AVON, Conn. -- It's amazing what having a lot on the line can do for a game's tempo.
We found that out in spades as Avon Old Farms clashed at home with rival Loomis Chaffee in prep school action Saturday night in what was the last game of the regular season before the playoff march begins. And, man, was it fast.
On the line for Avon was a shot at the No. 1 seed overall in the Stuart/Corkery Elite 8 tournament (they were seeded second and will face Nobles); on the line for Loomis was potentially the final berth in the Elite 8. And you could tell the stakes were high from the opening faceoff, right through until the final buzzer.
With the 4-2 win, Avon finishes with an incredible 23-2 record while Loomis finishes with a fairly respectable 14-7-4. Avon now has home-ice advantage throughout the Elite 8, while Loomis gains home-ice advantage for its Martin/Earl Large Schools series (they were seeded No. 3 and will face Deerfield). Both teams will be back in action at home on Wednesday.
Here's what we saw during Saturday's closely fought and entertaining game at the Jennings Fairchild Rink:
Why Avon Old Farms won
You've got to give Loomis Chaffee a ton of credit. The last time these two teams met, the Pelicans were blown out 7-0 in their own building by the Winged Beavers in a game that was determined practically from the first couple of shifts. In that one, Avon never looked back.
Obviously bent on exacting revenge, Loomis pushed hard and fast from the opening faceoff on Saturday, quickly forcing a turnover just inside the Avon end. In the blink of an eye, Alex Krause (Dartmouth commit) made no mistake with the Anthony Cipollone (Vermont commit) pass, burying it in the top corner to beat Avon goalie Conor Callaghan just 16 seconds into the game. The boisterous and tropically clothed Loomis student section in attendance erupted. It was the inverse of how the last matchup started, and Loomis looked poised to turn the tables.
However, this is no ordinary Avon team. The back-and-forth commenced, with both teams forechecking hard, backchecking hard and just plain checking hard before Paul Davey, on the power play, tipped a Jason Marsella shot from the point through the legs of the Pelicans' Ethan Roberts to tie the game at 1-1. The equally boisterous Avon student section went cuckoo.
But Loomis didn't back off, chasing loose pucks with vigor, collapsing well down low while under pressure and generally not looking intimidated against a team that had 22 wins and had blown them out in the previous meeting.
Down to the crux: Avon won simply because it made the most of its chances, many of them coming with a Loomis player in the penalty box. The Winged Beavers scored three of their four goals on the man advantage: Davey's opener, Nick Capasso's (Northford, Conn.) marker at 13:49 of the second and Tabor Heaslip's goal at 3:34 of the same period when he moved in untouched through a parting crowd and fired home his team's fourth goal.
The other factor was that Loomis, while initally matching Avon's speed and grit, eventually wore down against the waves upon waves of speedy Winged Beavers. It was a spirited effort, especially considering the absence of star forward Cody Hoban (Guilford, Conn.; Dartmouth commit), who is still sidelined with a lower-body injury, and during the game of senior defenseman Ryan Armstrong (Hamden, Conn.), who left after blocking a slap shot with his lower torso.
Best player on the ice
In a close and entertaining game such as this, it's natural to have a few candidates here.
Although for Loomis it's mainly about the team, Krause, Adam Martin and Thomas Costello (West Hartford, Conn.) all had strong games up front.
But the best player on the ice for the Pelicans was defenseman and senior captain Kennedy O'Connor (Springfield, Mass.), who was patient with the puck, especially on the power play, got off good shots from the point and dished out punishing hits. He also had a blanket effect, on one play shutting down Drew Tsakounis, staying with the rushing defenseman into the zone, keeping him to the outside until finally containing him behind the net and nullifying the chance, no small task.
For the Winged Beavers, three usual suspects stood out: Heaslip, Tsakounis and Davey. All showed speed, skill and patience with the puck while figuring in on the scoring.
But it was senior captain Gentry Shamburger who stood above the crowd on this night, winning more than a couple of big draws to gain his team possession on the offensive zone, turning up the hustle on the PK and crushing more than one Pelican with clean hits on the forecheck.
And his assist on the even-strength goal by Timothy Heinke (Kensington, Conn.) was all-world: rushing down the left side with a full head of steam, beating the D, he swung around the net and tried with his long reach to stuff in the wraparound, which popped out for Heinke to clean up and make the score 3-1, ultimately the game winner. Simply, that goal doesn't happen without Shamburger's determination.
Key play
With the score 1-1 and the second period barely four minutes old, Pelicans senior defenseman Ben Ritter, rattled a hit from Patrick Neal, retaliated with a high hit of his own against the Avon winger.
The elbowing minor could easily have been a double (Neal was shaken up but returned), and on the ensuing power play, the Winged Beavers had a couple of chances before Capasso found the net, cleaning up a rebound after a patient Heaslip waited, waited, waited before making the play.
That goal made it 2-1 and temporarily set the Pelicans back on their heels, especially after an ensuing power play of their own a minute later was denied by an aggressive Winged Beavers penalty kill.
After that, although Oliver Flynn (Wolcott, Conn.; UConn commit) scored a nice top-shelf bullet on a 5-on-3 halfway through the third period, Loomis had few answers for Avon's pace and determinati0n.
Battle of the game
Lots of little, gritty and grudge-filled battles in games between these two area rivals. Which one to choose?
One of the best battles to watch when these two teams meet is that of coach and current-coach-former-player. As in, Avon coach John Gardner vs. former Avon player and Loomis coach J.R. Zavisza.
And that doesn't mean strictly watching how lines are matched up or who's making the most of power plays, but it's also watching how each coach reacts to adversity and exhibits behavior seen by players as an example. How much do they argue with the referees? How do they react to dirty hits by the other team? What do they say when an offside call is missed?
On this night, both reacted as you'd expect and Zavisza seemed to also have recovered his game from the blowout loss. But there's an edge to this one that makes it more interesting to watch every time these rivals play.
Analysis
Avon's prowess with the puck is obvious when it comes to shooting, but the Winged Beavers also do a lot of the little things right to create the chances as well on the offensive zone.
Notably, when the puck is ringed around the boards, the forwards behind the net have a knack for tipping in just the right way off the boards so that it deflects either in front for a chance, hops over a defender's stick or changes direction to a teammate, a de facto pass.
This puck awareness was especially apparent against Loomis and was tough for the visitors to defend against.
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.
