GameTime CT

Connecticut's premier high school sports website

Boys Hockey

Kovalev, Greenwich erupt on offense, blank ailing No. 7 Hamden

|

75
Greenwich's Benjamin Bates moves the puck as Hamden's Alan Cozzolino defends on Saturday.
1of75

Greenwich’s Benjamin Bates moves the puck as Hamden’s Alan Cozzolino defends on Saturday.

Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media

HAMDEN — After a lackluster start to the season, the Greenwich boys hockey team broke out in a big way Saturday.

Having won only one of its previous five games, Greenwich dominated seventh-ranked Hamden 7-0 behind six separate goal scorers.

“It has always been there we just haven’t had a lot of luck,” said Greenwich coach Chris Rurak, whose Cardinals have been receiving votes in the GameTimeCT Top 10 poll despite their 1-3 start. “Our first two games we lost in overtime. We played Darien in the Winter Classic, which is kind of a novelty game, so it is hard to gauge and then we beat Immaculate in overtime. So, we weren’t quite getting the bounces but we were playing well. Today we stayed out of the penalty box and had more discipline, so we were able to manage a better game, get everybody in and they are starting to buy into this system that produces wins, so that is half the battle.”

Ivan Kovalev led the Cardinals with two goals.

“We had a rough start to the season with losses in OT, so getting this win was definitely big for us,” Kovalev said. “We are just hoping to build off of this and get a win streak going.”

Greenwich’s offense received a spark on a goal by Charles Zolin 6:19 into the game, which was followed up by Kovalev’s first goal as he batted the deflected puck into the net for a 2-0 lead after one period of play.

The Cardinals piled on in the second period on goals by Damian Desforges, Thatcher Danielson, Benjamin Bates and eventually Kovalev’s second goal for a 6-0 lead.

John Hutchins netted the final goal of the game with 45 seconds to play to finalize it at 7-0.

Greenwich (2-4) was averaging 2.6 goals per game prior to the seven-goal explosion, the win was also the team’s first shutout of the season.

“We needed this,” Rurak said. “1-4 is not a great way to start even though it was not indicative of how we were playing but we still need to get some wins and needed to get some points.”

Hamden (5-4) began the season with a 4-game winning streak before losing four of its last five.

“I don’t know if it was that we just weren’t prepared,” Hamden coach Todd Hall said. “If we weren’t then it is my fault, my issue and I’ll deal with that. Greenwich came ready to play, just like every team does that comes into this barn. So maybe we just weren’t ready. We saw them a couple weeks ago in a scrimmage, we saw what they had even though they were missing a couple of guys. We knew what they had. Regardless, I don’t think we put our best foot forward.”

One explanation for the surprising outcome could potentially be the absence of some players due to injury and sickness, such as starting goalie Max Ricci, who was replaced by sophomore Benjamin Bielen.

“These aren’t excuses, but we have the flu running through our team,” Hall said. “That includes our starting goalie. We’ve had a couple injuries so not necessarily the perfect storm but we have had some adversity. Having said that the kid who played in net today, granted with seven goals, but he made some pretty good saves, he stood in there and he maybe didn’t know exactly what he was up against, but I thought he did a great job.”