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Sports

IceCats Topped by Northwest Catholic 5-2 to Finish Season

IceCats finish season with most wins in team history.

The top seeded Brookfield-Bethel-Danbury IceCats had their season ended by the eighth seeded Northwest Catholic Indians 5-2 at the Spurrier-Snyder Rink at Wesleyan College. The Indians will go on to face Watertown-Pomperaug at Yale’s Ingalls rink in the semifinals.

The first period was evenly played, with NWC carrying the play at times.  The Indians got on the board first with 5:04 left in the period, when Patrick Melanson got the puck past Ice Cats’ goalie Luiz Dibble. Tanner Vaughan and Jeff Greenwood assisted on the goal.

The IceCats knotted the game at one with a goal with 1:23 left in the period.  Steven Segiet broke into the offensive zone for the IceCats. He snapped the puck over Indians goalie Matt Greenwood to finish the period deadlocked at one. Matt Hallock and Andrew Creaturo registered assists on Segiet’s equalizer.

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The second period saw the ice tilt in favor of the Indians in a big way. Coach Rusty Granacker knew the second period would be critical, as the Ice Cats have let their opponents into some games with shaky second periods. 

“We’ve had a lot of trouble with the second period in the last quarter of the season,” Granacker said. Last night, the second period iced the IceCats season, as the Indians scored four unanswered goals.

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The Indians’ second goal of the game came off of a turnover, with Alex Hunter bringing the puck into the IceCats’ zone. He skated to just above the top of the circles, and wristed a shot that seemed to handcuff BBD goalie Dibble. Jeff Greenwood and Zach Hunter assisted on Alex Hunter’s tally.

With Andrew Creaturo in the box on a cross checking penalty with 7:40 left in the period, NWC had a chance to add some insurance to their lead.  They were already carrying the play, and that continued on the man advantage. After an offensive face-off, Melanson found captain A.J. Massaro who found the back of the net with what would end up as the game winning goal. 

The Indians’ fourth goal of the night came on another play that had BBD goalie Dibble moving across his crease. Jeff Greenwood brought the puck out of the left wing corner with Nick Blaszka trying to poke the puck away from behind. Massaro was perched in front of Dibble taking away his eyes, as Melanson and Hallock battled for position in the slot. Greenwood brought the puck across the slot, and started to lose control of it. It would be the story of the Indians night, as the puck ended up on Melanson’s stick, and he roofed it over a sprawling Dibble to make it 4-1 Indians. 

The Indians last goal came off of a wrap around by Jeff Greenwood. Greenwood would get the puck on the right wing side and drive to the net. His initial shot was stopped by Dibble at the side of his crease, but the puck continued on to Greenwood’s stick. He saw that the initial save took Dibble out of position, and he carried the puck around the back side of the net and slipped it in the empty net.  5-1 Indians after two periods of play.

The Indians wanted to let the IceCats back into the game with two untimely penalties to end the period with a 5-3 advantage for the Ice Cats that carried over into the third period, and a third penalty to extend the 5-3 further into the third period.

It looked like the IceCats could claw their way back into this one, as John Vitti made the Indians pay, as he was credited for the goal with assists from Trevor Kurjiaka and Scott Martin.  The goal came just :17 into the third period.  hat would be all the offense the Ice Cats could muster, and they finished their season with the most wins in team history. 

Granacker said, “There can only be one state champion, but we finished the year with the most wins ever for Bethel Hockey.”

While this season ends in defeat, Granacker knows that there are good things to come for BBD Hockey.  “We’ve got a young team, we’ve got mostly freshman and sophomores," he said. "I think there could have been some nervousness with the state playoff game.”

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