Early Flurry Puts Wildcats Above T-Birds

North Branford fell behind by two first period goals and could not recover in a 4-1 loss to Suffield/Granby/Windsor Locks Thursday night at the Northford Ice Pavillion.

Brendan Fleming opened the scoring on the T-Birds with 1:11 left in the first period, when he deked in front of North Branford (3-8) netminder Kyle Saroka and beat him stick-side. The goal was unassisted.

Suffield (5-6) added another as time expired in the first period, when junior Brendan Leonardi scored thanks to a beautiful piece of passing from Steve Zaczynski and Ian Stevens. Zaczynski dumped the puck into the left-corner of the zone, where Stevens threw it in front of net where Leonardi scored five hole.

Wildcats Head Coach Nick Boorman was happy with the early burst from his team, and felt it paced them to play well the rest of the game.

“We've been working on coming out strong right away. That is what we focused on tonight,” Boorman said. “I still think we need to continue to work on it, but it is getting better and better.”

Zaczynski made it worse for the T-Birds with 12:03 left in the second, when he scored on a picture-perfect breakaway, deking Saroka to put North Branford in a deep hole.

“That was a great shot by [Zaczynski]. It was a great move,” Boorman said. “It was a nice move; got the goalie out of the net. Nice deke.”

Zaczynski described his mindset on the goal after the game.

“I came down, and wanted to go low left corner. The goalie came out, so I deked,” he said.

Ralph Shaw, head coach of North Branford, was disappointed by his team's missed chances to get back into the game.

“I thought we had some legitimate scoring opportunities that we didn't capitalize on. It kind of dictated and set the pace of the game for us,” Shaw said. “Suffield scored a couple quick goals in the first period that put us on our heels a little bit.”

North Branford's bad luck continued only a few minutes later, when Ryan Kertanis threw the puck at the net from the right side, only for it to hit Saroka's shoulder and fall into the net.

Suffield netminder Nick Burgio was a rock in the net, saving 30 of 31 shots, including a game-changing flurry in the second period, where the T-Birds failed to capitalize on a few gifted opportunities.

“I think we definitely had the quality chances, but North Branford had some really nice chances on us, and Burgio came up huge in net,” Boorman said. “He made at least four or five big time saves. We've got two really good goalies that any night they can steal games for us. We're just confident with both of them.”

The T-Birds opened the game with sophomore Saroka in net, but he was ousted halfway through the second period, making 14 saves on 18 shots. In relief, senior Cory Girard saved all 11 shots he faced.

Despite being outshot, Boorman was happy with the smart hockey the Wildcats played in the offensive zone.

Shaw did not blame Saroka for being pulled, but instead used it as an attempt to light a fire under the T-Birds defense.

“I don't fault our goalie for the goals that went in. Two of them were right off of the front and defensive lapses,” Shaw said. “I just thought a change of keeper would charge something tonight. Girard made some key saves, and I thought the team picked up after that.”

The new life that the T-Birds experienced after the goalie change paid off with 3:01 left in the second period. Ryan Dunn beat Burgio five hole, and was assisted on the goal by Kyle Deming and Eric Podbielski.

Despite the goal, as well as a flurry of golden opportunities throughout the final two periods, North Branford could not capitalize further.

Suffield committed four penalties, all of them minors. North Branford picked up two interference penalties, late in the third period.

North Branford will face Housatonic NW at 8 p.m. on Saturday at the Northford Ice Pavilion.