New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Festa, Sheehan offense erupt in win
NORTHFORD — Sheehan was just 3-4 coming into Wednesday afternoon.
But the Titans sure didn’t look like a below
.500 team as they scored nine unanswered goals to dominate North Branford, 10-1, in a Southern Connecticut Conference Division II hockey contest at the Northford Ice Pavilion.
“We were back on our heels and lost a couple of one-goal games to Conard and Watertown,” Sheehan coach Dave Festa said. “It was a wakeup call for us. Today was a good springboard for us. We understand what it takes to play 45 minutes.”
Landon Cantele got Sheehan on the board just 26 seconds into the game when he put a loose puck past North Branford goaltender Aidan Geist. Just over 11 minutes later, Lucas Vollano knotted things at one apiece when he banged in a rebound past Sheehan netminder Michael Fritz from right in front of the crease.
After that it was all Sheehan.
Max Festa, who had four goals and four assists in the contest, scored twice in the last 1:50 of the first period, both assisted by Cantele, to give the Titans a 3-1 edge after the first 15 minutes.
“I give credit to Sheehan,” North Branford coach Ralph Shaw said. “They were all over us in the first period and we didn’t have much (offensive) zone time in the whole game.”
It only got better for Sheehan in the second period. Cantele scored again in the first minute of the period to make it 4-1
and then things got worse for North Branford. Festa scored his third goal of the day when he took a pass at the blue line and skated in all alone to beat Geist, who was injured on the play when one of his teammates went flying into the net and sent him sprawling to the ice.
Geist, who spent a couple of minutes face down on the ice after the fifth Sheehan goal, was pulled in favor of junior backup goalie Austin Fruin.
“I played one of my best games and it felt good to have a good comeback game after losing to Conard,” Max Festa said. “We just fell short. We took that loss personal and played our best game by far today.”
Fruin was welcomed less than three minutes later when the third member of Sheehan’s top line, Michael Ballough, took a pretty pass from the left side from Festa and he skated in on the right side to make it 6-1.
Festa and Calan O’Neill added goals before the end of the period to make it 8-1.
“We came out fast tonight,” Dave Festa said.
“We wanted to hop on them quick and just get shots on net. We knew if we got the opportunities we could capitalize.”
Tyler Connery scored with 11:02 remaining and then Festa tacked on his fourth goal of the night with 7:50 to play to close out the scoring.
“We’ve been trying different line combinations,” Dave Festa said. “With Landon, Max and Mike Ballough, the three of them really stepped up and played well tonight. It has potential especially if they keep working.”
North Branford, which was off to its best start since 2016, dropped to 4-2 and has lost two straight contests. The Thunderbirds were missing their top defenseman, C.J. Sherwood, due to a one-game penalty.
“He’s a key to the team’s success and chemistry,” Shaw said. “Not having him tonight definitely hurt, but we’ll put it back together, put this one behind us and look to Saturday.”