WASHINGTON, Conn. -- On some nights, the hockey gods are determined to make it difficult for you.
Both Millbrook and Gunnery felt that pain first-hand in prep school action here at the Linen Rink during their 1-1 tie Wednesday night.
At its most basic level, neither the Mustangs nor the Highlanders seemed to be able to catch any bounces. Because on some nights, as luck would have it, sometimes things just don't click: your passes go too far ahead or too far behind their intended targets, your point-blank shots go into the chest of the goaltender, are tipped wide or somehow go wide on their own. On some nights, you collide with your own players, you collide with one of the referees, you collide with the net.
All those things happened on Wednesday night. It's the law of averages when it comes to appeasing the hockey gods: Sometimes they just don't care. As a result, you get a stalemate between two teams looking for bigger things. With the tie, the Craig Badger-led Highlanders are now 14-8-2 and the Vinnie Sorriento-coached Mustangs are at 16-7-1.
Here's what we saw at the game:
Why ... no one won
See the aforementioned lack of favorable bounces. But, more fundamentally, the Gunnery had oodles of chances and just couldn't bury them, including David Andreychuk ringing one off the post on the first rush of the game. Star winger Alex Jefferies had at least four good chances from the deep slot or closer that Millbrook goalie Owen Hains denied, including two in overtime.
Overall, the Gunnery offense misfired, passes went astray, breakouts were foiled by Millbrook's forecheckers and they just plain came up flat on big opportunities. On a couple of odd-man rushes, the Highlanders passed away from the better scoring chance, resulting in a worse shooting angle.
For its part, Millbrook did what it could, buying into the team-first mentality, which was most explicitly evident by running Gunnery players into those cold, unforgiving boards at the Linen. This is a hardworking team.
Nico Rexine opened the scoring, putting Millbrook up 1-0 with 38.4 seconds left in the first, a period that Gunnery dominated on the opportunities ledger but not on the scoreboard. The goal came off a beautiful feed by Andrew Kimball, whose pass on the 2-on-1 slid perfectly to Rexine, who tipped it under a sliding Gunnery goalie Carmine Andranovich (Durham, Conn.).
The goal gave Gunnery a reasonable excuse to let up in resignation, coming so late in a period that it could've easily scored two goals in. Unbowed, the home squad forged onward and equalized things in the second period on the power play. Just eight seconds after Shane Albert was sent off for slashing, Jefferies' shot from the deep slot (his "office"?) was kicked out by Hains, the rebound finding a wide-open Andreychuk, who buried it. Mark D'Agostino (Branford, Conn.) had the other assist.
Best player on the ice
Whenever Jefferies is playing, as an elite player he is perpetually in the running here. Whenever he gets his puck, the tone of the game changes, not necessarily toward intimidation but rather of expectation, among opponents, teammates and fans: What's he going to do next?
When he's on, his poise with the puck sets him apart and seems to slow down the game. No one wants to commit. And even when he's not on his game, he still presents a formidable foe because his positioning is sound enough that the puck finds him.
Having said all that, Jefferies wasn't the player of the game.
Before we get to who was the player of the game, also earning consideration was Millbrook star center Jake Percival (Avon, Conn.), who didn't get on the scoresheet (only five players in total did) but worked the puck well, especially to break inside the opposing blueline, where he created several good scoring chances with deft moves and sharp puckhandling. He and wingers Rexine and Adam Jubran -- another deft puck-moving machine for the Mustangs -- were making plays and forcing odd-man rushes seemingly every other shift.
Rather, the game's top player had to be Hains. His glove hand was particularly sharp, denying Jefferies early in the first after teasing the Gunnery winger with an open corner. His toe save on D'Agostino on the power play at the nine-minute mark also kept the game scoreless. While the ice was still drying in the second period, Hains followed with a stone-cold save on Daniel Sambuco, who had broken in alone. And, at the end of the period, he stopped Dane Dowiak on a 2-on-1 after a slick feed by D'Agostino. He was equally steady in overtime, particularly against Jefferies.
Andranovich was also up to the task when challenged at the other end, making a nice split save less than four minutes in, another on a power play that had Millbrook celebrating prematurely and a third that came off a 3-on-1 while Gunnery was on the power play. But Hains saw more action and was called upon more regularly to say no against a more potent offense, and gets the nod.
Key play
The turning point could very well be a Millbrook penalty kill near the end of the first period, with the game still scoreless and Gunnery pressing. And this wasn't some foolish retaliatory penalty: it was a doozy of a too-many-men call, not a borderline situation where the guy jumped on too quick for the man coming off, but rather with six Millbrook skaters on the sheet at one time, skating freely and with intent, for a good five seconds.
Enter the vaunted Gunnery power play, equipped with Jefferies on the left point. Gunnery moved the puck well during this power play, creating chances that either went astray, unrealized or stopped by Hains. Jefferies, for his part, played the entire power play but came up empty.
Then, with penalty freshly killed, Millbrook scored. If Gunnery scores on that power play toward the end of a period it dominated on chances, the game's momentum swings differently.
Battle of the game
Honestly, the best battle was between Jefferies and Hains, which Hains won every time. Hains was square to the puck and flashed the glove whenever he offered a bit of net. He covered the lower part of the net well while down on rebounds or during screens and overall stumped Jefferies, who knows a thing or two about figuring out goalies.
Analysis
Millbrook was very adept at forcing turnovers in the neutral zone with what is essentially an aggressive forecheck: whenever Gunnery tried to break out of its zone, Millbrook would try to hem in the puck carrier with pressure, taking away time and space to force errant passes.
When this pressure was working, Millbrook would scoop up the turnovers and, many a time, break in on an odd-man rush. On the attack, this worked in the inverse, with Millbrook occasionally leaving a trailing forward at the Gunnery blueline to back up the defenders and create space in the neutral zone to gain speed. This worked at times, but generally the neutral zone was cluttered much of the night because of the opposing styles.
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.
