By Dylan Butler
It was a game of two power plays.
The Chaminade hockey team scored three goals with the man advantage while St. Francis Prep was powerless on its power play, going 0-for-3 in a 4-2 loss to the Flyers Sunday night at Abe Stark Rink on Coney Island.
It was the first time Chaminade coach Frank Bendl used Vinny DeVivo with linemates James McDade and Eric Vissichelli.
The move paid major dividends as McDade scored a hat trick — all on the power play. Vissichelli also had an assist for the Flyers.
“They’re hard workers and they work the puck down low well,” Bendl said of his newly formed first line. “They are three strong boys and all have good shots. They played well tonight.”
Not only did St. Francis Prep not take advantage of its power play, it gave up a backbreaking shorthanded goal when McDade roofed a wrist shot to put Chaminade ahead, 4-2, with 12:50 left in the third period.
Despite outshooting Chaminade 35-22, St. Francis Prep struggled to get any close shots off on Flyers goalie Tim Daly, who gave up a lot of rebounds that were simply cleared away by the Chaminade defense.
“We just did perimeter shooting. It’s like basketball; you can’t shoot threes all night and win. You have to get into the paint,” St. Francis Prep coach Bill Turner said. “We don’t get in the paint.”
In fact, both of the Terriers goals — first-period tallies by Marc Sausa and Keith Lippert — came on rebounds in front of the net as the Terriers led 2-1 after one period.
But John Leistman was called for a holding minor 56 seconds into the second period, and less than a minute later Giancarlo Racanelli was whistled for slashing and Chaminade had a two-man advantage for 1:09.
McDade needed just 14 seconds to capitalize, scoring his second power-play goal, and a little more than a minute later Zeccardi beat St. Francis Prep goalie Stephen Buccellato with a wrist shot from the left circle to give the Flyers a 3-2 lead with 11:47 left in the second period.
“A couple of stupid penalties put us over. They had three power-play goals. Two of them were deflections,” Racanelli said. “Penalties killed us.”
Holy Cross 11, Christ the King 0. Chris Ryan had four goals and two assists, Joey Temperini netted a hat trick, Pat McHugh had two goals and two assists, Jon Thomas and Chris Anastasio scored a goal apiece and Matt Cammarata notched the shutout for Holy Cross (5-1-1 CHSHL ‘B’) Friday at the Ice Hutch in Mount Vernon. Christ the King falls to 2-3-1.
Molloy 7, Xavier 1. Jimmy Grogan, Matt LaVanco and Bryan Elfant each had a goal and an assist, and Mike Farrell, Chris Francaviglia, Chris Massi and Mike Carney also scored for Molloy (6-0-1 CHSHL ‘B’) Friday at the Ice Hutch. Tim Spillane scored the lone goal for Xavier (0-5-1).
McClancy 9, Bishop Ford 1. Keith Morrice scored five goals, including a first-period hat trick, and Joe Sadowsky, Steve Ferguson, Charlie Gonzalez and Sal DeMarco all scored for McClancy (5-1 CHSHL ‘C’) at the Ice Hutch Friday night. Sean McAllister scored the lone goal for Bishop Ford.
Reach Associate Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
