By Brittany Burke
DANBURY, Conn.- The CCSU hockey team swept the ACHA Northeast Regionals this weekend, placing them as the number three seed headed into nationals being held in Simsbury, CT March 17-20.
In a single elimination tournament, the Blue Devils were able to defeat the Bryant Bulldogs, 8-4 and the University of New Hampshire Wildcats, 5-4 in order to advance to the nationals.
“For us seniors this is our second go around so it’s pretty special going out on a high note,” said Sunday night’s starting goalie, Carmine Vetrano.
CCSU got off to a fast start Saturday against the Bulldogs scoring three goals in less than two minutes in the first. The goals, coming from Ryan Paglinco, Jeff Pease and Sam Holl on a breakaway gave the Blue Devils the early advantage.
“They were fired up. There’s a lot of seniors who have a lot of things to play for right now, and they were fired up coming into it, and they got off to a great start,” said Head Coach Ben Adams.
Offensively CCSU maintained good puck control throughout most of the match up and repeatedly attacked the net until they heard the whistle blow. That type of drive led to CCSU’s fourth goal of the game with 11:51 to play by Michael Joy from Ryan Stanley.
CCSU out shot Bryant 10 shots on goal to nine, while making 40 percent of their shots, which gave them the lead going into the first intermission.
“We started strong in the first period, which helped,” said senior Mike DiClemente. “We got three goals in a row, which really set us towards a full game.”
The Blue Devils got the second period off to a quick start when the combination of Joe Dabkowski from Stanley led to the fifth straight goal for CCSU. The positives kept building for CCSU as Jonathan Knobloch made his first of three goals in the tournament, capitalizing on their second power play in the period with the assist from Thomas Carroll.
With the 6-0 advantage CCSU began to get comfortable towards the end of the second. The comfortable feeling led to two back to back penalties and two Bryant goals late in the period.
At the beginning of the third Bryant came out and scored with 17:32 left in regulation, shortening CCSU’s lead to three.
Despite the Blue Devil’s minor lull beginning the in the third Knobloch, a freshman was able to propel the Blue Devils’ momentum once again when he scored an unassisted goal.
Dabkowski’s goal from Ryan Beaulieu with only 3:55 left sealed the win for the Blue Devils, keeping their season alive for at least one more game.
“We came out strong, kind of had a little bit of a lull in the second into the third period and kind of sat back a little bit, but overall I think it went really well,” said Dabkowski. “We rolled four lines throughout the whole game; we had production from the top line seniors to the freshmen who were in the lineup.”
The Blue Devils spent the second half of the season honing the depth of their lines, adding to the team’s overall versatility and dimension. With new players in the line up the team was able to hide their major playmakers and build winning combinations using the entire roster.
In past games the ability to spread out the lines has worn down the opponents, who possess less depth, and that same strategy worked well against the Bulldogs. Thirteen different players had a hand in scoring against the Bulldogs, three of which came from the freshmen in the lineup.
Despite the win the Blue Devils still had that period of time where they would score multiple goals and then go into a period of hibernation and sit back in their comfort zone. While they had three productive periods they weren’t consistent enough, and entered Sunday’s game looking to play a full game.
CCSU vs. UNH
The game against UNH brought on a new line up for CCSU. Instead of starting goalie Greg Coco, who aided the win against Bryant, the Blue Devils played veteran Vetrano.
CCSU struggled a bit in the first keeping constant control of the puck, but stepped up defensively in front of Vetrano and helped to deflect the shots to keep the score down.
“The guys did a good job in front me, blocking shots and clearing the puck,” said Vetrano. “Yea I mean a couple got through, just a couple breakdowns, but games in the past that would’ve came back and haunted us; knock the wind out of our sails, but we knew what was on the line so we just stepped it up after.”
CCSU had the lead when the clock ran down in the first, following a goal made by Knobloch from Erich Stoneman and Joy after fighting in front of the net to earn the advantage.
The Blue Devils outshot the Wildcats in the first and were the first to score in the second. Holl got the stick side goal off a pass from Joy and put the Blue Devils at two with 14:43 left.
Once they had the lead both CCSU and UNH were given two minute minors, CCSU for roughing and UNH for hitting from behind.
Shortly after the two minutes of four on four CCSU lapsed and allowed for two goals to be scored by UNH, tying the teams at two apiece.
With the scored tied the Blue Devils managed to get another stick side goal, Holl’s second from Mike DiClemente and Dabkowski. Less than two minutes later, following suit of scoring multiple goals at once, Carroll scored an unassisted goal putting them ahead by two with 5:25 left in the period.
Dabkowski managed to take advantage of the power play early in the third, but then allowed for two additional UNH goals, shortening the lead to just one with fewer than two to play. As the clock wound down UNH pulled their goalie for the extra man, but CCSU held on.
As the buzzer sounded for the end of the game the Blue Devils bench erupted into a fury of emotion and the entire team rushed to the ice to join their teammates.
“I didn’t want it to end. I did not want it to end, and this lets it go a little further,” said DiClemente of his senior season and the bid to Nationals.
CCSU is able to revel in their win for a short time before going back to work with their eyes set on the SECHL tournament in Albany March 5-7.
