NEW HAVEN — The Sheehan ice hockey crew scored eight more dreams Monday night. However it became a goal that wasn’t that propelled the Titans into the CIAC Division III championship game. With Anthony Romano and Jake Festa both netting hat hints, the fourth-seeded Titans routed pinnacle-seeded Hand eight-2 at Yale’s Ingalls Rink. The Titans scored the semifinal’s first six desires, but simplest after Hand’s potential tying aim became dominated a non-purpose by the referee when the game nonetheless stood at 1-zero in the second period. The Titans scored seconds after that reversal and took manipulate for good. As an result, Sheehan will now play for a country championship for the primary time in application history. The Titans will take on the winner of Monday night time’s 2d semifinal among the Newington and Lyman Hall co-ops. “We’ve had an intention from the start of the yr, and that may be a country championship,” Jake Festa said. “We’ve been so close.”
Sheehan was denied a ride to remaining year’s Final Four, dropping within the Division III quarterfinals. “(The non-goal) was exactly what we wanted,” Jake Festa introduced. “They called a ‘no aim,’ which was questionable, however in our preferred. Then Luke (Festa) and Joey (Richo) crossed the alternative manner and positioned it inside the returned of the net. We wanted that greater than anything.” Sheehan’s present-day offensive onslaught — the Titans scored 28 goals in three event video games in attaining the Division III title sport — came after the Tigers regarded to have tied the sports 1-1 inside the 2d length. But the internet got here off its put up behind Sheehan goalie Tyler Robertson earlier than the p.C. Were given in the back of him. Eight 2nd later, Richo took a perfect bypass from Luke Festa on a 2-on-1 spoil to give the Titans a 2-zero lead. Sheehan never looked returned, scoring two times greater in the period and led four more times in the 0.33. “That was certainly one of the biggest turning points of the sport,” Sheehan head coach Dave Festa said. “I without a doubt became to considered one of my assistant coaches and told him, ‘That’s a turning point.’ “You could simply sense the power from there. We had it. It’s a whole different dynamic if they tie the sport. Sometimes it’s better to be fortunate than proper and, in this situation, the call went in our favour.” “Without query that changed into the turning factor of the game,” Hand head educate Brian Gonsalves stated. “I felt it at the bench. But at the quit of the day, that’s simply hockey.” “It just switches in 10 seconds from being a tied recreation to being down two, that’s a recreation-changer,” Gonsalves added. Hat tricks within the CIAC Division III playoffs are nothing new to Sheehan. But the Titans did themselves one better Monday night time. Romano’s and Festa’s hat tricks have been the third directly country sport that featured a hat trick using a Titan. Devin Napoli, who assisted on three goals and scored the sixth Sheehan goal, notched hat hints in Sheehan’s first Division III playoff wins. Romano scored the first, fourth and fifth Sheehan goals. Festa netted the 0.33, 7th and final purpose for Sheehan. But it becomes Richo’s aim that became momentum lower back on Sheehan’s aspect. After Hand’s Brendan Ryan had crammed home the per cent in a scrum in front of Sheehan goalie Tyler Robertson (17 saves), Richo’s aim seemed to open the floodgates. Instead of tying the sport with 9:07 left within the 2d period, Hand gave up three immediately Sheehan dreams to trail four-zero getting into the 1/3 length. Jake Festa gave Sheehan a 3-0 lead with 1:56 to play within the second period, beating Hand goalie Eric Dillner with a turnaround wrister. Just 39 seconds later, Romano scored his second intention. “We came in as the four seed nowadays and went in with the message that we have not anything to lose,” Dave Festa said. “Let’s just play. Beat them to pucks. If you do the little matters, everything else will fall into place. “When we won the other night time, it turned into a touch surreal,” Dave Festa introduced. “Knowing we had been going to Ingalls. The practices couldn’t have been more centred.” Monday’s meeting was the 1/3 between the groups in sixteen days. Sheehan beat Hand 2-1 in semifinals en path to winning the SCC/SWC Division III title. The Titans fell to the Tigers 5-3 inside the regular season. Leading four-zero is getting into the 1/3 period on Monday, the Titans made it five-0 while Romano finished his hat trick with thirteen:10 to play. Jake Festa then scored twice round a Hand purpose to complete his very own hat trick with 9:02 to play. Napoli had one aim for the Titans and assisted on three others. The Titans had the contest’s first extreme scoring threat just four mins into the game. Jake Festa ignored a breakaway chance at the eleven:35 mark of the outlet length and turned into denied once more seconds afterwards the doorstep. Luke Festa then intercepted a skip, but his shot become grew to become a way by Dillner. At that point, the Titans were humming across the Hand net and had outshot the Tigers 7-2. Napoli had his first scoring threat halfway thru the length, however, slid the p.C. Huge of Dillner a couple of minutes before Romano broke the ice. Robertson became tested two times inside the very last minute of the original length but preserved the Titans’ lead with two fine saves. The first came with 45 seconds left in the duration when Hand’s Ethan Massey raced up the proper aspect and wristed a shot inside the chest of Robertson. The second came 17 seconds later on a slapper through the Tigers’ Ian Rice from simply out of doors the left circle. Robertson, but, gloved Rice’s shot, the final of seven saves he made in a horizontal opening period.
