The Hall High School boys hockey team defeated New Milford 7-2 on Saturday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Rink in West Hartford.

Sports reporting is sponsored by Keating Agency Insurance

By Paul Palmer

Connor McHugh had three goals and an assist as the Hall Titans hockey team snapped back from a 7-0 loss last time out with the 7-2 win over New Milford on Saturday.

“We had a players meeting Thursday (after the loss) and talked about uniting for a common goal and that paid off today,” said McHugh, the senior captain. Linemate Charlie Ganey added a goal and two assists and the Titans put it away with three goals in a 1:22 stretchy late in the game.

“This was a nice bounceback game by the team today,” said Hall coach Colin O’Connor.

It took McHugh, Ganey, and their third linemate Ben Putnam less than three minutes to put the game’s first goal on the board. The Titans came out flying and on the play it was Putnam getting a shot from the left side that Green Wave goalie Ryley Boisvert blocked, but Ganey grabbed the puck, went left to right behind the net, and found McHugh all alone on the right side of the net and he made no mistake.

“Putnam and I work well together and Charlie was just put back on our line,” said the senior goal scorer. It’s part of an overall move by the Hall coaches to generate more goals from their shots.

“Ganey and McHugh move fast and we have been trying to find things that work,” O’Connor said. “We needed someone that could play with them.”

Hall nearly gifted New Milford the tying goal minutes later when they gave up a 3-on-none breakaway. With four Hall players down deep, a Hall defender failed to hold the puck in at the blue line. Cam Gagnon carried the puck in for the Green Wave and snapped a rising wrister that goalie Matthew Bonner blockered away over the back glass.

Hall would have other chances to score but fired wide on a 2-on-1 and Boisvert stopped a shot from Jonah Rottman at the point. Hall dominated play in the first and nearly doubled the lead when Putnam’s shot clanked off the far post and then playing shorthanded Ben Goldstein had his stick check just as he let go a shot on net and the puck went wide of the net.

While it was good to carry the lead into the locker room having outshot New Milford 19-7, it was still a one-goal game and O’Connor had a message for his players during the break. “I told them they (New Milford) had a small bench so we had to go out and play at a high speed, knowing that they would get tired later in the game – and they went out and executed the game plan,” the coach said.

The Green Wave came out flying to start the second 15 minutes of play, but could not dent the net behind Bonner. With Hall later on the powerplay McHugh carried in along the left boards and found Putnam open in the middle of the ice and delivered him a perfect, flat pass. Putnam put it on net and Boisvert made the save, but lost track of the puck. It had trickled behind him but not across the goal line before being cleared towards the blue line. McHugh was quick to the puck and snapped off a wrister that squeezed between Boisvert’s pads and into the net. The goal was originally credited to Putnam, but he said it had crossed the line before he got a stick on the puck. “I was usually a pass first guy but this year I tried be more of a goal scorer,” McHugh said. “But I see we succeed if I do both.”

McHugh and Ganey nearly teamed up for another Hall goal at 6:50 as McHugh head manned a pass to put Ganey a stride ahead of a New Milford defender. But Evan Burgess managed to get his stick across Ganey’s before he took his shot, and the puck drifted past the post. As Hall went for the rebound, it was New Milford’s John King coming away with the puck and a head of speed. He carried in on Bonner, shielded the puck from a defender, and cut left to right in front of the goal, opening up Bonner and sliding the puck through the 5-hole for his team’s first goal.

They also took three penalties in the period which allowed Hall to regain momentum and once again dominate possession and shots. Jack Croce let a wrist shot go from the blue line through a mass of humanity and Boisvert somehow tracked the puck and made the save. McHugh would later hit the post just missing his third of the game. The Titans took a penalty with 3:32 remaining, but it was Hall that would benefit. Just 30 seconds in it was Ganey forechecking when King drew the puck back on his stick to make a pass. He was standing in front of his own goal and lost the handle and the puck slid past Boisvert and into his own net. Ganey was the closest Hall player to the play and was given credit for the goal that made it 3-1.

New Milford needed to start generating more offense having been outshot 25-7 in the second and 44-14 through two periods, but it was Hall getting shot after shot on Boisvert from all angles and distances. The senior goalie stood strong in the early part of the final period making several good saves to try and keep his team in the game. It nearly paid off when Jonathan DeRoberts picked up a loose puck and let a wrister go from the left of Bonner that the goalie knocked down and his defense cleared away five minutes in.

It would be the combination of Ganey, Putnam, and McHugh responding for Hall at 7:48 after Bonner and company withstood a sustained attack from new Milford. It began with Ganey’s clearing pass from the right side that Putnam tipped ahead to a breaking McHugh. He came in alone on Boisvert and buried between the goalie’s pads for the hat trick goal and a 4-1 lead.

Both teams would have chances to score as the period wound on. Bonner had several strong saves including absorbing a shot from King in the mid-section and holding on for the face-off. The floodgates would open for the Titans when they came off a power play, and at 3:26 it was Putnam sending an offensive zone draw into the corner and McHugh racing to gain control. He went behind that net, pivoted and sent a pass in front to Nick Thaisz, and the junior scored his first varsity goal with a wrist shot. Forty-four seconds later it was Ben Goldstein scoring for Hall when he deposited a wicked wrister into the net over the shoulder of Boisvert with Dillon McDermott picking up the assist. Fifty-one seconds later Hall would score its seventh and final goal of the game when Ganey controlled the puck down low and McDermott raced in unmarked from the blue line, took Ganey’s past and roofed it, popping the water bottle on top of the net.

New Milford would close out the game’s scoring with :55 left when DeRoberts made a nice move to go around two Hall players between center ice and the blue line. He carried it to the left of Bonner and then snapped a high shot back across the grain and into the right side for the ninth goal of the game and a final score of 7-2. It was the Green Wave’s 12th shot of the period – the most in any single frame of the game.

Bonner turned in another solid game, making 24 saves for Hall and earning praise from his coach and his captain. “Bonner came back from the last game with confidence,” O’Connor said.

McHugh also praised Bonner and the team’s defense not only for this win, but for how they have performed all year. “Matt is a great goalie,” said McHugh. “When our defense plays their game back there we have full trust in them.”

Game notes

• Hall has now won four of its last five games.
• The Titans are now 7-3-1 and are ranked No. 8 by the CIAC in Division III.
• They are back on the ice Tuesday against the Suffield Co-op before games against 4-8 Smith/Tolland and one-win Newington. On the 9th it is a huge showdown when they host the unbeaten Terriers. Hall fell to them 3-1 earlier this season.
• McHugh’s 4-point performance comes after he and his coach had some conversations about how the senior captain could get his teammates more involved. “I felt he (McHugh) was trying to carry the team too much,” O’Connor said. “I told him to make his teammates around him better and he took ahold of that today.”
• Among those watching the game today were the members of the Hall/Conard girls ice hockey team. Ranked third by the CIAC, the team shutout Woodstock 5-0 earlier in the day and stopped to cheer on the boys team after arriving back at Veterans Memorial. Coach Jared Cohane’s team has an 11-game win streak, having last lost to powerhouse Darien 2-0 on Dec. 13 in the team’s second game of the season. The 10-1 Blue Wave is the top ranked team in Connecticut Girls Ice Hockey. Hall/Conard also holds a two-game lead over East Catholic for the top spot in the CCC standings. The two teams have split their season series.

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