Tyler’s time to shine

 

By Ryan J. Phelan
Meriden Record-Journal correspondent
December 20, 2007

Tyler Timek (16) Scores one of his three goals against BCL.

 

WALLINGFORD, CONNECTICUT - With his Sheehan hockey team down by a goal and ham­strung by more than seven straight min­utes of short-handed play, Tyler Timek took matters into his own hands Wednesday night.  The senior captain scored a hat trick to lead the Titans past the Bolton/Coventry/Ly­man Memorial co-op 4-1 at Choate.

Timek’s equalizing goal — a last-sec­ond deflection of a low altitude rocket blasted by T.K. Kiernan — came after a second period chuck full of Titan penal­ties. From 10:50 to 3:37, the visiting Whalers had at least a one-man advan­tage. But in a testament to the Sheehan penalty killing units, Titans goalie J.J. Comeau needed to make just two saves during the period.

“We wanted to jump out tonight and really create something quick,” said Sheehan coach Ralph Shaw. “We didn’t get the opportunities we were looking for and put them away. We took a lot of penalties and we held them off, which created a little momentum for us, which created something for us in the end of the second.”

The Titans rode the momentum into the third period, striking 70 seconds in on a brilliant pass-and-shoot in front of the Whaler net. A feed from Brendan Kane and quick redirect from Nick Capozzi gave Timek an open net and his second score of the night.

“The second (goal) was just phenom­enal,” Timek said. “Nick Capozzi, he just fed it to me for a wide open net. I hardly had to do any work. It was just perfect.”

Timek’s final goal was a wrist shot from the top of the circles with 4:52 to go in regulation. Whaler goalie Shane Hickey had the puck in his glove for half a second, but bobbled it past the line, allow­ing the Titans a late game two­goal advantage.

Hickey had been kept busy all night by a harrying Titan of­fense that out-shot the Whalers 43-14.

“They played a very good penalty kill and we just couldn’t get our power play working tonight,” said BCL coach Jim Motyka. “We had all the chances in the world to build on our 1-0 lead and we didn’t. It’s as simple as that.”

The Whalers owed their lone goal to senior forward Brett Nightingale, who launched a feed from Tyler Somes off the inside far post and into the back of the net to give BCL the 1­0 advantage at 12:50 in the second period.

Junior captain Mike Busillo recorded the fourth Sheehan goal, scoring into an open net with just over a minute left to seal the Titans’ first victory of the season, sending them to 1-1.BCL dropped to 2-1 with its first loss.

“We talked about tempo and controlling the game, but we came out a little sluggish,” Shaw concluded. “We didn’t capitalize on some of the scoring opportunities I thought we had in the first (period). I think we just wore them down a little bit and finally got our advantages.”