the high-scoring offense of the Titans (17-7), who had only 10 quality shots.

Sheehan finally broke through in the third period when Brendan Kane scored a power-play goal 42 seconds into the period. But that was as close as the Titans could get.

“That was a tough first period. They had the lucky bounces, and we didn’t,” Sheehan coach Ralph Shaw said. “Their goalie played well for them and robbed Tyler (Timek) on a great shot.

“In the second period, we had a lot of hockey to play and thought we could come back. But they just kept controlling the puck. Our goal was to get here to Ingalls Rink. We’re disappointed in the loss, but I’m proud of what these guys accomplished this season.”

 

 

 

 

Fairfield Hockey in Division II Final

 

By Tim Parry
Fairfield Citizen-News
March 12, 2008

 

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT - Where would the Fairfield boys co-op ice hockey team be this late in the season without discipline, a hot goaltender, and the blogosphere?

The team would probably in the stands at Ingalls Rink, watching the CIAC Division II tournament.

Fairfield proved bloggers from two daily newspapers wrong again on Tuesday and upset No. 3 seed Sheehan 4-1 to advance to the Division II championship game.

"We're an extremely underrated team, and we finally got hot at the perfect time," said senior captain Joe McKeon.

The skaters made up of student-athletes from Fairfield's two public high schools will face off against Amity, a 3-2 winner Tuesday over Trinity Catholic, in the title bout 7 p.m. tonight at Ingalls.

Fairfield was able to hold onto a 3-0 lead after a very odd first period, which saw Sheehan control the puck in the Fairfield zone for most of the time.

But junior goaltender Dan O'Rourke stopped all 11 shots that the Spartans took, including four while they had a 5-on-3 power play.

O'Rourke has given up just two goals, both on power plays, in three Division II tournament games.

"I feel real confident, like I can stop anything right now," O'Rourke said. "My defense is doing a great job keeping the puck out of the way. Hopefully we can play like this (tonight) and we can win the championship."

In contrast, Fairfield took just six shots in the first period, and got the puck past Sheehan goaltender Cameron Sidwell three times.

In fact, Fairfield scored on its first shot of the game.

At 3:53 of the first, senior captain Chris Genova intercepted a pass by a Sheehan player and hit senior captain Chris Kittredge in full stride at center ice. Kittredge beat the Sheehan transition and Sidewll for a 1-0 lead.

Fairfield made it 2-0 at 9:23 when senior defenseman Pete Silvestri took a pass from senior defenseman Alex Moore at the blue line and shot it through a lane of players.

Just 50 seconds later, junior forward John Pettit rebounded a Silvestri shot that went off Sidwell's glove to make it a 3-0 game.

Fairfield ended its scoring at 9:11 in the second, when Chris Genova put home a shot by James Robinson.

Sheehan's lone goal came just 42 seconds into the third period on a power play, when Brendan Kane redirected a shot by Michael Busillo.

But that was the only flaw on the stat sheet for O'Rourke, who had 20 saves.

"Any coach will tell you that when you get into the playoffs with a hot goalie, you can go a long way," Fairfield head coach Adolph Brink said. "He's been playing well, and that's a credit to our defense as well. They've let him see the puck so he hasn't had to flop around and make the acrobatic saves. He's been seeing them and making them, and that's what you want from your goalie right now."

Fairfield is in a CIAC state tournament bracket for the fourth straight year, and never qualified before Brink took the helm in the 2004-05 season. The team was in the semifinals of the Division III bracket in 2005-06, and lost to Newington.

But there's something they learned that day that carried over to Tuesday: Ingalls Rink is nothing like its home rink, Wonderland of Ice, or any other arena they've played in.

"It gets hot there real quick," Brink said of the Yale arena. "It's something you have to get real used to. Both teams got gassed real quick.

"Our game is based on speed, so when both teams slowed down in the first period, I started getting a little bit nervous. They were as tired as we were, so we had to play smart."

So why isn't there any love for Fairfield from outside the Fairfied County media? Perhaps it's the fact that all four Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference teams that qualified for the CIAC Division I tournament were knocked out in the opening round.

But Brink wasn't thinking like other FCIAC coaches. Instead of maxing out its schedule with league games, Brink prepped his team for the Division II tournament by scheduling Chreshire twice, eventual Division I top seed East Haven, and the same Sheehan team it beat on Tuesday.

"We played nine Division I games this season, and tonight was an example of that competition," Brink said. "We didn't play our best game, but we knew how to shut things down. That maturity level has come from playing these tough teams day in and day out."