Dave Phillips
Hand’s Brett Leckey, right, gives chase to Kyle Robert from Lyman Hall/HK/Coginchaug during Lyman’s victory Dec. 27, 2017.
NORTHFORD – It took the Lyman Hall/Haddam-Killingworth/Coginchaug co-op boys’ hockey team two games to score four goals to open the season.
Ever since, the Trojans have been lighting up the scoreboard.
After pummeling Joel Barlow, 11-0, on Dec 23, LHKC scored eight unanswered goals Wednesday afternoon to beat Hand, 8-0, in a Southern Connecticut Conference Division III hockey battle at the Northford Ice Pavilion.
“I think its two more games into the season and we got a few of our jitters out of the way,” LHKC’s Scott Bradley said. “Now we’re starting to jell and go.”
It didn’t take long for LHKC to get on the board. The Trojans needed just 15 seconds to make it 1-0 as Thomas Isleib raced down the right side on a rush after the opening faceoff and blasted a shot past Hand goalie Michael Anderson on the short side.
The Trojans bookended that with another one with just five seconds remaining in the first period. After a big onslaught on Anderson, LHKC’s Scott Bradley picked up the puck in the middle just over the blue line, skated towards the right circle and made a move on Anderson to force him to come out a bit from the next. Bradley kept going and had a wide open bottom right half of the net and he put it in the net to make it 2-0.
After Kyle Roberts made it 3-0 just 1:27 into the second period on a power play goal, Hand mounted a little bit of an offense. But it was short-lived as the Trojans took advantage of Hand faltering defensively over the final 5:33 of the middle period. The Tigers didn’t give Anderson much help as he was constantly facing 2-on-1 or 2-on-none opportunities by LHKC.
“Hand started taking a couple chances to hold the puck in the zone,” LHKC coach Rich Minnix said. “The defense did a good job moving forward with the puck and we were able to finish off our opportunities.”
Bradley scored twice in the second to record a hat trick and Zach Hines and Matt Pettit added goals to give LHKC a commanding 7-0 lead going to the final 15 minutes.
“They were allowing a lot of that,” Bradley said. “We were able to take advantage and finish off opportunities.”
Roberts added his second goal of the contest just 1:15 into the third period to account for the final goal of the game.
Hand dropped to 2-3 with the loss.
“We just didn’t come to play from the first drop,” Galvin said. “There was no energy, no position and no puck control. There’s no magic sauce. We’ll burn the film and go to practice tomorrow at 2:30.”
Lyman Hall/Haddam-Killingworth/Coginchaug outshot Hand, 28-18. LHKC freshman goalie recorded the shutout.
“Andrew Sacco is a great goalie as a freshman,” Minnix said. “If he can see the shots and the defense can clear guys out of the way, he’s going to stop it.”
Lyman Hall/Haddam-Killingworth/Coginchaug 8, Hand 0
(at Northford Ice Pavilion)
LHKC 2 5 1 – 8
Hand 0 0 0 –0
First period – Thomas Isleib (Kyle Roberts, T.J. Arduini) 0:15; Scott Bradley (Josh Martinez) 14:55. Second period — Kyle Roberts (Matt Pettit, Bradley) 1:27; Bradley (Arduini) 5:33; Zach Hines (Conner Satton) 4:30; Pettit (Jared Sullivan) 10:57; Bradley 13:13. Third period — Roberts (Arduini, Hines) 1:15.
Shots: LHKC, 28; Hand 18. Saves – LHKC: Andrew Sacco, 18; H: Michael Anderson 20.
Records: LHKC, 2-2; Hand, 2-3.
