Outplayed, outhustled, outshot, and outscored. That in a nutshell is the story of the Amity hockey team’s 2-0 Southern Connecticut Conference Division 1 loss to North Haven Saturday night at the Northford Ice Pavilion.
Offensively, the Indians outshot Amity 25-15 and defensively smothered the Spartans’ high-scoring first line of Corey Shea, Joe Bianchi, and Zach Dyken. With an aggressive fore-check, NHHS never let the Amity attack get going and defensively, equally aggressive back checking protected goalie Mike Amarone as he notched his third shutout of the season. The win snapped the Indians’ 3-game losing streak and improved their record to 5-8, while the losers drop to 6-9.
“We knew Shea had good speed, so we took neutral ice away from Amity. We used a different fore-check. We kept him outside and didn’t go in as deep as we usually do. That helped us prevent the odd-man rush,” said NHHS Coach Mike Violano.
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North Haven packed all of its scoring into a 50 second span of the first period. At the five-minute mark, Dyken broke free and came charging directly at Amarone, who alertly foiled the break away attempt. After the puck sailed behind Amarone and around the boards, Rich Mauri picked it up on his stick, came down ice and fed it to Co-Captain Tyler Benson. He flipped it past Amity goalie Alec Mansfield and into the net. Just 50 seconds later, Jared Wentworth, who was camped to the right of the goal, deflected a shot off the stick of Mike Andreucci and it rolled through Mansfield’s legs at 6:19.
According to Amity Coach Gary Lindgren, “We got off to a lousy start and then got outplayed. We weren’t pinching like we should have been doing. North Haven played a strong defensive game and wanted it more than we did tonight. We played better in the second period and then picked it up even more in the third period. We knew they have problems in goal, but we let their guy (Amarone) off the hook. He played really well tonight.”
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Amity was outshot 11-4 in the first period and did not get off a shot during the last half of that opening session.
Violano has criticized Amarone during the season for his inconsistent focus and concentration in goal. This time, he had nothing but praise for his junior ‘keeper.
He said, “You can’t do what we did tonight without a goal tender. Amity took some good shots, but Mike and our defense limited than to only one shot at a time. We knew that if we gave him sufficient protection and limited the shots taken, Mike has the capability to do the job. All he needs to understand is that he has to be confident in himself because we al know that he has the ability do the job.”
Following a scoreless second stanza, Amity came out flying in the third session. Despite being outshot 6-2, Amarone and his teammates all stood tall. Amity went on the power play when Karl Anderson was penalized for holding at 6:21. During the two minute extra-man session, Amity attacked the NHHS net with great fervor. Lindgren reported that his team hit the post four times during that assault on the net. Shortly thereafter Mansfield thwarted Bensen break-away. Using his blocker very effectively, Amarone did the same to thwart the Spartans’ Riley Hine at the other end of the rink.
With 1:31 left to play, Lindgren pulled Mansfield off the ice and replaced him with an extra skater, but not even that gamble worked.
He added, “Alec has been strong in goal for us all year and he kept us in the game tonight. At times, I think we rely on him too much. I told my guys to shoot the puck low. We knew they were vulnerable in goal, but we kept shooting it up high. North Haven played well tonight, but I’m very disappointed with our play.”
It was a totally different story in the North Haven locker room as Violano said, “This was our best overall effort this season. We held one guy back to eliminate one of their forwards and kept pinching down low.”
