Two Stags Score But DC Stumbles
A much faster pace and some acrobatic saves by Matt Schaab (Calvert Hall) led to a very competitive first and second period for Team DC Friday, but Colorado Burgundy’s speed took over in a three-goal third period in what turned out to be a 7-2 defeat. With the loss, Team DC falls to 1-1 in Pool B heading into Saturday’s game vs. Arizona.
“I think the speed shown by some of their top players caught some of our guys a little off guard,” Team DC head coach Rob Trantin said. “But when they seemed to have us on our heels midway through the second period we came back and competed and had five or six great chances toward the end of the second. I thought we would have some momentum going into the third period, but even when we seemed to be in control they would get the puck from us and use their speed to create odd-man or 1-on-1 opportunities. It never felt comfortable.”
For the second straight day defenseman Wyatt Hinkson (Team Maryland 16U AAA/DeMatha) helped Team DC get off to a fast start. About five minutes into the game he trailed the play through the neutral zone, took a soft pass from Griffin Long (Washington Little Caps 18U AAA/St. John’s) and walked into the offensive zone before picking the far top corner from the top of the faceoff circles. Tiger Bjornlund (Montgomery Blue Devils 16U AAA/Whitman) picked up the second assist with a nice breakout pass to Long.
Daniel Buchanan and Shane Ott then tallied three minutes apart to put Colorado up, 2-1, with less than six minutes to play in the period before another DeMatha Stag, Ty Brandt (Team Maryland 18U AAA/DeMatha) also sniped one for the second straight day. This time Brandt scored on the power play to even things three minutes into the second period. Brandt also picked a top corner off of a feed from high school teammate John Henrici (DeMatha). Denis Kuzminov (Team Maryland 18UAAA/St. Mary’s Ryken) also picked up his second assist of the tournament on the play.
Colorado took over during the next 10 minutes or so, notching a pair of goals and consistently getting behind the Team DC defense. But Team DC seemed to find its legs late in the period, with John Cardellicchio (Reston Raiders 18UAA/Gonzaga), Kuzminov and Long getting 1-on-1 opportunities and Liam Eden (Washington Little Caps 16U AAA/Archbishop Spalding) barely missing on a 2-on-1. Despite all the pressure, Schaab had to come up big on another quality scoring opportunity late in the second to keep the score at 4-2.
As scheduled, Ben Calaman (Team Maryland 18U AAA/St. John’s) took over to start the third and was the unfortunate victim of multiple odd-man and 1-on-1 chances for Colorado, which scored two minutes into the period and then added two more goals on breakaways later in the contest. The highlight of the period was a great penalty-killing effort by Brener Granston (Tri-City 16U AA/Montgomery Blair) and Bjornlund, who each sprawled to block shots, keeping Team DC in the game during a Colorado power play.
Schaab finished with 16 saves, and Calaman closed out the game by making eight stops.
“Sometimes in tournaments like this your skilled players are almost too unselfish at times because they know they are being watched,” Trantin said. “I think today we went from that to having some of our guys trying to do too much and complicating the game. The guys who kept it simple throughout got the most attention today and were most effective. We get another chance tomorrow, and I’m confident we will be better.”
Team DC returns to action today at 11 a.m. against Arizona in the final game of pool play. The game can be seen live on www.hockeytv.com.
