RallyNorth.net

Pinkerton earns ugly win over rival Lancers

Sunday, December, 23 By Ryan Lambert
Staff writer

Londonderry netminder Joel Wilbrant figures that bouts of confusion and lack of focus were what doomed his team against Pinkerton.

The inexperienced, finesse-minded Lancers, with five freshmen on the roster, were simply overwhelmed by Pinkerton's physical first-period play. After the first, Pinkerton led by a goal but, by the time the game ended, the Astros emerged with a 5-1 victory thanks to some ugly play around the net.

"They played physical, and they banged us around, and some of our young players started to play a little tentative," said Londonderry coach Ken Kuzyk. "When that happens, we stop skating, and that changed the complexion of the game for us. Some players thrive in that type of contest, but others, especially young kids, have a little bit of a shyness about it."

That type of play may have caused the Astros to go shorthanded five times in the first period, but Londonderry only found the back of the net on one of them.

"On the power plays, had we capitalized on them, Pinkerton wouldn't have kept running at us like they were, or playing as physical," Kuzyk said. "The longer the game went on and we didn't capitalize, the harder and tougher it became."

The climb back to an even score wasn't eased by Pinkerton's play. The Astros went for the jugular early, scoring two goals less than five minutes into the contest. Jason Carace opened the scoring at 4:31, and Jeremy Lavoie extended the lead to two 60 seconds later.

"When we stayed out of the box, we did pretty well controlling the game," said Pinkerton coach Casey Kesselring. "We scored some goals on Wilbrant, and he's a good goalie, by going to the net and getting ugly goals. That's what we had to do."

Londonderry's Steve Ribero answered late in the period on the power play, but Pinkerton had already weathered the most threatening of Londonderry's onslaught. Many of Londonderry's 13 shots in the final 30 minutes were from the perimeter and posed no problem for freshman keeper Kevin Kent (21 saves), who was playing in his first game.

"Kevin played well," Kesselring said. "He's a freshman and he was definitely nervous. He probably had a few he was a little shaky on, but overall he did a great job with what they gave him."

On the other end of the ice, the picture was bleak. Wilbrant gave up five goals on 29 shots, and Pinkerton spent much of the game in near relentless attack mode.

"They worked harder than we did, I think," said Wilbrant. "They kept going to the net and they just wanted it more. I still made some saves and could have made some other ones. They just went after it. Sometimes it seemed like we were almost just standing around and watching them. We hung in there for a while, though."

Things began to fall apart in earnest for the Lancers in the third period. Andrew Stefanelli added a power-play marker to extend the lead to three goals at 5:07, before Carace added his second of the night to cap the scoring.

Additional stories:

• Pinkerton earns ugly win over rival Lancers