Ice Owls defeat in-state rival

PETE PAGUAGA — Sports Editor

The Ice Owls took their 10-1 record and their No. 1 ranking in the East Region into the rinks at Shelton to play against in-state rival Fairfield University.

This was the second meeting of the season between the two schools; the first saw the Ice Owls win 4-3 in a game that went to a shootout.  This time the Ice Owls took the lead early and didn’t look back, cruising to a 4-1 victory.

“We played really well. The last game went to a shootout,” said Ice Owls co-captain Joe Innamorato.  “It was important to us to get an early start.”

The Ice Owls did get that early start, just not like they wanted to, as Fairfield scored first on a rebound in front of goalie Shayne O’Brien.

“It was a good goal,” said O’Brien.

The first goal by Fairfield turned out to be the only goal by the Stags as O’Brien stood on his head for the rest of the game.

“Shayne played great, showed a lot of poise and looked relaxed the whole game,” said Innamorato.

The Ice Owls tied the game right after Fairfield’s score with a goal from co-captain Matt D’Amato, who was recently named captain of the Empire Collegiate Hockey Conference’s Select team.

Greg Ziko added another goal from the point on one of their many power play opportunities.  The Ice Owls took the 2-1 lead into the locker room after the first period.

“We came out strong,” said Head Coach Steve Novador.

The second period was mostly like the first as the Ice Owls defense dominated the Stags and spent most of the period in the offensive zone.

“I got a little bored,” said O’Brien, joking about how good the defense played. “They had terrible angles; Fairfield didn’t have a chance against them.”

The Ice Owls scored one goal in the period on a scrum in front of the net, by Innamorato.  Before that though, the Ice Owls had two other opportunities to score as Justin MacGregor was stopped on a breakaway and D’Amato missed a chance for his second goal of the game by hitting the post.

The third period started out with a bang. A fight occurred in the corner between three Fairfield players and two Ice Owls, and both a Fairfield player and Ice Owls forward Nik Bakos were ejected from the game.  After that the game calmed down and the Ice Owls tailed another goal to seal the deal by Mike Diglio.  A beautiful pass by Ice Owls forward Joe Barnes set up the goal.

“Barnes had three guys on him, he spun around and looked past to Diglio,” said Innamorato.

“It was good to see Jo Jo [Innamorato] and Diglio step up,” said Novador. “Also Bakos, [Jordan] Knightly and [Kyle] Amarone played very well.”

The Ice Owls now move to 11-1 on the season and continue to play at a high level.  Next Saturday they will take on Penn State-Brandywine at home at 8:30p.m.

As the Ice Owls motto has been all year, said Barnes, they “Can’t stop, won’t stop.”