Minutes after his team's 2-1 state semifinal overtime victory over Wilton Monday night at Yale's Ingalls Rink,
Cheshire senior
Ryan Powers was walking down the corridor outside his team's locker room in the bowels of the rink known as The Whale.
Someone asked, "How did it feel when you scored the game-winner."
"Oh that was my little brother (Owen)," Ryan answered with a laugh.
Ryan had no trouble giving credit where it was due, even if to a sibling two years younger.
"It's great to see him score," Ryan said. "It's really special when we get an overtime goal at all but to have it be your brother, he's worked hard all year, it's an amazing thing."
Sophomore forward
Owen Powers knocked in a pass from defenseman
Spencer Hackett from in back of the net at 8:24 of overtime for the Division II victory that sends the Rams (15-6-2) to the championship game Friday against Southern Connecticut Conference rival
Guilford (20-3-1) at Ingalls Rink. Guilford defeated Trumbull 4-2 in the other semifinal Monday night.
Photo by Kevin Pataky
Ryan Powers (17) celebrates with brother Owen Powers (18).
All of the Rams' postseason goals have come from someone named Powers. Ryan scored the only goal for Cheshire in a 2-1 loss to Daniel Hand (Madison) in the SCC semifinals. A week later, Owen scored both goals in the Rams' 2-1 victory over Hand in the CIAC quarterfinals, and Monday Owen again scored both goals.
At the end of regulation, Wilton seemed to be gaining the advantage, outshooting the Rams 10-4 in the third period and putting a lot of pressure on Cheshire goalie
Tyler Carbone (22 saves).
But Carbone held up in the third with some acrobatic saves of hard slap shots and second and third rebounds and the Rams' kept the puck almost exclusively in the Warriors' end in overtime.
"We finally started putting some pressure on Wilton," Owen Powers said. "They had been giving it to us the last couple of minutes. Once we started to work the cycle, Hackett got behind the net, caught the goalie cheating, saw me camped out in front, gave me a tap-in, it was a great pass."
Cheshire last won the Division II title in 2009. This will be its eighth trip to a championship game overall. The Rams have three titles.
"The goal from Day 1 was to get back to the finals," Ryan Powers said. "So it feels unbelievable that we're going to play for a state championship again. Some of the guys had experience from our last game we played here, we went into overtime (2009). So no one panicked. We just relaxed and kept playing our game."
"It wasn't our best game," Owen said. "We came in after the second intermission, we weren't going to let this be the last period of our season, no way."
"Wilton's a good team," Cheshire head coach Jim Riccitelli said. "They play a very tough schedule. They play a lot of Division I teams and they're battle-tested. They gave us all we could handle. We were fortunate to come up with the win."
In the Division I semifinals scheduled for Wednesday, undefeated and No. 1 seed
New Canaan (25-0) will play Fairfield County Conference rival
St. Joseph (Trumbull) (20-5), and
Fairfield Prep (19-3), off a 5-2 victory over SCC rival Hamden in the quarters, plays
South Windsor (19-3).
The Division III semifinals feature
Northwest Catholic (West Hartford) (11-9-2) vs.
Watertown/Pomperaug (14-7), and
Staples/Weston/Shelton (Westport) (15-6) against
Windsor/East Granby/Avon (17-4) on Tuesday.
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