LAKEVILLE, Conn. -- The earth might have recently fallen away below them, but apparently Salisbury isn't fazed.
Coming off a loss over the weekend to Avon Old Farms that knocked them from the pedestal of the New England Hockey Journal coaches poll (all the way down to tied for third, in fact), eyes were on Salisbury to see how this talented team would respond after one of its few bouts of adversity this season. The loss also snapped a five-game winning streak.
And the response was ... good enough. For the most part. Sort of.
Although they struggled to find their usual dominant form, a Crimson Knights' third-period rally delivered a 2-0 win over the determined Hotchkiss Bearcats in prep school action here on Wednesday afternoon.
With the win, Salisbury's record improves to 20-3-1; Hotchkiss, no slouch and No. 5 in our coaches poll, falls to 17-5-2.Â
Here's what we saw during the game at the Tom Schmidt Rink in the Forrest Mars Athletic Complex on the grounds of The Hotchkiss School:
Why Salisbury won
Honestly, the answer here is not easy to define because this game was full of contradictions. Hotchkiss held much of the play for two-plus periods, but the shots goalie Max Donoso faced were largely from the perimeter, not through traffic and thus easily stopped or glass-ringingly high (it was obvious the scouting report on Donoso was to shoot high).
Further, Hotchkiss seemingly had what can only be termed as the more exciting chances, the forwards and defensemen trying moves with the puck that were high-risk but high-reward -- behind-the-back passes, passes through the middle in the defensive zone, shifty dekes, etc. -- many of them actually paying off with scoring chances that were less than the noise that preceded them. But when these moves didn't work: danger.
In other words, good chances didn't turn into great chances for the Bearcats. Which meant no goals.
At the other end, Salisbury was most effective when tipping or redirecting shots in tight, forcing a pad save here and a glove save there from Henry Wilder (Needham, Mass.). But they didn't get many of those. If you dropped into the middle of this game, you wouldn't have thought Salisbury was a team coming off winning five of its last six.
Until late in the third period, that is.
That's when we get to the reason Salisbury won, which is simple: opportunistic scoring. After a Hotchkiss penalty for holding at 6:04 of the third, with the score 0-0, off the ensuing faceoff Cole Vallese grabbed the puck and drifted into the high slot, firing home the eventual winner past a screened Wilder a mere six seconds into the power play.
Jake Quillan, who had won the draw on the winner, finished the game off with an empty-netter with 40.3 seconds left. But, man, this one was tight right down to the wire.
Best player on the ice
Spoiler: The top player is not from the winning team.
First off, we should mention the efforts of Donoso, who didn't have to be brilliant but was steady and reliable when Salisbury needed him to be. The shutout doesn't happen if he doesn't slam the door for 54 minutes.
Having said that, Quillan was the best Salisbury player, not only for setting up the winner and scoring into an empty net, but also for consistently being in the mix on several good chances for the Crimson Knights.
For the Bearcats, Wilder deserves high props for keeping his team in the game, making key save after key save, including a couple of dandies. The winning goal wasn't his fault, and the Boston College commit did everything required and more. Senior winger Matt Tullo (Southwick, Mass.) exhibited smart puck skills and dished out the odd hit as well.
But in this game, Hotchkiss captain and defenseman Nick Traggio (Sharon, Conn.) was involved seemingly on every shift. He coralled rebounds, fired them off the glass and out when under pressure, deftly moved the puck up the ice on the breakout and tried to find smart outlet passes when he wasn't rushing deep into the attacking zone. His play slipped a bit in the third, but he had a good all-around game.
The senior is off to Brown next season, where his dad, Mike Traggio, the Hotchkiss coach since 2002-03, is an alum and member of the Hall of Fame.
Key play
Plain and simple, a Hotchkiss power play immediately before the winning goal completely foreshadowed what was to come: the Bearcats barely managed to get the puck out of their zone, let alone form a sustained attack against the box in the Salisbury end. Their passes missed the mark, they were contained by the press put on by the Knights' penalty killers and weirdly became a different team. The momentum had clearly if not temporarily swung, and the Salisbury power play and ensuing quick goal were proof positive.
Battle of the game
Bearcat defenseman Jack Ferguson gets a shout-out for his physical and gritty play that had some Crimson Knights letting up on the puck when he was around. Ferguson, a senior, demolished Quillan with a clean hit at the blue line, then crushed Tommy Rooney (Milton, Mass.) and Matthew DeBoer to similar effect.
Further, he blocked a cannon of a slap shot from the deep slot with his ankle. Then, hobbled and clearly feeling the stinger, he bulled his way to the front of the net, took out his pain on Quillan by pushing him into Wilder, somehow earning Quillan a high-sticking penalty. Genius.
Ferguson's aggression went too far on the holding penalty that sent him to the box at 6:04 and resulted in Salisbury's winning goal. That's no minor gaffe, but otherwise he was a pretty fun player to watch to see what might happen next.
Analysis
One of the ways Hotchkiss befuddled Salisbury in the early going was by keeping a forward high in the defensive zone. And not just up on the hash marks or top of the circle, but actually crowding the personal space of the defensemen at the point.
This pressure pushed the Crimson Knights defensemen back to the blue line, meaning they were unable or uncomfortable pinching to keep the puck in the attacking zone and making them a dangerous outlet.
A bonus, or perhaps an anticipated byproduct was that the Hotchkiss high forward, while attempting to block passes, would occasionally tip the puck out of the zone. On a couple of fortuitous occasions, these tips created odd-man rushes for Hotchkiss or opportunities to explore the stretch pass to a breaking teammate.
Once Salisbury adjusted in the third period and hampered the pressure with a high forward of its own, the effect was lessened. But it made for interesting battles along the blue line and in the neutral zone.
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.
