Powers brothers produce for Cheshire boys hockey in Connecticut

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.

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.



Continue reading for basketball{PAGEBREAK}BOYS BASKETBALL: FOUR LEFT
Fairfield Prep (20-6) will play Ridgefield (21-3) in one semifinal and St. Joseph (Trumbull) (21-2) meets Glastonbury (18-7) in the other Tuesday in a Class LL tournament that has been full of surprises so far.

MaxPreps Connecticut boys basketball playoff brackets

Prep edged Xavier (Middletown) in the quarterfinals 61-59 after the Falcons stunned No. 1 seed Windsor in the second round 69-58. Ridgefield knocked off Naugatuck Valley power Holy Cross (Waterbury) 62-51, also in the second round.

In the Class L quarterfinals Monday, Lyman Hall (Wallingford) (19-5) defeated Berlin 51-42 to advance to the semifinals against top-seeded Northwest Catholic (West Hartford) (24-1), a 79-68 winner over Bassick (Bridgeport), on Wednesday.

The other L semi will feature New London (25-0), a 74-56 winner over Daniel Hand, against Maloney (Meriden) (24-1), a 47-45 winner over Kennedy (Waterbury).

In Class M, Career Magnet (New Haven) (23-2) and Enfield (20-3) square off in the one semifinal and Trinity Catholic (Stamford) (16-9) plays Notre Dame Catholic (Fairfield) (23-3) in the other Tuesday. In the Class S semis, St. Paul Catholic (Bristol) (20-5) meets Valley Regional (Deep River) (23-2), and Capital Prep (Hartford) (21-4) plays Greater Hartford Classical (Hartford) (22-3) on Wednesday.



GIRLS BASKETBALL: TITLES DECIDED THIS WEEKEND
Career Magnet (New Haven) and Mercy (Middletown) will meet for the Class LL championship either Friday or Saturday at Mohegan Sun Arena, where all the title games will be played.

MaxPreps Connecticut girls basketball playoff brackets

The Panthers (21-5) dominated Hall (West Hartford) 52-27, and Mercy (24-2) knocked off Glastonbury 64-47 in the semifinals Monday.

In Class L, two-time defending champion Hillhouse (New Haven) (24-2) advanced to the final with a dominating performance in a 58-34 victory over previously undefeated and No. 1 seed Bacon Academy (Colchester) (25-1) Friday. The Academics will meet Edwin O. Smith (Storrs) (23-3) for the championship either Friday or Saturday.

In Class S, the finalists are Shoreline Conference rivals Portland and Cromwell (20-3). And in Class M, Weaver (Hartford) (16-8) will play Windham (Willimantic) (21-3).

Paul Rosano, the former assistant sport editor of The Hartford Courant and sports editor of The New Haven Register, covers Connecticut for MaxPreps.com. He may be reached at pjrosano@cox.net.