Wahconah Icers Rout Turners Falls

GREENFIELD, Mass. -- On the day after Christmas, the Wahconah hockey team gave its coach the perfect late present: early offense.

 

Wahconah scored five first-period goals on the way to an 8-2 win over Turners Falls on Friday in the first round of Greenfield High School's holiday tournament.

 

Seven different players lit the lamp for coach Don Disbrow, who took full advantage of the 5-0 lead his players supplied at the first intermission.

 

"We had three lines to start with, and then once we built up the lead we were skating in some of the younger kids, too," Disbrow said.

 

It was particularly useful for Wahconah (2-2) to maximize its bench with another game on tap Saturday against the winner of Friday night's Amherst-Greenfield game in the tournament finale.

 

"Absolutely," Disbrow said. "And then we have another one on Tuesday (against Chicopee Comp), so we have quite a few close together."

 

Wahconah scored a few goals close together on Friday -- three in a seven-minute stretch to open the scoring.

 

Mike Bloom got things started when he put back the rebound of a Jeff Hancock shot in the second minute of the game.

 

Moments later, Dan Flynn scored on a wraparound to make it 2-0. Midway through the period, Vinnie Orlandi cashed in an assist from Hancock for a short-handed goal.

 

Hancock got one of his own, and Nate Lapine scored on a rebound to close out the first-period scoring.

 

"They were moving the puck well," Disbrow said. "We had some good entries into the zone, a little bit of cycling going on. Our transition game was pretty good.

 

"Overall, I'm pretty happy with everything."

 

Kyle Gazillo opened the second period with his first varsity goal on a shot from the high slot to push the lead to 6-0 before Turners' Ryan Lenois slipped one past Nico Romano. Romano and Cole Seaman combined to make 19 saves in the win.

 

Junior Henry Churchill was the loan player with two goals for Wahconah -- scoring on a give-and-go with Andrew Beaudoin late in the second period and popping one over Turners netminder Brandon Bryant (36 saves) early in the third.