Ridgefield Boys Fall to St. Joseph In FCIAC Hockey Semifinals

The Ridgefield boys hockey team fell short in its bid to reach the FCIAC title game Wednesday, falling to St. Joseph 3-2 at the Terry Conners Ice Rink.

Ryan Corcoran scored the eventual winning goal midway through the third period for the Cadets, who avenged a 4-1 loss to Ridgefield last week and will take on New Canaan in Saturday's title game at Terry Conners.

New Canaan advanced to the final with a suprisingly difficult 1-0 win over rival Darien on earlier Wednesday.

Despite the loss, the Tigers outshot the Cadets 39-21, including 29-12 through two periods.  

“They took advantage of their opportunities and we waited too long to show up, and once we did, their goalie played well,” Ridgefield coach Shaun Gallagher said.

With St. Joseph holding a 2-1 lead, John Ferguson caught Ridgefield pinching and led a two-on-break with Corcoran after intercepting a pass at the blue line.  Ferguson feed a deft pass just over the stick of a Ridgefield defenseman and Corcoran beat Ridgefield goaltender Nate Gliedman at 8:45 of the third.

Timmy Kelly scored basically a meaningless goal for the Tigers with 1.8 seconds remaining.

St. Joseph goaltender Zach Carrano also spearheaded the victory with some stellar play in net, especially against Ridgefield star Sean Wilkinson. Carrano stoned the Tigers' star three times from close range, including twice in the third period.

Each time in the final period, Carrano made toe saves when it appeared Wilkinson was in position to tap the puck into the net.

At 8:37 of the first period, Ryan Corcoran's brother Pat scored St. Joseph's first goal, picking an errant defensive zone pass out of the air and shooting from point blank range in front of the Ridgefield net.

In addition to assisting on the winning goal, Ferguson scored early in the second to make it 2-0. Ridgefield outshot the Cadets 11-5 in the second,  but was unable to capitalize.

The Tigers finally got on the board five minutes into the third period on the power play.  Johnny Richards tipped Aidan Scott’s point shot past Carrano after Wilkinson had fed the puck to Scott.

Ridgefield pulled Gliedman with just over a minute remaining and had several chances, but didn't score until it was basically too late.

With under two seconds remaining, the Tigers didn't even get the puck into the Cadets' zone off the ensuing faceoff.