Reason for Springfield survival no Riddle
WEST GOSHEN >> After a one-year absence, Springfield hockey is back where it belongs. The fourth-seeded Cougars put on a clinic Wednesday night at Ice Line to dispatch No. 1 West Chester East 3-2 in the Flyers Cup A semifinals.
Springfield will once again play for a championship, a chance the club fully deserves. The Cougars (20-3-0) will take on second-seeded West Chester Rustin, a 3-2 winner over Unionville, Friday night (8:15 start) in the Class A championship final at Ice Line.
To get there, the Cougars outshot the Vikings 35-26, and 13-7 in the third period alone. Calin Losacco was superb in goal, turning aside all but two East shots. The second line of Joe Cavaliere, Mark Rodgers and Jacob Zappo forechecked like madmen. And the shutdown pairing of James Spence and Jimmy Schickling continued to shine as they have all season.
Of course, it helps to have Tyler Riddle.
“When you have a player of his ability, it makes a huge difference,” Springfield coach Phil Eastman said. “He was dangerous every time he touched the puck tonight. He was really terrific.”
Riddle scored twice, including the game-winner 3:48 into the third. Among the plethora of highlights he’s produced during his Cougars career, this one might just take the cake. Riddle took a lofted, cross-ice pass from Kevin Brown, beat the defenseman at the faceoff dot, then fired a bullet over Joe Stacy’s glove hand.
“I was trying to work on the pull-and-drag the whole game,” Riddle said. “Their defensemen are really good. You can’t stickhandle around them. So I pulled the puck back, saw a corner and hit it.”
The goal left the East student section, players and bench stunned.
Meanwhile, Cavaliere and company got to work making sure the advantage stood up.
“It’s a whole line effort,” Cavaliere said. “We knew our goalie was playing a good game and that the other lines would score. We just wanted to get the puck in and on net every chance we could.”
The Vikings couldn’t get anything going. Rodgers and Cavaliere, who stand 5-feet-10 and 5-6 respectively, darted in and around East’s defensemen as they tried to break the puck out. The third-period shots were 13-5 in favor of Springfield with just 1:31 to play. Anything other than the win would’ve been an injustice.
“They played their best hockey,” Eastman said of his Cougars. “I’m so proud of the way we played as a team. Tremendous effort.”
It was a start-to-finish effort as well. Cavaliere put the visitors on the board first with a wrist shot 2:34 into the game.
“We came out with plenty of motivation,” he said, “(because) no one expected us to win.”
That 1-0 lead held for much of the first period before Eddie Russell equalized for the Vikings.
With several chances to score to close the first, the Cougars could have felt hard done by the 1-1 scoreline. Those missed opportunities came back to bite them 36 seconds into the second period. After extended zone time, East’s Chris Rodier found Nick Castura in the high slot. Losacco never saw the shot as it beat him.
If the visitors were unlucky there, they soon capitalized on their own fortuitous bounce. Again the Vikings had Springfield running around in front of its own net. But as all five East players held the blue line, Cougars defenseman Joe Rice threw a hopeful pass to center ice. Riddle chased it down then beat Stacy to the forehand to tie the game 2-2.
“We were kind of pinned in and I saw the defenseman on my side creep down low,” Riddle said. “I saw the puck come out and I just got on my horse.”
The goal came less than 1:30 after the Vikings’ go-ahead marker and gave Springfield life. Like they did in the first period, the Cougars outshot top-ranked East in the second. On the other end of the ice, Losacco used every bit of his 6-3 frame to thwart the Vikings. It was 2-2 into the third.
Riddle’s heroics followed, not just a memorable goal, but a blocked shot with mere seconds remaining. He sprawled out to send a puck in Cavaliere’s direction. Cavaliere chipped it out as time ran out.
“(I’ll do) anything that’s going to help us win,” Riddle said.
