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Recap for games of Feb. 5 & 6
Winning in spite of themselves
Penalties perturb coach but don’t deny ’Cats tourney title
It was a tournament the New York Junior Bobcats were expected to win, and they did not disappoint.
Not unless you are head coach Aleksey Nikiforov.
The Bobcats defeated National Sports Academy, 8-2, on Feb. 5 and the Northwood School, 4-2, on Feb. 6 en route to the Hamilton College Tournament crown in upstate Clinton. Nevertheless, coach Nikiforov was unhappy that his team took a plethora of bad penalties in the title game.
“Some guys just lost discipline,” he said. “[Committing] 18 penalties is unacceptable.”
With several players in the penalty box for large periods of time, the Bobcats – who were already shorthanded on defense with Jordan Behler and James Gorman unavailable – were forced to play a man down for a significant portion of the game. Even so, both tournament MVP Vlady Nikiforov (Hauppauge, NY/Hauppauge H.S.) and forward Frank Rizzo (St. James, NY/Suffolk CC) scored shorthanded goals as the Bobcats pulled out a two-goal win over Northwood.
“It was really annoying to have to go out there and kill penalties every other shift,” said defenseman Justin Porpora (Hauppauge, NY/Smithtown H.S.), who had three assists and made the All-Tournament team along with forwards Nikiforov and Tony Romano (Smithtown, NY/St. Anthony’s H.S.). “We have to be more disciplined, because against a better team they’re going to capitalize on that.”
The Bobcats were clearly the best junior team at the Hamilton Tourney, cruising to an easy six-goal win over National Sports Academy on Saturday behind two goals apiece from Nikiforov and forwards Mike Coppola (Old Brookville, NY/Nassau CC) and Jarrett Gold (East Setauket, NY/Suffolk CC). NSA took a 1-0 lead just 23 seconds into the game, but Nick Grasso (Kings Park, NY/Kings Park H.S.) answered 3:31 later. The 6-1, 180-pound Grasso, who was forced to play defense rather than his normal center position, also assisted Nikiforov later in the game and set up two more goals on Sunday. More importantly, he helped hold down the fort despite playing virtually every other shift on ‘D’ with only six Bobcats defensemen dressed.
“He took the body, and I’m surprised he didn’t take a lot of penalties,” Vlady Nikiforov said of Grasso. “He had good positioning and played very well.”
Grasso said playing on the back line gave him a better appreciation for what the Bobcats’ regular defensemen do on a regular basis. “It was pretty fun—a lot more hitting,” he said. “I could catch guys with their heads down. And you have more control of the play. You have everything in front of you.”
The Bobcats fell behind 1-0 to Northwood less than three minutes into the game, but forward Patrick Moriarty (Lloyd Harbor, NY/Nassau CC) answered four minutes later off assists from Nikiforov and Grasso. Nikiforov gave the Bobcats a 2-1 lead with a shorthanded goal off an assist from forward Jason DeLuca (East Moriches, NY/Westhampton Beach H.S.) at the 11:56 mark of the first 25-minute half.
With less than three minutes left in the half, Bobcats starting goalie Chris Molinaro (Nesconset, NY) took a puck off the left side of his mask that pushed the mask’s metal cage into his right cheek. So in came backup goalie Joe Spagnoli (Cranston, RI/Suffolk CC), who had stopped 19 of the 21 shots he faced in registering the victory against NSA a day earlier. Spagnoli came up big in the second half, stopping a breakaway with a kick save early on and making a glove save to stifle a bang-bang 2-on-0 advantage with four minutes left.
“That pretty much killed their momentum for the rest of the game,” Spagnoli said of the latter stop, which preserved a 4-2 lead, “because they took a penalty after that and we finished it off.”
Spagnoli stopped nine of the 10 shots he faced in the final 28 minutes to earn his second victory in as many days. So far this season, he has relished his spot-duty role.
“At this point of the season, I’m pretty much used to it,” he said. “Lately we’ve been going in cold, so I’m used to it and I just took it as it came.”
Molinaro is no stranger to battered-mask syndrome. During the Tilton (N.H.) Showcase this past Thanksgiving weekend, he took a shot off the right side of his face that caused another laceration. It required four stitches to his right cheek and left a scar that has been a trophy of sorts for the Plattsburgh-bound goalie, who will be wearing a new mask the next time he’s on the ice.
