Harrison Ranger of Cromwell a goal and three assists in Friday night’s win over Southington. (Photo courtesy Newington co-op booster club).
CROMWELL, January 20, 2023 – The Newington co-op boys hockey team has struggled on the power play lately. Entering the second period of Friday night’s CCC South game with Southington/Coginchaug/Westbrook, the Nor’easters were on an 0-for-9 run with the man advantage spanning 17 periods of action.
Newington ended that drought Friday with three power play goals in a 10-minute stretch as the Nor’easters beat the Southington co-op program, 5-1, at the Champions Skating Center in Cromwell.
Newington co-op, which consists of players from Newington, Canton, Cromwell, Berlin and Manchester, improved to 9-1 on the season and 5-0 in the CCC South, a half-game ahead of Hall (6-2, 5-1 CCC South).
After a scoreless first period, the second period saw a Knights defender trip up the Nor’easters defenseman Josh Beaudoin one minute into the period to give the Newington the man advantage.
It only took 30 seconds for Newington to capitalize as passes from Canton’s Cole Brandon to teammate Harrison Ranger found Nor’easter Evan Howard in the right face-off circle and he one-timed the puck past Scirocco for the 1-0 lead.
Three minutes later successive Knight penalties led to a brief two-man advantage for the visitors. Unable to score with that advantage, the Nor’easters Evan Oliver managed to tuck a shot under Scirocco’s pads with a Knight player still in the box to increase the margin to 2-0.
Newington increased the lead to 3-0 when Andrew Stribling artfully deflected a Howard pass while the teams were playing at even strength.
But another Knight’s penalty brought Newington’s suddenly potent power play back onto the ice with Howard benefiting again from a Ranger feed to power a shot into the net for a 4-0 lead that the Nor’easters took into the second intermission.
Southington (0-10, 0-8 CCC South) appeared poised to get back into the contest when winger Nikolas Allan knocked an airborne puck into the top corner of the net with 3:29 gone in the third period past surprised Newington goalie Jeremy Wagner to put the SCW squad on the board at 4-1. Despite objections from the Nor’easter bench that the puck was directed in with an illegal high stick, the officials conferred and the goal stood.
Responding quickly, Newington’s Ranger salted the game away just 73 seconds later batting in a rebound off a Josh Grimm shot to close out the scoring at 5-1.
For Newington, Ranger had one goal and three assists with Howard contributing two goals and two assists with Oliver adding a goal and an assist. Wagner had a strong night in net, stopping 18 out of 19 shots.
Newington returns to action on Wednesday when they travel to West Hartford on Wednesday night for a 7:20 p.m. contest against Hall at Veteran’s Memorial Rink.
Newington co-op 5, Southington co-op 1
At Cromwell
Newington (9-1) 0 4 1 — 5
Southington (0-10) 0 0 1 — 1
Goals: Evan Howard (N) 2, Harrison Ranger (N), Evan Oliver (N), Andrew Stribling (N), Nikolas Allan (S); Assists: Mike Deegan (N), Josh Grimm (N), Howard (N) 2, Cole Brandon (N), Ranger (N) 3, Oliver (N); Saves: Jeremy Wagner (N) 18, Max Scirocco (S) 23
Paul Helenski contributed to this report
