Indians Blank New Milford 4-0.

By Matthew Yale

The Milford Indians hockey team needed a victory and got it Saturday night in a 4-0 victory over New Milford in a Division 2 contest at the Milford Ice Pavilion. The Indians displayed a strong offensive, defensive and special teams effort throughout the game. Milford scored 2 goals in both the first and second periods to improve its overall record to 4-7-1.

Junior T.J. Olsson, led Milford offensively with a goal and 2 assists. The Indians were 2-6 on the power play and the Green Wave was 0-for-6 on the man advantage. Olsson skated on a line with freshman Zach White and senior Andy Bostic, but special teams accounted for 3 of the 4 Milford goals. John McLenithan, a junior defenseman, added 1 goal and 1 assist for the Indians. Milford outshot New Milford 28-to-22 in the game.

“T.J. really played well,“ Milford Coach Sal Follo said. “ He has worked hard and is going both ways. He always has his head up. He is a junior and this is one of his best games all year. He was focused and put it all together. Olsson’s shorthanded goal was key for us as was Wargo’s power play a few minutes later (both in the second period). The power play worked quite well for us tonight. We released the puck right away. The key was our special teams tonight. Our penalty kill must be right up there.”

Follo added,“You could feel that we were ready to go in the locker room. We knew we could not let up in the game. We definitely back checked and played well defensively.  All three units contributed to the victory and that was the key. All 3 lines worked the puck around effectively on offense.  For the rest of the way ,we will go with three lines like we did tonight. Special teams were huge. We killed 2 penalties in the first period. Late in the game we were down 2 guys. Our guys really rose to the occasion and played very disciplined. We are very pleased. The team knows how important special teams are and we always work really hard at it and take pride in special teams play.”

The Indians killed two New Milford power plays in the first period which proved to be a key factor in the game. The Indians started to roll as Nick Depascale was dragged down from behind by Tyler Kirkwood of New Milford as he was streaking towards the net. A penalty shot was awarded to DePascale at 10:49. Depascale skated straight on towards New Milford goalie Matt DePalma, took 2 quick swipes at the loose puck after skating to the net. Although he couldn't get a stick on the puck, it tumbled between DePalma’s pads and past the goal line.

 Milford was able to pad the lead because Kirkwood was called for a 2 minute minor penalty, contact to the head, at 13.32. Olsson, then sent a hard pass to McLenithan, who took a slap shot from 5 feet inside the blue line from the right side and beat DePalma up high to his glove side for a 2-0 Milford lead at 14:04.

 “We kind of had a good rhythm going until the penalty shot was awarded in the first period,” New Milford Coach Danny Moore said. “Absolutely, Milford killing off the two power plays that we had in the first period was big. Our power play has suffered most of the season. We had (22) total shots and that is not going to get the job done.”

Milford outshot the Green Wave 14-6 in the second period.  After Milford failed to convert a power play opportunity, New Milford’s Kirkwood charged towards the Milford net but Ricky Cyr of Milford was called for slashing.  While the Wave was  on the power play, the puck bounced out to the blue line in the Milford attack zone and Olsson grabbed the puck. He quickly broke away from two New Milford defenders and skated all the way down the ice alone for a shorthanded goal beating DePalma up high to give the Indians led 3-0 at the 8:38 mark of the second period.

“The third goal was a real nice goal,” Moore said.”We got caught sleeping a little bit. Their kid (Olsson) was quick enough to get to the puck and get to the outside of our defense. It was a real nice shot. If we got the first goal of the game things may have been different. Milford’s goalie (Matt White) played real solid. This is how our season has been.”

 The Indians got a cushion on a power play goal scored by Craig Wargo on a wrist shot that beat DePalma up high into the corner of the net.  McLenithan and Olsson were given assists  at 14:29 of the second period.  Kirkwood  of New Milford was called for slashing to set up the power play opportunity.

In the third period the Green Wave attempted a comeback when Cyr was called for slashing at 11:36 and a penalty was called against Olsson of the Indians for tripping with 48 seconds remaining  from the first penalty. For 48 seconds New Milford had a two man advantage. Both teams called a timeout, but New Milford did not score on the 5 on 3 advantage and after that, the momentum was all with the Indians.

 White, a junior from Foran, picked up the shut out for Indians in goal, making 22 saves.

“Again Matt White played well in goal,” Follo said. “When we needed a big save he got it. Overall it was a nice team effort.”

Follo added, “Defensively we played really well.  We cleared out their men from in front of the net very effectively. All 4 of our defensemen--John McLenithan, Bill Stacy, Danny Cyr and Ben Marus played really strong tonight. Not many New Milford guys got through and we kept them to the outside . New Milford got non-percentage shots on offense for the most part.”

In the losing effort DePalma made 24 saves for New Milford. Its record is now 3-12.

Milford is next in action on Monday when they host Division 1 East Haven at the Milford Ice Pavilion at 7:30 pm.

Follo said, “I think we carried some momentum into tonight from our 4-1 loss to Guilford (last Tuesday) the Number 1 team in Division 2. We will need more efforts like tonight because we have 3 games a week for the next 3 weeks. We have our work cut out for us to make a serious run at States. If we work hard, qualifying for the state tournament is doable.”

“East Haven is quick, quick and quick. We must have our “A” game and be ready to go. There will be a full house here on Monday. It should be interesting.  Myself and Coach (Vin) Corso are both from East Haven. Goaltender John DePalma and forward Gerald Villecco  are players on my team that live in East Haven," he added.