February 6, 2010
Bees bust out of scoring slump
Bayonne's Tim Ballance scored four goals in the first period against Hudson Catholic.
Click Here for photos from Hudson Catholic at Bayonne.
By Jason Bernstein
Editorial Director
BAYONNE – Getting shots off hasn't been a problem for the Bayonne hockey team. How to convert those shots into goals had proven to be a far greater issue in the past couple weeks as the Bees had been limited to just six goals over their previous five games.
Last night provided a much-needed relief from the scoring drought as Bayonne had a season-best scoring performance in a 10-0 victory over Hudson Catholic at Korpi Arena, snapping a seven-game winless streak.
“We’ve out-shot every team we’ve played in the past three games and lost,” Bayonne coach Harvey Boehm said. “That’s pretty tough. We haven’t been putting the puck in the net so that was nice to see.”
Determined to take advantage of an undermanned Hawks squad, the Bees (7-5-6) needed just 13 seconds to find the back of the net with a goal from Tim Ballance.
The junior forward would have a career-game for Bayonne, scoring four first period goals and finishing with six points (four goals, two assists) in total.
“We’ve been on a losing streak so it’s pretty good to come out here, get a couple of goals, put the pucks in the net and just walk away with a win,” Ballance said.
Ballance was hardly the only Bee to have a big night. Nick Macia scored two goals and assisted on two others. Sean Carney had a goal and two assists. Michael Godeanu and T.J. Coletta added three and two assists respectively
Bayonne’s offensive outburst represented a stark contrast from the previous month. Prior to last night the Bees had been held to two goals or less in five straight games and in seven of their previous 11. Despite getting 36 and 30 shots in the last two games against Hackensack and St. Joseph’s (Montvale), Bayonne had just one goal to show for it.
“We try to tell the kids not to see the goaltender but to see the net,” Boehm said. “That’s important for scoring. We don’t have that true scorer, but we have a lot of hard workers. Hopefully we’ll turn it around because we had a bad January.”
Against Hackensack the Bees were victimized by six shots that struck the post or crossbar. The Bees had no such misfortune last night as a shot by Macia found the net after kissing the iron in the opening period.
“You’ve got to take good shots, you’ve go to just pick your head up and hit the net,” Ballance said. “When you look at the net, you’ve got to see mesh instead of the goalie. Lately all we’ve been seeing is the goalie instead of the mesh. Finally today we looked up, saw the mesh, blocked the goalie out and just put the puck in the net.”
Sal Colanno capped off the scoring with his first varsity goal at the 8:06 mark in the third period.
Craig Chwalyk (six saves) and Chris Kennedy (five saves) combined on the shutout for Bayonne while Armand Campos made 26 stops for Hudson Catholic (0-16).
With the victory, the Bees need to win one of their next three games against DePaul, Scotch Plains-Fanwood and Fair Lawn to qualify for the state tournament.
“It’s a big boost,” Boehm said of making the playoffs after the Bees missed out a season ago. “To get into the states is very important.”
NOTES: Earlier in the day, alumni from the 1999/2000 Bayonne and Hudson Catholic hockey teams faced off in an alumni game to benefit the Officer Marc DiNardo fund.
Back in 2000, the Hawks (Non-Public champions) and the Bees (Public champions) met in the state championship game won by Hudson Catholic. The Hawks won yesterday’s rematch by a score of 6-3.
Hudson Catholic Chris Peterson (left) and Bayonne's Stew Lemus skate for a loose puck.
1st |
2nd |
3rd |
Total |
|
| Hudson Catholic Hawks (0-16) | 0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Bayonne Bees (7-5-6) | 7 |
2 |
1 |
10 |
First Period |
||||
| B: Tim Ballance (T.J. Coletta, Michael Godeanu) 0:13 | ||||
| B: Ballance (Sean Carney) 4:38 | ||||
| B: Nick Macia (unassisted) 5:14 | ||||
| B: Ballance (Coletta, Godeanu) 7:35 | ||||
| B: Ballance (Stew Lemus) 10:28 | ||||
| B: Carney (Macia, Coletta) | ||||
| B: Lemus (Godeanu, Ballance) 3:51 | ||||
Second Period |
||||
| B: Macia (Tim Coletta) 11:18 | ||||
| B: Andrew Wadzanowski (Macia, Carney) 11:51 | ||||
Third Period |
||||
| B: Sal Colanno (Ballance) 8:06 | ||||
| Shots: Bayonne: 36; Hudson Catholic: 11. | ||||
Goalies: B: Craig Chwalyk (6 saves); Chris Kennedy (5 saves). HC: Armand Campos (26 saves). |
||||