Doug Reilly
Sports Editor
On an emotional Saturday night at Darien Ice Rink, the Rams advanced to 9-0 on the season and defeated FCIAC rival Greenwich 5-1. Junior Dylan Hart scored two goals and led the Rams past the Cardinals, as they remained as the only team in the state with a perfect record. Greenwich fell to 2-6-1 with the loss.
The story of the game, however, was the return of Greenwich’s Macken brothers, Craig, Eric, and Paul to the lineup. Last Tuesday, January 18, their older brother Brian, a former Cardinal hockey player and freshman at Indiana University, tragically passed away at school. It was the brothers’ first game back since the loss of their brother.
The Cardinals, perhaps playing this game in honor of Brian Macken, played extremely well out of the gate. They seemed to control the puck for most of the period, and outplayed the state’s second-ranked team until Dylan Hart scored with 28 seconds remaining in the first period, off a pass from senior David Crandall, giving the Rams a 1-0 lead.
The second period was a different story, as the Rams dominated. Just 1:25 into the period, with the Rams shorthanded, senior Reed Harper found the top corner of the net, beating Greenwich goalie Ricky Piper. Senior captain Henry Corcoran assisted on the play, and the Rams had all the momentum and a 2-0 lead.
Just a few minutes later, after serving a minor penalty, Hart added his second goal of the game on a breakaway, when senior captain Brian Tohir fed him with a perfect pass in the neutral zone behind the Cardinal defense. Hart buried a backhander after a nice deke, giving the Rams a 3-0 lead.
After two periods of play, the Rams had seemingly put the game out of reach as they brought the three-goal lead into the third period. Senior captain Jimmy Joe Granito, in just his second game back from a wrist injury that kept him sidelined for the entire season thus far, gave the Rams a 4-0 lead on an unassisted goal in front of the net.
Late in the third period, the Rams cashed in their second shorthanded goal of the night, when sophomore Charlie Corcoran snuck the puck behind Piper off a rebound to make it 5-0.
With just a few minutes remaining in the game, Greenwich ended New Canaan’s hopes of a shutout, as Louis Pulitano roofed the puck on an odd-man rush for the Cardinals’ lone goal, beating sophomore goalie Tim Nowacki, who accounted 17 saves in the victory.
The Rams will be back in action tonight as they host FCIAC foe Ridgefield at 6 pm, in a rematch of last year’s FCIAC Championship game.
Photos by Kim Persky
