Newington/Berlin Hockey Comes Up Just Short

By Dean Cornelio

Murphy’s Law states that, “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” In hockey, if you let the opposing team’s best player score three goals against you, it generally doesn’t yield a positive result. Such was the case for the No. 5 seed Newington-Berlin hockey team on Thursday in the quarterfinals of the CIAC Division III state tournament.

Despite their best efforts, the Indians let Jack Murphy get behind the defense one too many times. Murphy netted his third goal of the game with 2:36 to play in regulation to snap a tie and lead No. 4 Watertown-Pomperaug to a 4-2 victory at Trinity’s Koeppel Community Sports Complex in Hartford.

Murphy was the recipient of a great play by Bryan Borsari, who created the 2-on-1 play and sent a pass from the right wing perfectly on the tape of Murphy’s stick cutting down the middle. Murphy skated in, made a move to his right, and slid the puck under a sprawling Mike Reynolds for the game-winner. Borsari added an empty-netter with 38 seconds left for the final result.

“I thought we outplayed them for three periods. We had the better chances. (Murphy) had a couple breaks through our defenseman and we didn’t control him, and that was the difference,” Newington-Berlin coach Dave Harackiewicz said. “But I thought we were the better team on the ice. We weren’t the better team on the scoreboard.”

Watertown-Pomperaug advances to face No. 8 Northwest Catholic, which upset No. 1 seed Bethel-Brookfield-Danbury 5-2, in the semifinals at Ingalls Rink in New Haven on Tuesday. Newington-Berlin (15-7-1), which had won five straight coming into play, sees its season end in the state quarterfinals for the second straight year. The Indians were ousted in double overtime by Northwest Catholic in 2009-10.

It didn’t start out that way, though. Berlin’s Jeff Smolicz got his team on the board first just 1:30 into play. Zak Waznia, also a Berlin native, started the play with good work along the boards to get the puck into the zone. After Trevor St. Onge made the initial save, the puck squirted out to Smolicz stepping in from the left point. Smolicz kept his slap shot low and beat St. Onge glove side.

“I hit the spot and really felt I set the momentum for the game,” Smolicz said. “It’s always huge to get the first goal.”

Brendan Richard had a good chance to make it 2-0 about five minutes later but St. Onge (21 saves) stuffed him after a nice give-and-go play to keep it a one-goal game.

Watertown-Pomperaug (16-7), which also beat Newington-Berlin in overtime on Feb. 17, started to exert its physical presence with about five minutes to go in the first. The opposing Indians would answer Newington-Berlin with two goals in a minute and a half span late in the opening period as Murphy, Watertown’s leading scorer with 23 goals and 25 assists entering play, scored twice on Reynolds. Murphy poked in a loose rebound that Reynolds thought he had with 3:21 to go. Then, with 1:49 to play, Murphy took a flip pass from Garrett Young and skated in alone. His backhand beat Reynolds low.

Reynolds (16 saves) kept it a one-goal game with 20 seconds to play in the first when Kevin Murphy skated in 2-on-1 and rang a shot off the inside post.

“Especially in the last month, he’s really come on,” Harackiewicz said of Reynolds. “He was terrific tonight. You need that in a state tournament game. We expected no less.”

“I don’t think we could have asked for a better game from (Reynolds),” forward Jordan Wacker of Berlin said. “He’s a good buddy of mine off the ice, and I am going to miss him.”

At 3:48 of the second, Wacker evened the score at 2 when he tipped home a shot from inside the blue line by Tim Ouellette. Ouellette had it along the left boards and threw it towards the net where Wacker was able to get a piece of it.

“I was in the corner and got a stick got under my chin. I brushed it off and once in front of net, I was all alone,” Wacker explained. “Timmy Ouellette put a nice shot on goal, kept it on the ice. I kept my stick down like we’re taught in practice and tipped it right in between (St. Onge’s) pads.”

Wacker and Zak Waznia are both seniors from Berlin who played their last games for the team. Smolicz is a sophomore. Berlin had seven players total, including first line center Brandon Ralph, a junior, represented on this year’s squad.

“I’m going to miss being able to play with all my friends,” Wacker said. “I played with them as kids and to be able to come back and play with them with Newington-Berlin is kind of like a dream come true. I’m going to miss them the most.”

The team reached two of its three goals: 13 or more regular season wins and a CCC South Championship. It came up one game short of the semifinals.

“Fifteen wins in a season, this is tremendous feat for this team,” an upbeat Harackiewicz said. “I think we exceeded expectations. It would have been nice to get (to Yale). Chalk it up to a great season. We’ve been close two straight years.”