NH Hockey Opens the Season with 12-0 Blitz of the T-Birds

North Haven High opened its hockey season Wednesday night with a wild display of offensive fireworks. Launching 50 shots at North Branford’s beleaguered goalies, senior Corey Girard and sophomore Kyle Saroka, the Indians trampled the T-Birds 12-0 at the Northford Ice Pavilion.

Included in those 50 shots were three goals in the first period, four scores in the second, and then five more in a third period that saw the winners outshoot the Purple People 17-1.

After the blitz had ended, winning Coach Mike Violano said, “It’s hard to do much evaluating in a game like this, but the things I liked most were everybody saw action and each of our four lines scored.  I tried to stay wide and move the puck around. What else could we do in a situation like this? All I wanted us to do was execute and have everyone get their feet wet. I had guys scoring on shots from the top of the circle. It was also nice to see (NHHS goalie) Mike Amerone get a shutout.”

Indicative of the winners’ overall balance, 9 different players put the  puck into the net, and a total of 12 figured into the scoring. Co-Captains Mike Andreucci and Nash Garceau both scored a pair of goals and also picked up two assists each. Tyler Hines also scored twice and added an assist. Paul Donovan, Richie Mauri, and Jared Wentworth each scored a goal and two assists. The Indians recorded a total of 29 points.

North Branford is one of the four Division 2 teams NHHS plays in its 20 game schedule this winter.

The scoring got underway with 7 minutes and 1 second gone in the first period. Taking a mid ice feed from Andreucci, Co-Captain Tyler Benson came flying down the left side, fired the puck toward the net to have it tipped in by Garceau.

At 9:40, Donovan roared down the slot with a feed from Kevin McCoy, and beat Saroka.

Camped to the right of the net, Andreucci banged home the third North Haven goal at 10:20.

After outshooting the Thunderbirds 15-3 and taking a 3-0 lead, NHHS added second period scores from McCoy, Co-Captain Jay Johns, Andreucci, and Hines.

Cruising along with a 7-0 advantage, the Indians closed out the lop-sided contest with third period goals by Garceau, Mauri, Wentworth, Donovan, and Justin Kenney.

“While we scored 12 goals and won this game easily, I still wasn’t pleased to see us at times not spread out and using the entire ice surface. On a 3-on-1, we had all 3 guys on the same side. With our depth, we need to spread things out across the whole surface. We also had six penalties. Fortunately, North Branford didn’t score when our guys were in the penalty box but you can’t allow a good team that many power plays. We also let North Branford into our zone too often,” Violano said.

He quickly added, “It was nice to see our younger guys play so much and both Paul Donovan and Kenney score their first varsity goals.”

The closest North Branford came to scoring occurred late in the second period. Eric Podbilski broke away at mid ice and came right down the slot. But Amerone stood his ground and smothered his bid.

Trying to find something positive to report about his team’s performance, T-Bird Coach Ralph Shaw said, “I’m proud of my kids for maintaining their discipline and control throughout the game. Offensively, we never got anything going and defensively, I thought we ran around too much. We have to focus more on our coverage in our defensive zone. We also didn’t capitalize on any of our power play opportunities. Give a lot of credit to North Haven. They have a good, strong team.”