Eagles soar past Rochester United in Holiday Classic semifinals

BY DAN STICKRADT

SENIOR EDITOR

dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com

ROCHESTER – Not too many teams can graduate 16 players from a team that made a deep run in the postseason and still be a very successful hockey team. Utica Eisenhower is bucking that trend this season.

The Eagles moved to 9-1 on the young season Tuesday, downing host Rochester United 6-3 in the semifinals of the Rochester Holiday Classic at The Onyx Ice Arena.

“We graduated 16 guys and we only really have (four) kids back, including both goalies,” admitted Eisenhower coach Bob Hall, whose team made the Division 1 state quarterfinals in 2010 and 2008 and the Final Four in 2007. “I feel fortunate that his (program) has a lot of depth. We have two very good (junior-varsity) teams and whenever someone goes down, I can just call someone else up. We have a great (pipeline) of players to choose from.”

Two of the Eagles’ goals came on power plays while another came immediately following the power play. Rochester was issued eight penalties in the game, giving the Eagles and extra skater for many stretches in the contest.

“We pride ourselves on our power play,” said Hall. “We can run multiple (lines on) power plays, and I’ve got three lines right now that I can look down the bench and whoever is clicking is going.”

Back-up goaltender Everet Bommarito finished with 18 saves in 21 chances for Eisenhower, including a series of flurries of shots in the second period as Rochester tired to claw back into the game. Bommararito made four saves in a period of 10 seconds on one rush, including one on a breakaway.

Meanwhile, Ike’s offensive machine poured in six more goals on Rochester, which was missing starting goaltender Ian Mercer, out of town on a family matter. Jacob Schmidt scored a goal in both the second and third periods, including a goal with 15:28 left in the second period to put Eisenhower up for good at 3-2, and Zach Halloran also tallied in the second frame to help the Eagles pull away.

Jake Vanslembroc also scored an open-netter for Eisenhower with 20 ticks left to play to cap the scoring.

Tim Minotas tallied a third goal for Rochester with 6:45 left, but the damage had already been done.

“I think penalties hurt us a lot,” admitted Rochester United coach Dave Underdale, whose squad slipped to 2-6-1. “I think we allowed them to take control of the game a little because we were short-handed on several occasions in the (second and third) periods.

“I thought we played a very good first period, one of the better periods we’ve played this season,” continued Underdale, whose team graduated 12 players from a squad that reached the Division 1 Sweet 16. “In the second and third periods, we made some mistakes. We are still very inconsistent right now.”

The two teams were tied at 2-2 after the first period of play.

Mike Willemsen scored twice in the first period, the first with 8:14 left to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead and the second with 5:01 left for a 2-1 advantage.

Rochester tied the game at 5:18 on a tally by Gannon Pacioni and forged a 2-2 tie with 4:14 left in the opening period on a goal by Eric Lonczynski.

Backup goaltender Brandon Wynne also made 18 saves for Rochester. Eisenhower outshot Rochester by a 23-21 margin.

“It’s just taking us a long time to really (gel),” admitted Underdale. “Two years ago when we reached (the D-1 state quarterfinals), we lost a lot of players to graduation from that team, and then last year we lost 12 more (players to graduation). We’ve lost almost all of those guys. We lost some very talented players, so it’s going to take us a while to try to get back to where we were.”

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Tags: boys hockey, high school boys hockey

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