FALLS VILLAGE — A short-handed Housatonic Mountaineers hockey team skated to a hard-fought 1-1 tie against Newtown Friday, Feb. 9.
Two players were out sick, according to coach Dean Diamond, which put more pressure on the starters.
"If we’d been at full strength I think we probably would have got the win," he said. Starters Andy Moore, Mike Schopp, Ryan Diamond and Chris Bellanca played almost the entire game.
The Mountaineers got an early goal from Diamond in the first period. Newtown countered about three minutes later, and that ended the scoring for the evening.
Kevin Diamond in goal had another memorable game, stopping 22 shots and allowing the one goal, also in the first.
"The Newtown goalie was equally effective, and the second period saw good defense from both squads. Housy’s power-play defense remains especially stingy, negating three opportunities for Newtown," Diamond said.
The Mountaineers were clearly tired at one point late in the second period, when Newtown enjoyed a two-and-a-half minute stretch where they swarmed the Housy goal and peppered Kevin Diamond with shots.
The goalie has an excellent sense of the developing play, however, and stopped the attackers cold.
Coach Diamond (Kevin’s dad) said, "He’ll cheat a little to one side and makes the shooter go where he [Kevin] wants it."
With the tie, Housatonic is 8-7-1. The team has qualified for the state tournament; the question now is where it will wind up in the rankings.
"We might be at the bottom of division two, or near the top of division three," said Diamond. The high school hockey standings are kept in a fashion similar to English soccer leagues: Housatonic’s two victories against division one Enfield earned them more points than wins against lower-division teams.
Diamond said he’d just as soon remain in division three for the post-season. "There’s no real prestige to being at the bottom of division two, and I’d rather see the kids get out there, win some games and have fun."
The Mountaineers have improved in three critical areas, their coach said. They are not drawing as many penalties, their passing in the center of the rink is crisp and efficient, and even in a dump-and-grind situation, where an offensive player shoots the puck in the corner and around the net, hoping for a teammate to dig it out, Housy makes sure to get the puck back out in front of the goal and create scoring opportunities.
"We work on those things in practice a lot," said Diamond.
The Mountaineers had a game scheduled in Southington Wednesday afternoon; the season’s final home game is Friday, Feb. 16, 8 p.m. at the Salisbury School vs. Shepaug. It is Senior Night, and a chance to recapture the Berkshire Cup.
