Watertown-Pomperaug falls as North Haven takes title again
WEST HAVEN — North Haven's senior class has its three-peat.
The top-seeded Nighthawks won their third consecutive Southern Connecticut Conference/ South-West Conference Division II championship Friday night at Bennett Rink with a 6-1 victory over second-seeded Watertown-Pomperaug.
“It's huge for the players and huge for the town,” said North Haven's Alex Petersen, who was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Division II tournament for the second consecutive year. “We came to do what we were supposed to do and got it done.”
It was also the fourth straight appearance in the SCC/SWC final for North Haven (20-2), which was beaten in 2020 by Branford, 1-0.
“They played really well, but we were fortunate enough to bang some goals in the third period,” North Haven coach Chris Avena said. “The play was a lot more even that the score was.”
But despite controlling the puck for most of the first period, North Haven found itself in a scoreless contest.
In between periods, Petersen said the Nighthawks talked about continuing to work hard.
“We knew we had to keep plugging and the goals will come,” Petersen said. “We scored two dirty goals in the crease and in the third period, we just dominated.”
Those first two goals came quick in the first half of the second period. Will Sullivan, who had five goals in two games in the tournament, banged in a rebound from just to the right of Watertown/Pomperaug goalie Andrew Brown to make it 1-0 just 2:03 into the second period.
Just over five minutes later, during a scramble in front of the net, Petersen kept on banging at the puck before it finally rolled into the lower right corner of the net to make it 2-0. Tommy Guidone collected an assist on the goal for his 100th career point.
“We have a great team and we come to work hard,” Sullivan said. “We knew it wasn't going to be easy and it took some time to get going. We regrouped during the break and came out. We played a solid game all around.”
And North Haven came out flying in the third period, needing just 35 seconds to make it 3-0 on a goal by Nolan Cole.
Watertown-Pomperaug finally got on the board with 11:44 remaining in the third period when Shane Repetto took advantage of a North Haven turnover deep in its own end. Repetto went in all alone on North Haven goalie Bryce Pedersen and ripped a shot over his right shoulder into the net to close it to 3-1.
“We were just looking for that spark to get us going,” Watertown-Pomperaug coach Vin Vicenzi said. “We took them to overtime earlier in the year and scored some late goals. We were looking for history to repeat itself.”
Just 15 seconds later, Alex Petersen put the game on ice with his second goal of the game to make it 4-1.
Owen Quick and Sullivan added goals later in the third period.
“Sullivan, Guidone and Petersen are going to be a line to reckon with next week (in the states),” Avena said. “They are three seniors who know nothing but winning as the whole senior class. It'll be fun to watch them next week.”
Watertown-Pomperaug fell to 10-9-3 with the loss.
“That's a lot of talent on that team with a lot of experience,” Vicenzi said. “We were hanging on trying to slow them down, but we just couldn't do it.”