“It’s not as bad as you would think, but I’m just thankful it wasn’t my eye,” said Molinaro, who had his left cheek glued at Stony Brook Hospital Sunday night. “If it was my eye, then I would be a little pissed off.”
After Sunday’s game, nobody was more pissed off than coach Nikiforov. Although he and assistant coach Dan Marshall lectured the players about the ramification of bad penalties, Nikiforov was still seething about it a day later.
“It takes a lot of energy from other guys who have to stay on the ice to kill the penalties,” he said Monday afternoon. “One group of people was working more than everybody.”
Furthermore, the penalties may have left a bad impression on some of the college scouts in attendance. “You play like that, what kind of scouts are going to go for you?” coach Nikiforov said. “If you can’t control yourself on the ice, it’s probably the same situation off the ice, so they have to learn mentally… I expect more from the guys than baby stuff.”
Coach Nikiforov also expects more from Romano than the one assist he produced during the five games of the Northwood School Invitational two weeks ago. This weekend, Romano played more like the AJHL’s leading scorer. With the Bobcats and Northwood tied at 2-2 midway through the second half, he scored the game-winner off an assist from Vlady Nikiforov.
On the play, Romano saw Nikiforov cutting down low on the Bobcats’ blue line, so he skated up the middle of the ice. Romano received a pass from Nikiforov at the Northwood blue line, skated into the slot and fired a shot into the upper-left side of the net to make it 3-2 with 11:26 remaining. Just over five minutes later, Grasso helped ice the win when he hit Rizzo on a breakaway for the Bobcats’ second shorthanded goal of the game.
“Grasso filled in and he did a good job,” Porpora said. “He played physical, and he didn’t just play offense. He played stay-at-home defense also. And he got a few points.”
He got a few pointers, too. “I like forward better, but it can’t hurt to be a good defenseman also,” he said. “I see both sides now. I’m going to be a lot more of a defensive forward, helping the defensemen a lot more, giving them the puck on power plays.”
Another player who continues to improve is forward Tom Galiani (Lindenhurst, NY/Lindenhurst H.S.). Like Grasso, Galiani had a goal and an assist in Saturday’s win over NSA. More importantly, Galiani helped create scoring opportunities with his forechecking.
“I gave him ice space because he’s very fast, very aggressive,” coach Nikiforov said of Galiani. “He put pressure on the puck.”
Now coach Nikiforov is putting the pressure on his players to be more composed. Apparently, they have gotten his message.
“Stupid penalties are a turn-off to a lot of scouts,” Grasso said, “and if we take a lot of penalties against better teams, it’s just going to kill us.”
That is, if coach Nikiforov doesn’t skate them to death first.
SEMIFINALS: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5
1 2 FINAL
National Sports Acad. 1 1 2
NEW YORK BOBCATS 5 3 8
Goals – NYB: Grasso (assisted by Nikiforov and Rizzo; 3:54 1st), Nikiforov (Porpora, DeLuca; 6:49 1st, PP), Coppola (Gold, Moriarty; 11:13 1st), Galiani (Romano; 17:14 1st), Gold (Romano, Galiani; 23:07 1st, PP), Gold (Coppola, Moriarty; 6:41 2nd), Nikiforov (Rizzo, Grasso; 8:15 2nd), Coppola (Porpora, Lucas; 18:04 2nd); NSA: Raymo (Veltri; 0:23 1st), Durocher (Cassidy, Pratt; 10:37 2nd, PP). Saves – NYB: Spagnoli 19 (21 shots in 50 minutes); NSA: Bolin 8 (13 shots, 25 minutes), Damiata 17 (20 shots, 25 minutes).
TITLE GAME: SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 6
1 2 FINAL
Northwood School 1 1 2
NEW YORK BOBCATS 2 2 4
Goals – NYB: Moriarty (Nikiforov, Grasso; 7:06 1st), Nikiforov (DeLuca; 11:56 1st, SH), Romano (Nikiforov; 13:34 2nd, PP), Rizzo (Grasso, Gold; 18:50 2nd, SH); NS: Genova (Demerjian; 2:56 1st), Graham (Demerjian; 21:55 2nd). Saves – NYB: Molinaro 10 (11 shots in 22 minutes), Spagnoli 9 (10 shots in 28 minutes); NS: Palladino 18 (22 shots, 50 minutes).
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