Haverford goes with best for last … and then some in Flyers Cup upset
ASTON >> Haverford went to the power play nursing a one-goal lead with 3:57 to play against Ridley. Fords coach John Povey sent out his top unit of Kenny Kissinger and Marcus DiPrimio on the blue line, Mitchell Estes, Frankie McVeigh and Shane Moran up front. That quintet didn’t leave the ice again.
“If I’m going to lose, I’m going to lose with my top players on the ice,” Povey said. “They gave everything they had.”
With the help of a timeout at the 1:53 mark, Kissinger and company closed out the No. 4 Green Raiders 2-1 as No. 13 Haverford advances to the quarterfinals of the AA Flyers Cup.
“I wasn’t losing that game, that’s for sure,” Kissinger said of the grueling final four minutes. “I was going to do whatever I had to do to make sure we got the ‘w’ tonight. Whether I was tired or not, I was staying out there.”
The upset couldn’t be entirely unexpected, even if Ridley came into the game riding high off a Central League title and a 19-1-1 season. The Fords gave the Green Raiders a good battle last Wednesday in a 4-2 defeat in the Central semifinals. And as their coach asserted, the more times you play a team, the more difficult the games become.
“The one thing I said to (them) is we’re a good hockey team,” Povey said. “We are, and obviously we didn’t have success against them in the regular season (a 5-1 Raiders win) and in the playoffs. I said to them, ‘It’s very tough to beat a good team three times.’”
Haverford decided early that its top horses would play and play a lot. Povey double-shifted the Estes-McVeigh-Moran line, which combined for 154 regular season points, starting in the first period. The coach took a similar approach with his defensemen led by Kissinger and DiPrimio, who was playing just his fifth game of the season due to injury.
The strategy forced Ridley to match lines quicker than coach Stephane Charbonneau may have liked. In the end, his Raiders never found their rhythm. The Fords outshot their more vaunted opponents 26-21.
“That was the best defensive hockey we’ve played all year,” Povey said.
Haverford may have given up 21 shots on goal, but the Fords matched that total in blocks. Kissinger took two pucks off his legs on one shift in the first period.
“You just have to do whatever it takes to put a team away,” Kissinger said. “We know it’s a good team. If it means blocking shots, getting dirty, taking hits you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”
The senior alternate captain contributed on the other end as well. With 41 seconds left in the period, Moran threw a hopeful shot to the net. Raiders goalie Brendahn Brawley struggled to control the rebound. Estes gave the puck a few whacks before Kissinger scooped in the game’s first goal.
That lead held for most of the second period thanks in part to Haverford goaltender Tim Osifchok. He denied Nick Catona at the doorstep in a play that had all in attendance at IceWorks standing, most in disbelief.
With just over a minute to play in the frame, though, Ridley found its breakthrough. Michael Desio walked out of the corner and beat Osifchok with a sharp backhand. The Raiders came back to life. They trailed 1-0 last week, too, only to strike with three consecutive goals.
Estes ensured a letdown wouldn’t happen again. He slipped into the slot and buried a Moran pass 34 seconds after Desio’s equalizer.
“We know when Moran carries the puck, they’ll put two on him,” Estes explained. “And when McVeigh drives to the net it leaves me wide open. All the traffic in front, Brawley can’t see everything.”
The Fords bunkered down in the third. Four and five players at a time camped below the tops of the faceoff circles as Ridley attempted shot after shot toward Osifchok’s net. Few made it through.
“They really played well,” Charbonneau said of Haverford. “They sacrificed. They hurt, but they won.”
The Raiders (19-2-1) hit one post and watched as Osifchok produced another spectacular save, a sliding stop on Eric Miller. Other than that, the Fords (12-8-1) had all the answers.
“We were due for a win,” Povey said. “If we were going to go down, we were going to go down swinging. That was our best game of the year.”
Plenty of motivation helped.
“We wanted them so bad,” Estes said. “It was a tough loss (last week), because we wanted to get our title back. But coming back and beating Ridley in the Flyers Cup, there’s nothing better.”
Haverford will play No. 5 William Tennent Friday evening at IceWorks.
In Class A:
Springfield 7, Kennett 1 >> Tyler Riddle lit the lamp four times to go with two assists as the No. 4 seed Cougars strafed the Kennett net with 52 shots.
Andrew Astrino added two goals and three assists, and Kevin Brown dished a pair of helpers for the Cougars. Joseph Cavaliere provided the other goal on the power play for Springfield, which moves on to meet No. 5 seed West Chester Henderson in Friday’s quarterfinals at 7 p.m. at IceWorks.
Girls Hockey
Abby Shows and Emilie Kennedy each paired two goals with two assists as Garnet Valley blanked Conestoga, 10-0, in Girls Varsity play.
Jennifer Goldstein and Rachel Craig each scored twice, and Olivia Black and Maddy O’Malley chipped in a pair of assists each for the Jags.
