Trumbull Falls To Top Seed Guilford In Division II Boys Hockey Semifinals

 Boys Hockey Coach Greg Maxey could have lived with the result, but it was the effort of his team that left him most disappointed.

Despite scoring the game's first goal less than two minutes into the contest, the Eagles were outshot 37-17 Monday and suffered a 4-2 loss to Guilford in the Division II semifinals at Ingalls Rink.

The top-seeded Indians (19-2-1) advanced to Friday's title game against Cheshire, a 2-1 overtime winner over Wilton in Monday's first semifinal.

"We kind of let off the gas," Maxey said. "They really took it to us in the second period. We had four shots on net with two power plays. You're not going to win like that. They kind of out-worked us, beat us up a little bit in that period."

Things looked promising for the Eagles (11-10-2) when Alex Hyde tapped in a cross-ice pass from Shaun Kennedy to complete a pretty three-on-one break at 1:53.

Trumbull held on to the lead until Christian Cattaruzza beat sophomore Matt Paolini with a blast from just inside the blue line with 2:38 left in the opening stanza.

Guilford coach Ralph Russo was glad the Indians answered before the end of the first period.

"It was a nice bounce-back from [allowing the early] goal," he said. "You don't want to fall behind in a playoff game. You don't want to get into a hole. [The Trumbull goal] was a little bit of a wakeup call. The kids responded well."

The goal energized the Indians, who took over in the second period, scoring twice in the first six minutes. James Mackey converted a rebound to put Guilford ahead at 1:16 before Billy Ring delivered the back-breaker just over four minutes later while the Indians were shorthanded.

Mackey converted a two-on-one when he beat Paolini with a quick wrist shot from the right circle.

"Their top five, top seven guys really motored," Maxey said. "They're physical, they have good speed, but I didn't think we got after it as much as we needed to." 

Maxey dismissed jitters as the reason for his team's sluggish play at times since the Eagles also reached the semifinals last season.

"We should have had a little bit more poise than we showed out there, to be honest," he said. "Ultimately, I think we fell a little short of where we expected to be."

Still, freshman Vincent Russello gave Trumbull hope when he scored on a wraparound 5:31 into the third period to make it 3-2.

"Something always happens when he's out there," Maxey said. "He made the initial play to get it into the corner. He's had a number of big goals late in games for us. For a freshman, it's crazy."

Despite being outplayed, the Eagles now were only down a goal and they seemed to have some good fortune on their side as Cheshire hit three posts in the third period.

The Eagles knew they could come from behind, as they rallied from a two-goal deficit to defeat Westhill 5-4 in the quarterfinals on Friday.

But Trumbull allowed another two-on-one late in the game. With a lone defenseman back, Guilford's Troy Raccula took a  pass in the slot from Ring and buried the clincher with a one-timer at 13:59.

Paoloni stopped 33 shots for the Eagles while Luc Amatruda, also a sophomore, made 15 saves for the Indians.