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Sports

South Windsor Ends Xavier's Boys' Ice Hockey Season

Bobcats nip Falcons 1-0 in Division I quarterfinals.

Xavier’s Kurt Johnson repeatedly slammed his stick against the ice inside the Koeppel Community Sports Complex moments after the buzzer sounded, and the frustration of an entire team was captured in that moment. 

Christian Marchi stopped 25 shots – including a point-blank denial of Johnson just before time expired – and No. 3 South Windsor knocked off No. 6 Xavier 1-0 in the quarterfinals of the Division I tournament at Trinity College in Hartford Saturday.

Marchi’s outstanding effort came as the Bobcats went into a defensive shell to protect the lead Tyler Glassman gave them when he scored off a pass from Nate Waldeisen at the 4:54 mark of the second period. 

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The Falcons (14-8) outshot South Windsor (19-3) 13-1 in the third period and 25-13 overall, but couldn’t get one past Marchi.  He was helped by his defense, which blocked countless shots in the final period. 

“They stuck to their game plan,” Xavier coach Scott Gainey said. “Games like this, where it’s nip-and-tuck, you hope to cash in on one of the opportunities. “But they did a good job clogging up the middle and they blocked a lot of shots. So, yeah, it’s frustrating. It’s frustrating to the coaching staff as well as the players.” 

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Exasperating may be a better word. Playing in its first quarterfinal since 2006, Xavier went 0-for-4 on the power play and had wide open shots sail over the cross bar or slide tantalizingly past the post on several occasions.  Other shots were blocked and slid harmlessly away. 

“He played well,” Gainey said of Marchi. “We just had trouble putting the puck in the net.” 

The most heart-wrenching moment came after South Windsor narrowly missed an empty-netter that would have sealed it. Johnson grabbed the puck at the blue line with eight seconds left and skated hastily toward Marchi. He glided down the right wing with teammates flanking him and let loose a wicked wrist shot that came to a thud against Marchi’s left blocker.  

As the buzzer sounded, the Bobcats mobbed their goalie, while Johnson and the Falcons knelt down at center ice in agony. Reality had set in.  The Falcons were headed home.  

The Bobcats, meanwhile, advance to play Fairfield Prep (19-3) at Yale’s Ingalls Rink in the semifinals on Wednesday. 

“I knew they had been shooting high all game and they really wanted to get a rebound,” Marchi said of the final play. “It just would make sense because there was a couple of guys to my right, but for some reason he shot into my left pad and I just needed to put it into a corner.” 

The Falcons were pressing the entire second and third periods because Waldeisen and Glassman teamed up to sneak a puck past Austin Essery (12 saves). Waldeisen beat his defender and found Glassman near the left side of the crease.  Glassman’s first shot was stopped, but he corralled his own rebound and knocked it in. 

“Nate Waldeisen made a good play,” Glassman said. “He beat the guy wide and saw me up front and I was able to get around the defender and get a stick on it.  The rebound was just sitting there so I just hit it in.” 

Glassman had the sense the game was all but over at that point. 

“We had a lot of confidence in (Marchi) tonight,” Glassman said. “We kinda knew that was it. It was all we needed.” 

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