By John Goralski Sports Writer With two minutes elapsed in the final period, Hall-Southington finally broke through. Dave Valentukonis pushed the puck forward on a fast break. Cody Backus fell forward as he reached for the goal, and officials signaled the end of the scoreless tie. On Saturday, Jan. 4, the hockey co-op put a stranglehold on the Tri-Town for two periods. They fought for loose pucks. They they battled on defense, and Erich Bender made 27 stops in the net, including a one-on-one breakaway attempt that he foiled in the final two minutes of the second period. When the team finally scored at the start of the third period, nobody was more relieved than Coach Brian Cannon. He’s been lecturing about the need for full game efforts. He’s been begging for his team to embrace the challenges before them. The hard work finally paid off and the team held on for a 2-1 win to even their record at 3-3. “We hit a couple of posts today, too. We had one early on and one late in the game,” said Cannon about his team’s efforts. “I don’t see this team getting a lot of pretty goals. We’re going to [...]
By John Goralski Sports Writer With two minutes elapsed in the final period, Hall-Southington finally broke through. Dave Valentukonis pushed the puck forward on a fast break. Cody Backus fell forward as he reached for the goal, and officials signaled the end of the scoreless tie. On Saturday, Jan. 4, the hockey co-op put a stranglehold on the Tri-Town for two periods. They fought for loose pucks. They they battled on defense, and Erich Bender made 27 stops in the net, including a one-on-one breakaway attempt that he foiled in the final two minutes of the second period. When the team finally scored at the start of the third period, nobody was more relieved than Coach Brian Cannon. He’s been lecturing about the need for full game efforts. He’s been begging for his team to embrace the challenges before them. The hard work finally paid off and the team held on for a 2-1 win to even their record at 3-3. “We hit a couple of posts today, too. We had one early on and one late in the game,” said Cannon about his team’s efforts. “I don’t see this team getting a lot of pretty goals. We’re going to [...]