AVON, Conn. — It's hard to imagine anyone saw that coming.
Sure, Avon Old Farms is having a tremendous season, but Kent is right up there as well, a regular in our weekly coaches poll. In fact, the Lions were the last team standing on this very ice before Christmas, beating Alex Jefferies and Gunnery, 5-4, in the final of the Avon Old Farms Christmas Classic, successfully combining their size with a dash of speed to earn the trophy.
Earlier in the tournament, Kent had beaten Avon in its own rink and its own tournament, surely a motivating factor for the Winged Beavers this time around. That loss, in fact, has been the only blemish on Avon's schedule so far this season.
But on Monday, in a game rescheduled from Saturday because of the weather, the Winged Beavers were relentless, overwhelming the Lions on many fronts to win 6-0 and boost their record to 12-1. Kent falls to 10-6. What promised to be a great tilt between two titans didn't live up to the billing.
Here's what we saw at the game:
Why Avon Old Farms won: Simply put, Avon's speed was overwhelming. Kent tried to use its size and strength, especially on defense, to win battles and physically intimidate Avon down low. And it worked for a time, until it didn't work. Wave after wave of speedy Avon forwards coming in on the Kent defenders, without obstacle, took a toll.
Eventually, Kent looked like it was tiring out dealing with all that speed, and the Winged Beavers took advantage of both the fatigue and the frustration caused by it. As the game wore on, Kent was rushing its passes and not taking time with the puck, forced to react quickly, resulting in turnovers and missed opportunities.
Neatly chipping away, Avon scored two goals in each period for the win. Paul Davey opened the scoring for Avon, pouncing on a rebound off great work by John Turner (East Falmouth, Mass.) nine minutes in. Liam Verdoni answered less than two minutes later tidying up a rebound on the power play, and Avon had found its confidence zone and Kent was back on its heels for much of the rest of the game. Also scoring for Avon were Gentry Shamburger, Turner, Drew Tsakounis and Nick Cyprian.
Best player on the ice: Avon goalie Conor Callaghan deserves praise for shutting the door against a potent Kent offense when needed, supplying steady saves at the right times and remaining square to the puck. He also got solid help from his defensemen in clearing rebounds and keeping the attacking Lions off to the side as much as possible.
But the top player on the ice was speedy defenseman Tsakounis, whose poise with the puck and guts pinching at the blueline paved the way for a number of good Avon chances. His goal was a beauty, taking a centering pass from Davey from down low just inside the blueline before wiring it top corner, above the right-catching glove hand of Kent goalie Joey Purtell (Beverly, Mass.), to make it 5-0.
Generally, the Avon defensemen were very aggressive and effective at keeping pucks in at the blueline, the gamble perhaps a luxury afforded by being able to rely on fast backcheckers having your back if the puck gets past you. But Tsakounis and his cohorts on the line rarely messed up, giving Avon another weapon for Kent to deal with.
Key play: The key play came very early, when Callaghan shut the door on a partial breakaway by Dante Palombo with the game scoreless in the first period. The raucous group of short-sleeved and shorts-wearing Avon students in attendance at the Winged Beavers' end erupted, the play reversed and Avon put the pressure on Kent before eventually scoring later in the period. The momentum had been set and it was everything Kent could do to stay with it.
An early second-period power play by Kent presented another golden opportunity to get back in the game, with the score 2-0 at that point, but the Lions had a hard time getting a cohesive rhythm established, letting the Avon penalty killers rattle them with speed, not slowing down the game enough to get good shots off. In fact, on the next Kent power play, Avon's slippery penalty killing resulted in a shorthanded breakaway chance by Tabor Heaslip that was denied by Purtell.
Battle of the night: So many here to choose from, but the big Kent defense against the smaller Avon forward corps was the best. Kent started the game and kept coming at Avon with heavy hits, hard play down low and generally making life miserable for the home team. And with four guys well over six feet tall on the blueline, size is definitely an asset for the Lions.
But somehow the Avon forwards prevailed, finding seams, dashing along the boards, controlling much of the play in the attacking zone and, in the third period with Kent weary, even knocking down a player or two of their own.
Analysis: By now you're getting the sense that Avon's speed is formidable. But one of the ways in which they were able to make good use of it against Kent was by gathering momentum charging into the attacking zone. Specifically, on a couple of occasions the defenseman would move the puck up the ice out of the D-zone and dish it off to a winger who had gained unimpeded speed behind him and would enter the zone at full tilt, catching the Kent defenders on their heels. This created a number of opportunites, a couple of which resulted in goals or forced good saves by Purtell.
Paul Grant is an editor and a writer for HockeyJournal.com and Seamans Media. He previously oversaw hockey content at ESPN.com and Sporting News. You can connect with him at pgrant@hockeyjournal.com.
