What Goes Up, Must Come Down: Warriors Lose to Rams

In the first period of Thursday night's game, Wilton looked strong against a New Canaan team that had played back-to-back nights. The Rams came out a little sluggish and the Warriors capitalized on it early.

But Wilton seemed to lose focus and the Rams came roaring back behind an Olivia Hompe hat trick to win 5-2 and improve to 14-1 on the season. Wilton fell to 5-8-1 with the loss. 

"We stunk in the first period," said New Canaan head coach Rich Bulan, adding that playing two games in two nights might have worn the squad down a bit. "We definitely started out slow. We took 60-something shots yesterday, so I don't know if we tired ourselves out or what."

The scoring started almost right away in this contest, with Wilton scoring just 43 seconds into the game. Warrior wing Jackie Hojnacki took the puck by the boards and sent it ahead to Sam Blicht, who got behind the Ram defenders and found herself one on one with New Canaan goalie Charlotte Spitzfaden. She fired away and found the back of the net to give the Warriors their first and only lead of the game.

New Canaan then started applying their trademark pressure, and it paid off with 4:21 remaining when Bea Eppler took a feed in front of the net from Hompe and put it past Warrior goalie Emily Tucker to tie it up at 1-1.

The second period is where the Rams really came alive. They found their legs and went on a scoring binge that started with Hompe. She got away from her defender on the right side of the net, and took a feed from Eppler and Jana Persky for the quick score and the lead as the Rams went up 2-1.

New Canaan kept the action on the Wilton end of the ice, and Persky found herself right in front of the net to put a ricochet right past Tucker. Two minutes later Hompe took a pass from Madzie Carroll and broke away down the right side. She took it right at Tucker and went high, banging the puck off the crossbar and down into the net.

She wasn't done yet, however, as fifteen seconds later she scored again off assists from Persky and Shelby Barada, completing the hat trick and putting the Rams up 5-1.

"Olivia is just tremendous," Bulan said, adding that she has as much talent as any freshman he's coached. "Between her and Jana (Persky), we've got a great front line."

The third period was uneventful, as the Rams played mainly their third, fourth, and fifth lines. Nevertheless, they were able to hold the Warriors at bay, surrendering only one goal to Lara Schnitzler.

The Warriors next game is Feb. 10 against West Haven at 9 p.m. at the Rinks at Shelton.