By Brian Ring
East Hartford, Conn. — The Harvest-Properties.com Whalers Hockey Fest 2011 opened its second day of action on Friday with a pair of Cushing Academy varsity teams, the girls’ team taking on the Hotchkiss School and the boys’ squad facing Canterbury School.
The Cushing and Hotchkiss girls skated to a 3-3 tie in the first game of the day and the first prep action at Hockey Fest. Freshman goaltender Valerie Dayton made 24 saves on a night that saw the Penguins outshot by Hotchkiss, 27-16.
The Cushing girls (8-13-2) took the first lead of the game at 7:17 of the first period, as Freshman Caitlin Connor put a deflection past Hotchkiss goaltender Kelsie Fralick (13 saves). Erin Joyce and Co-Captain Justina Germano both assisted on the goal.
Hotchkiss (6-6-3) broke through against Dayton midway through the second period, as Kaylen Van Wagner scored from the slot off of a feed from Sarah Wilczynski and Ianthe Lekometros. Hotchkiss outshot the Penguins 17-7 through two periods of play, with Dayton keeping the game close for Cushing.
The Bearcats extended their lead to 2-1 just 17 seconds into the third period of play, when Sophomore Carly Bennett scored. Stephanie Mock and Catherine Fowler tallied assists on the goal. Britani Dunbar, however, fired a laser glove-side high past Fralick to knot the score at 2-2 for Cushing just moments later, with assists going to Morgan Reed and Meghan O’Donnell.
Lekometros then gave Hotchkiss the 3-2 advantage at 4:11 of the third, after taking passes from Bennett and Michaela Murdock. Hotchkiss appeared to have the game in hand, but a late goal with just under a minute remaining enabled Cushing to again tie the game, when Joyce scored during a scrum in front of Fralick, forcing what would be a scoreless overtime. Reed and Germano both recorded their second assists of the game on the play.
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The Cushing boys’ team (21-4-0) then rolled to a 6-2 victory over Canterbury in Friday’s prep nightcap. Enfield native Robbie Baillargeon scored twice and added two assists in Cushing’s fifth straight victory.
Cushing had jumped out to a quick lead, scoring twice in the first 12 minutes of the opening frame.
Garrett Hehir opened the scoring with a shot from the slot, taking a pass from the corner from Baillargeon. Cushing opened up a 2-0 lead 1:20 later, as Fabio Cuetara used a deke to beat Canterbury’s first-period goaltender Chris Staronka.
Cushing went on to score three more times in the second period against Canterbury’s second goaltender of the night, Scott Steele. Mike Walker also scored for Cushing and Sam Kane added two assists in the game. Cushing netminders Chad Hardy, Mike Dion and Liam Moorfield-Yee combined for 30 saves on the night in goal.
Andrew Nolan and Kyle Garvin accounted for Canterbury’s pair of goals.
Day Three of the Harvest-Properties.com Whalers Hockey Fest 2011 will feature four more select prep and junior games, with Kingswood-Oxford facing Vermont Academy (10:00 AM) and both the boys’ and girls’ Westminster teams facing their Choate counterparts (4:00 PM girls, 6:00 PM boys). The Junior B Connecticut Wolf Pack will then meet Suffolk PAL to conclude the day’s action (8:30 PM). The day will also include a youth game featuring Central Connecticut’s Squirt A team against Avon’s Squirt A (8:30 AM), as well as a Sacred Heart Alumni game (12:30).
