Housy hockey: winning style

SALISBURY — The Housatonic hockey team started its season in grand style with a 4-3 win over rival Shepaug Friday night, Dec. 7, in front of a jam- packed crowd at the Salisbury School rink. Also on the ice with Housatonic were players from Winsted’s Northwestern Regional 7; the schools have a co-op team.

"I’m pretty happy with the game overall," said Coach Dean Diamond. "It was a good win to build on; winning that first one really helps to get rid of the butterflies. The kids felt good, we moved the puck well, so overall it was a great way to start the season."

Housatonic got off to a fast start in the first period when Jonny Habacker scored the first goal of the season off an assist from Matt Lancto early in the period; Chris Bellanca also added a goal in the first, giving Housatonic a 2-0 advantage heading into the second period.

Housatonic also showed that they could be a resourceful team when need be: The first period saw them lose starting forward Clayton Wilburn, who took a hit under his helmet that caught his nose. He was out for the entire first period with a bloody nose.

"We had to reshape our lines kind of spur of the moment when Wilburn went down," Diamond said.

In the second period, Shepaug answered the 2-0 Housatonic lead with a goal of their own to narrow the divide to 2-1. However, goals by Bellanca and Zach Vitale in the second period gave Housatonic a comfortable three goal advantage going into the final period.

For Vitale, who is a sophomore at Northwestern Regional 7 playing his first year of high school hockey, it was his first high school career goal.

"I expect a lot of good things out of Zach," Diamond said. "He brings a lot of energy to the team."

While a Housatonic/Regional 7 victory seemed inevitable going into the third period, Shepaug had other ideas and scored two goals early in the third period to bring the score to 4-3 in favor of Housatonic.

For the Housatonic fans that had come out to support the team, the final period quickly became a nail-biter when the two Shepaug goals temporarily quieted what had been a raucous crowd.

However the crowd’s intensity was not gone for long and became pronounced again as the team’s faithful counted down the closing seconds of the game loudly in unison and then erupted into wild cheers and applause when Housatonic/Regional 7 gained the victory.

"We took them a little lightly in the third period, I think we may have felt like we had the game won," Diamond said in a phone interview on Monday. "The kids buckled down nicely after those first two Shepaug goals and they realized that they just needed to play good defensive hockey to win the game. We made a couple of defensive errors in the third as well but the kids are still young and they’ll learn from that."