Ridgefield Boys Hockey Rolls Into FCIAC Finals

After losing to St. Joseph in the FCIAC playoffs and Division I state tournament last season, the Ridgefield boys hockey team was fired up for Wednesday's FCIAC semifinal against the Cadets, and it showed in the Tigers' play.

Sean Wilkinson and Christopher Morrow each scored two goals as Ridgefield overwhelmed St. Joseph 6-0 at the Terry  Conners Rink to advance to Saturday's tier one finals against Darien (6 p.m.).

The Blue Wave reached the final with a 5-2 victory over New Canaan in the first game of Wednesday's semifinal doubleheader.

"We were really excited to play St. Joe's after last year," said Tigers coach Sean Gallagher, whose team improved to 19-2. "It was good the way things were set up.  It gave us an opportunity for our seniors to rectify the situation from last year."

Since Ridgefield hadn't play in more than a week,  Gallagher wasn't quite sure how his team would respond, but the Tigers came out flying, peppering Cadets goaltender Ron Johnson with 21 shots in the first period.

St. Joseph (15-7) couldn't keep up with Ridgefield's speed, especially Wilkinson, who was the best player on the ice.

The Tigers beat Johnson twice in the first period, but it could have been a whole lot worse if not for the sometimes spectacular play of the St. Joseph netminder.

Ridgefield finally broke throw on Morrow's first goal with 4:36 left in the first period before Terrance Guider made it 2-0 1:22 later.

The Tigers broke it open, however, with three goals in the first 5:17 of the second. Wilkinson tallied his first on the power play at 1:45, Vincent Rella beat Johnson with a wrister from the right circle and 3:02 and Morrow converted a feed from Timothy Kelly at 5:17.

Wilkinson capped the scoring with the prettiest goal on the night, using his speed to registered a shorthanded breakaway goal at 7:18.

"We weren't really sure what to expect because we had eight days off from our last game," Gallagher said. "So that was a big key to our success tonight, just getting off to a fast start and dictating the tempo."

Ridgefield dominated throughout, outshooting St. Joseph 46-18, although the Cadets did blank the Tigers in the third period when Marc VanEtten replaced Johnson and made 11 saves.

The FCIAC playoffs is setting up as a revenge tour for the Tigers, who will try to avenge a 4-2 loss to Darien that snapped their 14-game winning streak on Feb. 11.

"They're a good team," Gallagher said. "They're extremely deep, their goaltender (Max Rothson) does a good job in net. It's going to be a different type of game.

"They move the puck into the offensive zone very fast and they do a good job of just keeping it simple, getting it deep and throwing it on the net. We have some work to do in practice over the next two days."