Rams Keep Top Ranking with Late Goal

In a battle of the top two teams in the FCIAC standings at the Rinks at Shelton on Saturday night, No. 1 New Canaan beat No. 2 St. Joseph 6-5. Sam Stanton scored the deciding goal with just 2:15 remaining in regulation time. 

The Rams doubled up the Cadets in shots—most from high scoring areas—but Cadets goalie Zach Carrano was outstanding in limiting the Rams to six goals. With average, or even pretty good goaltending, New Canaan could have had another five goals or so.

St. Joseph borrowed a page from the New Canaan playbook when Colin Morrissey banked the first goal just over two-minutes in. (New Canaan had scored four goals in the last three games less than one-minute into a period). But midway through the period, Tim Robustelli beat Carrano with a nice setup from Bo McGinnis to tie the game at 1-1.

Then McGinniss scored when he whistled a slap shot from the left circle that hit the back of the net for a 2-1 Rams'  lead; it was a power-play  goal assisted by Jimmy Joe Granito and Tom Krieger. The Cadets tied the game with just 24 seconds remaining on a Brian Kelly goal and the teams went into the locker room tied at 2-2.

The second period was all New Canaan. They scored 26 seconds in when Eric Persky knocked in a rebound off a Robustelli shot for a 3-2 lead. The Rams were piling up the shots—27 in the period—many of them coming on odd-man rushes. They took a two-goal lead when they scored on a well executed two-on-one break; Henry Corcoran with the pretty assist, Kris Nugent with the goal.

The Rams were coming in waves, but Carrano, with some "stand-on-your-head work", kept it close. The Rams were controlling the play in all three zones, but when the Cadets picked off a pass in the Rams' zone, Crouse fed Pat Corcoran who beat Tim Nowacki top shelf, glove side to make it a 4-3 game.

New Canaan struck again with its second power-play goal when co-captain Nugent, with a nice pass to fellow co-captain Andrew Leslie converted for a 5-3 lead with just 1:47 left to play. But that was enough time for the Cadets to come back. They made it a 5-4 game when Corcoran scored his second goal with 14 seconds left.

St. Joseph tied the game in the third when Crouse scored less than three minutes in. It remained a 5-5 game when the Rams went on a power play. Sam Stanton, with assists from Leslie and Robustelli scored with 2:15 left to play.

"I missed two or three open nets tonight, but when I got the nice pass from Andrew, I didn't miss this one," said Stanton. 

"They scored three late goals in those first two periods but we got the late one in the third period and that's what won the game for us," Leslie said, summing up the game. 

The Rams choked off one more good scoring chance by the Cadets for the 6-5 win.

"You got to give St. Joseph credit, they're a good team," said coach Bo Hicke. "But once we tightened up our defense we were fine. At this time of the year it's the win and points that count and we came out with both."

New Canaan solidified its hold on first place in the conference with the win, improving to 12-3 (7-1 in the FCIAC). St. Joseph falls to 10-3-1 (6-2) while Greenwich, with a 3-1 win over Notre Dame of West Haven on Saturday moves into second place with a 10-4-1 record (6-0-1).

The Rams' next game is at home against Wilton, 11-4 (5-2 FCIAC) on Wednesday at 6 p.m.

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KEY STATS

Scoring:

1st period

• New Canaan—Tim Robustelli from Bo McGinniss; Bo McGinniss from JJ Granito and Tom Krieger (pp)
• St. Joseph—St. Joseph—Colin Morrissey from Conor Crouse and Brian Kelly (pp); Brian Kelly from Conor Crouse

2nd period

• New Canaan— Eric Persky from Tim Robustelli and Andrew Leslie; Kris Nugent from Henry Corcoran; Andrew Leslie from Kris Nugent (pp)
• St. Joseph—Pat Corcoran from Conor Crouse; Pat Corcoran from Brian Kelly

3rd period

• New Canaan—Sam Stanton from Andrew Leslie and Tim Robustelli (pp)
• St. Joseph—Conor Crouse from Curtis McKeon

Goalie Saves:

• New Canaan— Tim Nowacki  21/26
• St. Joseph—Zach Carrano  46/52