St. Bernard scores 3-0 win over Housy

St. Bernard/Bacon and Housatonic/Northwestern last played on Friday, and the Saints learned a couple of valuable lessons from that match up: don’t fall behind and don’t lose your cool.
The Saints didn’t fall victim to either of those pitfalls on Wednesday night and, as a result, reversed their fortune as they gained a measure of revenge with a 3-0 win at the Norwich Ice Rink.
“Intensity and consistency is what we asked of them in the locker room,” St. Bernard/Bacon assistant coach Rich Steele said as he picked up his first win as a varsity coach. Head coach Chris Avena was serving a one-game suspension after he was ejected from a game Monday night.
“The other night, up at their rink, we came out flat. We didn’t start playing until we were down 4-0 and we were up and down all night long,” Steele said. “We just wanted a nice, smooth effort from top to bottom. We kept preaching ‘15 minutes down to zero’ every period.”
Housatonic/Northwestern beat the Saints, 4-2, in their previous meeting, but had problems not only with the Saints, but with themselves from the start this time around. The Mountaineers (9-8) gave the Saints five power-play opportunities in the first period alone.
“I’m dealing with a bunch of high school kids who don’t know how to shut their mouths — it’s plain and simple,” Housatonic coach Dean Diamond said. “You play smart hockey, work hard and keep your mouth shut and you’re in the game. When you don’t stop yakking to the refs, take stupid penalties, you’re going to lose — it’s that simple.”
The Saints didn’t take advantage of the Mountaineers’ penalty box minutes until just under five minutes were left in the first period. Sam Nassetta, with help from Jack Berry and Charlie Tufo, flipped the puck over Housatonic goalie Kevin Diamond’s right shoulder and into the corner of the net for a 1-0 St. Bernard lead.
St. Bernard squandered a five-on-three chance in the second period, but came up with an insurance goal with 4:12 left. Jerry Theiler — who has accounted for more than 40 points this season for the Saints — flipped it to team captain Colin Morgan to light the lamp.
“I think I had the puck down low and I just slid it across,” Theiler described. “It got under everyone and Colin just slipped it in.”
There were some antsy moments for St. Bernard in the third period as the Saints couldn’t score despite two power play opportunities and nine shots on goal early. In the first of those short-handed episodes, the puck ended up on the stick of Housatonic center Sam LeGoyt, who had a one-on-one with Saints goalie Scott Steele (22 saves).
“I just thought I would come out, challenge the shot, take away the angle and he didn’t do anything special,” said Scott Steele, who corralled the shot with his stomach for the save.
Steele and his teammates also had to weather through a five-on-three situation where the Saints goalie turned aside three Housatonic shots.
“One of the keys (Wednesday night) was that we didn’t give them shots from in close, for the most part,” Rich Steele said. “A credit to the goalie for the shutout, but a credit to the whole team for giving him a chance to see the puck and do his job.”
Theiler put the finishing touches on the win as he found himself with a short-handed break away with 1:17 to play and didn’t miss.
“I missed one earlier in the game,” Theiler said. “I was kind of snakebit and the goalie had me on one, so I just tried to put that last one in and it was nice.”
The Saints improved their record to 9-8 and have already qualified for the state tournament.
“That takes the pressure off,” Rich Steele said. “Last couple of years, we’ve had to go right down to the wire to see if we’re in or out. Now, we can fine-tune the team a bit.”