Hall outshot its opponent 51-16 in a 2-0 win in boys hockey at Veterans Memorial Rink in West Hartford on Saturday.

Sports reporting is sponsored by Keating Agency Insurance

By Paul Palmer

The Hall Titans boys hockey team made it three in a row with a complete team 2-0 win over the EO Smith/Tolland Bucks on Saturday afternoon. Hall used a powerplay goal and a short-handed goal, while getting solid defense across the board, to earn the shutout.

“We are as dangerous on the penalty kill as we are on the powerplay and that makes other teams think,” said Hall head coach Colin O’Connor, who saw his team move to 6-2-1 on the season.

Titan goalie Matthew Bonner was tested early by the Bucks but was up to the task. Smith’s early pressure on offense saw the Titans ice the puck on several possessions, bringing the face-offs back into the Hall defensive zone. Five minutes in, the Bucks nearly made it pay off but John DiStefano’s rocket roared over the crossbar.

Things changed at 8:48 when Smith/Tolland took a tripping a penalty, putting Hall’s well-oiled powerplay unit on the ice. Hall made it pay off 1:24 into the advantage when Charlie DiBlasio used a strong entry to get the puck deep in the offensive zone. It ended up going back behind the net where Ben Goldstein picked it up, skated around the left side of the net, and deposited a backhander past goalie William Petrella for the 1-0 lead.

“Our first powerplay didn’t start out well, but we regrouped,” said O’Connor.

Ben Putnam nearly doubled the Titans’ lead with just over a minute to go when he took a drop pass from Connor McHugh and got off the shot on goal. At the other end, Bonner made his best save of the period with :18 to go, and covered the puck to end the threat from the Bucks. DeBlasio nearly made it a 2-0 game as time was running out in the first when he and Ganey came in on a 2-on-1, but Petrella flashed out his right pad to clear the shot into the corner. Hall outshot Smith/Tolland 14-6 over the opening 15 minutes.

The hosts started the second period strong with Putnam having a good early chance, and Ganey just missing getting a tip on a pass out of the corner that crossed right in front of the goal. The visitors took another penalty 4:30 into the second and Hall dominated the advantage, keeping the puck in the attacking zone for the first :58 before the Bucks managed to clear it. Despite the continued pressure, Petrella stood strong, making five saves in the 2:00 span.

The Hall offense was so dominant in the second that Bonner did not see the puck in the opening nine minutes of play. With 4:17 to go, it was Bonner coming up with one of his best of the game when DiStefano found himself alone to the left of the goalie after a great cross ice pass, but the senior goalie pushed across and got his pads in place to make the save, leaving DiStefano to grab his head in disbelief.

The dominance by Hall was broken with just over four minutes to play when Ganey took an interference call putting the Bucks on the powerplay.

With 11 seconds to go in the penalty kill, Hall’s Jack Croce flipped a clearing pass out to center ice. Putnam raced forward gathering the puck along the left side and coming in with McHugh streaking up the middle ahead of a lone back checker. Putnam laid a perfect pass onto the tape of McHugh’s stick and he tapped it in past Petrella as he tried to get back across the net.

“We are a fast team and when we work hard there are not many teams that can play with us,” said O’Connor. In the second period Hall outshot the Bucks 17-5 for a two-period total of 31-11.

Carrying the 2-0 lead into the last period, Hall would go back on the powerplay just :50 in. Once again, the Titans showed good puck possession and passing, but could not get another past Petrella.

Back at even strength, Alex Sutton had a great chance to cut the Hall lead in half when he came rushing in and got a nice feed from Brandon Fantry behind the net. He tried to open up Bonner as the goalie went right to left, but Bonner stayed big as he went down and managed to get has back leg on the chance. Smith/Tolland had another good chance to narrow the deficit when Goldstein took a roughing call at 10:27 for Hall.

Hall’s penalty-kill unit held up well again, in particular DeBlasio and McHugh, and stopped the Bucks. McHugh had two good chances on Petrella in addition to holding the puck in at the point.

“It is nice to have two strong skaters in the middle,” O’Connor said. “It opens both ends of the ice for us.”

With 7:25 to go, Smith/Tolland’s Sutton made a nice one-handed play to get past Hall’s Zach Orsey just past center ice. The move sent him in alone on Bonner, but Orsey pivoted and raced back on defense to cut off Sutton as he closed in on goal, and pus the player and puck into the corner.

With time running down, the Titans kept up the pressure at both ends. On offense Jordan Scher had a good chance that was deflected by a defender, Goldstein’s shot from the half boards was blockered away by Peralta, and McHugh won a face-off and carried the puck straight at the goal but saw his shot deflected high.

Things tightened up in the last 90 seconds when the Bucks pulled Petrella for the extra skater. Then 50 seconds later Putnam took a penalty to make it a 6-on-4 advantage for Smith/Tolland. But once again, it was the Titan defense and transition game proving the difference as the Bucks were never able to get a dangerous shot on goal, and Hall actually managed to force a face-off in the Bucks’ zone at :19 to force Petrella to return to the ice.

Once again Hall held a huge shot advantage in the period with a 20-5 margin for a total of 51-16 in the game.

“In our last five or six games we have had a high shot count and kept the other team’s shot count low,” said O’Connor. “I’m looking for a little more three-dimensional shooting from us.”

The coach was also happy with the way his team played in the third period to earn the team the shutout. “Bonner came out with a point to prove and I thought the team played well in front of him,” the coach said. “They played sound defensively, especially in front of the net.”

Game notes

• O’Connor was sporting an ice pack on his head after the game, the victim of friendly fire. An attempted clear by a Hall defender sailed into the team’s bench and hit the coach.
• Hall is slated to play unbeaten Rocky Hill on Monday – but the snowstorm may force a postponement.
• The Titans will be home to the Eagles Co-op on Wednesday.
• Hall finds itself sitting in 10th place in the CIAC Division III rankings.
• There are 10 games left in the regular season for Hall. Five are against opponents playing .500 or better. The other five are against teams with a combined win total of seven on the season – including a Feb. 12 rematch with Conard who beat Hall earlier this season for one its three wins.

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