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Sports

Fairfield Prep To Face St. Joseph For Division I Hockey Title

Despite a minor change in plans from South Windsor's Kyle Benson, Fairfield Prep resoundingly defeated the Bobcats 4-1 Wednesday behind the play of Bryan Puffer, David White and Don Carnicky.

Get ready for a second Fairfield Prep-St. Joseph state championship game.

Bryan Puffer and David White each scored a goal and notched two assists Wednesday as the Jesuits charged into the Division I hockey final with a 4-1 victory over South Windsor at Ingalls Rink. 

Don Carnicky contributed a goal and an assist while goaltender John Galiani finished with 27 saves for the Jesuits, who will face their old rival in Saturday's title game at Yale at 2 p.m.

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St. Joseph stunned previously unbeaten New Canaan 6-5 in Wednesday's first semifinal to reach the finals.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the rivalry between the schools was an intense as any in Fairfield County, yet Saturday will mark the first time they ever will play in hockey.

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A few hours later, Fairfield Prep and St. Joseph also will clash in the Class LL basketball state championship game at the Mohegan Sun Arena at 8:15 p.m.

"It reminds me of the good ole’ days," Prep coach Matt Sather said.  "When I was a student, it was the biggest rivalry we had. Prep-St. Joe’s every year, our football games were wild. It’s nostalgic for me, I’m not sure our guys remember that. Hopefully, we can sweep.”

On the ice, the Jesuits will be out to make amends for last season's 6-5 loss to Hamden in the title game.

The Jesuits controlled most of Wednesday's game despite a blip on the radar in the first period, when they allowed a shorthanded goal by Kyle Benson.

“It wasn’t spectacular,” Sather said. “We got a nice performance by their goaltender and a couple timely goals. I would’ve liked to have seen a little more blue collar effort at some points.”

Fairfield Prep started off firing, attacking South Windsor goaltender Christian Marchi with shots.

The Jesuits got a prime opportunity about five minutes into the period, when on a power play, White wristed the puck top shelf into the upper right corner of the net for the goal. White was assisted by Carnicky and Puffer.

“We clicked tonight,” Puffer said. “Tonight was special. We knew where each other was going to be on the ice most of the time and we were able to finish.”

Two minutes later, the Jesuits scored on a breakaway goal from Puffer, who was assisted by White.

“You always want to come out strong and we haven’t, especially in this tournament,” Sather said. “It was nice to get on the board early, but it didn’t really help us all that much when we kind of backed off.”

With five minutes left in the period, another South Windsor tripping penalty afforded the Jesuits a second power play, but the Bobcats were the ones to take advantage.

After Tom Worsfold mishandled a pass from Conor Peterson, Benson scooped up the puck, took off and wristed a shot over Galiani’s head that went in off the top of the crossbar to cut Prep’s lead in half.

“I talked to our defensemen about just being aggressive,” Sather said. “We need to realize that it was a one-on-one and trust our teammates to cover for us. Once we started doing that, it was a little easier to handle.”

The shorthanded goal gave the Bobcats life, as they started attacking Galiani in net and outshot the Jesuits 10-7 in the first period.

Fairfield Prep took control in the second period, however, and never turned back. The Jesuits’ poke check kept South Windsor out of their zone and away from Galiani while the frequently attacked the Bobcats’ net.

After White and Puffer each took shots, David Griffin scored seven minutes into the period when he wrapped the puck around Marchi’s glove while he was laid out on his back.

The Bobcats did get a few opportunities to score, but their hard wrist shots ended up in Galiani’s bread basket or in his glove.

In the third period, Prep kept its foot on the pedal as the Jesuits continued to use their defense to thwart any South Windsor scoring chances.

Fairfield Prep faced a close call early in the period when the puck nearly slipped through Gallani’s legs before his teammates jumped on it before it crossed the goal line.

The Jesuits gave the Bobcats two power play opportunities to get back in the game, but their penalty kill dominated as their system of poke checking and clearing the puck created breakaways and two-on-ones for likes of Puffer, White , Griffin and Evan Antisdale.

With three minutes left, South Windsor gave Prep a chance to extend the lead on a power-play and the Jesuits did just that when Carnicky deked the goaltender and wristed a one-timer to the upper right corner of the net.

Carnicky was assisted by Worsfold to secure the Jesuits' 17th trip to the state finals.  

“It’s good to be back and hopefully we’ll get a win,” Puffer said. “Last year [losing to Hamden] was an awful feeling and to be back,  it's redemption and hopefully we’ll get some revenge.”

The Jesuits now face a St. Joseph’s hockey program that hasn’t been in existence for long but is appearing in its third consecutive state title game.

“It’s an even playing field,” Sather said. “[I’m expecting] offense, good goaltending and a pretty exciting style of play.”

This may be the first time ever in Connecticut high school sports history that the same two schools will play for basketball and hockey state titles.

“New Canaan was undefeated," Sather said. " I didn’t expect them to lose now. St Joe’s had a heck of a year, they have a bunch of classy players. It’s going to be a battle.”

 “The entire place [Fairfield Prep] is buzzing and pretty much our whole team is going to be up there to cheer on our basketball team,” Puffer said.

 

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