Chris Gionfriddo had a hat trick and Chris Jones had three assists, as the South Windsor High ice hockey team cruised past Tri-Town 7-0 at the South Windsor Arena on Saturday night.
Patrick Lawson and Bryan Bakus scored their first varsity goals of their careers, while Nick Jones and Connor Hibbs also found the back of the net for South Windsor, which improved to 4-6 on the year.
Aidan Cain and Scott Skenyon combined to make 11 saves to give the Bobcats their first shutout of the season.
The victory was an important one, as it marked the first time this year that the Bobcats had back-to-back wins.
“We started off the season poorly,” said Bobcats head coach Neil Rodman. “We’ve won two in a row, games that we marked down that we had to win.”
What’s more, Rodman said that his team was starting to show more effort than the beginning of the year.
“We’re playing better team hockey and we’re starting to get a better effort, which is important,” he said. “We’re starting to see more [effort], but I need to see a lot more of it.”
Rodman said that there is still plenty of work to be done to qualify for the Division I state tournament. The Bobcats have four victories at the halfway point of the season and need eight wins to qualify for the tourney.
Things don’t get any easier for South Windsor, which squares off against Ridgefield on Jan. 21.
“With the teams we have coming up, [the effort] has to be 45 minutes,” Rodman said.
