Dragons Fly Past Griffins in 6-0 Win

Austin Blanco opened and closed the scoring for the Brick Dragons in their win over the Monsignor Donovan Griffins, on Thursday night, Feb. 3.

The junior forward beat MonDon goaltender Justin Woytanowski, 2:17 into the game as he buired a pass from defensemen Tyler Iannaronne. Blanco would find the back of the net again, with about four minutes remaining. As usual, the third line performed strong.

They were not the only line to impress, however.

In a balanced attack, the Green Dragons totaled an incredible 76 shots as they dominated time of possession.

Before the Griffins could register a shot on net, they were down three goals.

Following the Blanco goal, Tyler Martin scored his 11th goal of the year off passes from Patrick Kearns and Brendan Dowd. Martin planted himself on the back door of the crease - after a shot went wide, it bounced off the boards right to Martin. Martin, who had no angle standing on the goal line, banked it in off of Woytanowski's pads.

Brendan Dowd won a faceoff in the MonDon zone and, as the top line has done so many times this year, turned a simple faceoff win into a goal. Matt Gumina came sweeping around the circle as Dowd tied up the Griffin center. Gumina beat Woytanowski with a slick backhand and the Dragons were up 3-0 seven minutes in.

The Dragons held a dominant 26-2 shot advantage after one.

"It was really simple," said head coach Bob Auriemma. "The game plan was to just shoot the puck."

It's safe to say Brick carried out the game plan perfectly, getting 76 on net.

Surprisingly, the Dragons failed to score in to second period, but they managed to push their shot advantage to 46-5. Pat Kearns' heads-up play kept the shut out intact as he blocked a shot in front of the vacated net after Eddie Rafferty stopped an initial save.

To start the third, Rafferty made his best save of the night. A Griffin was closing in on a short breakaway; Rafferty kicked out his right pad to make the stop, pushing the puck to the corner and making it look easy. Rafferty stopped seven and Jake Lampasi came in late, turning away the only shot he faced.

Prior to Blanco's final tally in the third, David Kearns scored his sixth of the year with 8:59 to play. Tyler Martin added an assist which resulted in a two point game for the junior.

Defensemen Brian Murphy sandwiched the two goals as he put Brick up 5-0 with six minutes to play. A heavy point blast found its way through to the net and found twine, giving Murphy his third of the year. Kearns had the assist.

With a game against CBA coming up, Auriemma is looking forward to see how his Dragons stack up.

"It's a great measuring stick," said Auriemma, "especially with the state playoffs and the Handchen cup coming up."

When the two teams meet, Brick will be looking for revenge as CBA gave them their only loss thus far this season.