Third-Period Goals Carry the Ice Cats Past Fox Lane
For two full periods Saturday night, there wasn’t much separating the Fox Lane and Mt. Pleasant hockey teams.
It took less than a minute of the third period to change that.
Goals by Brian Sheehan and Michael Donoghue in the first 51 seconds of the final period enabled the host Ice Cats to finally take command of the game and they went on to a 5-2 victory over the Foxes at the Westchester Skating Academy.
Sheehan and freshman Matthew Labriola both finished with two goals and goalie Spencer Rockmore turned aside 27 shots as the Ice Cats, despite playing without star forward Vincent Spaziante, earned their first win of the 2017-18 season after starting off with a pair of losses.
“It’s funny, we play well with him, but sometimes the guys have gotta learn to play without him,” said Ice Cats coach Josh Isenberg about the speedy Spaziante, who scored all four Mt. Pleasant goals in the season opener two weeks ago. “Sometimes we play a little better team game when he’s not here because we’re not standing around watching him skate with the puck.”
With Spaziante away at a tournament, it was the Foxes who jumped ahead in the opening period. Just over five minutes after the opening faceoff, Fox Lane freshman Jake Wollman collected the loose puck in front of the net and slipped it past Rockmore. The Foxes nearly doubled their lead in the final seconds of the period, but Rockmore thwarted a Jared Goldstein shot on the left doorstep.
The Ice Cats managed to tie the contest at 9:53 of the second period as Donoghue, from the right wing, fed Labriola in front to complete an odd-man rush up the ice. But less than a minute later, Fox Lane retook the lead when eighth-grader James Nemeth skated around the back of the net, quickly spun around and deposited the puck past Rockmore.
Goldstein had another good chance with just under five minutes left in the second period as he found himself racing down the right wing with no one in front of him except Rockmore. But the Ice Cats’ Gaetano Hayes caught him from behind at the last second and prevented a shot on goal. Donoghue was stopped too near the right side of the crease two minutes later by Fox Lane goalie Will Brunner, who also finished the evening with 27 saves.
But just when it seemed the Foxes would head to the locker room with a 2-1 advantage, the Ice Cats’ Sheehan moved down the left wing and sent a shot from the slot past Brunner to tie the score with just 9.8 seconds showing on the clock.
“Oh, that was huge,” said Isenberg of the last-second goal by Sheehan. “That gave us a lot of momentum going into the third. We weren’t playing great, we weren’t playing a great team game before then, and I think they regrouped a little bit after that second period.”
“It was a big momentum swing for them going into the third,” agreed Fox Lane coach Charles Berger. “And it showed when they scored 18 seconds into the third. Those two goals are back breakers.”
Sure enough, the Ice Cats came out flying to start the final period. They immediately sent a couple of shots toward Brunner, then grabbed the lead for good when Sheehan, from just right of the crease, put the puck in the net. Just 33 seconds later, Donoghue gave Mt. Pleasant a two-goal advantage and the Foxes never recovered.
“Well, I gave it to ‘em a little bit,” said Isenberg about the chat with his players between periods that seemingly sparked the offensive fireworks. “’You know what, we’re getting outworked.’ It was plain and simple. I said, ‘These teams are pretty evenly matched, the team that works harder is gonna win the game.’”
Though they proceeded to pepper Rockmore with shot after shot during two power plays later in the period, Fox Lane was never able to get on the scoreboard again.
“I think our team made a big push,” said Berger. “I credit their goalie. Spencer Rockmore did a really nice job keeping it a two-goal lead. I’m proud with the way we responded, but I would’ve liked to see us finish a couple more.”
The Foxes’ Brunner stopped Sheehan on a breakaway with Mt. Pleasant down a man four minutes into the period. But soon it was Rockmore who dazzled in front of the cage, stopping one Fox Lane chance after another on a power play. With just under two minutes to go, and Brunner on the bench to give the Foxes a two-man advantage, the Ice Cats’ Labriola provided an empty-net goal to provide the final margin.
“We definitely have got some guys that can put the puck in the net,” said Isenberg. “They’ve just got to get a little confidence. This is a huge thing for them because they’ll get a little confidence and say, ‘Hey, listen, we don’t have to rely on one guy to play this game. We can do it as a team.’”
Andy is a sports editor at Examiner Media, covering seven high schools in the mid-Westchester region with a notebook and camera. He began there in the fall of 2007 following 15 years as a candid photographer for the largest school picture company in the tri-state area.
Read more of Andy’s full bio here.
Read Andy’s archived work here.
