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The Canandaigua Braves hockey team was on a mission facing the Victor Blue Devils at the Greater Canandaigua Civic Center Friday night.
Long-time Braves head coach Jim Armstrong was not present due to a family member passing away earlier in the week. It was a long time since Armstrong had not been seen on the Braves bench and his team, especially with the Blue Devils in town, had dedicated the game to their coach.
With sophomore Brave net-minder Doyle Kinnear rising to the occasion, facing several early one-man-down situations unscathed, along with teammate D.J. Goldstein netting his teams last two goals, Canandaigua pulled out a harder-than-it-looked 3-0 win over Victor.
“This was a great win for us because we played for coach Armstrong who had a tragic loss in his family this week,” said solemn CA assistant coach Bob Black. “We kind of dedicated the game for him and we knew that if we played the way we were capable of and with what we were working on that we were going to have a good game. The kids really came through.”
Yes they did.
While Kinnear was securing his fourth shut-out of the season, his defense in front of him was doing it’s best to help.
“We played great defense,” declared a grinning Kinnear rink-side after the game. “Brian Yehl was just great in front of the net. The whole defense in general played great. I could also see the puck really well tonight and it helps out a lot when you can see it that well. Victor has some great skaters but we shut them down tonight.”
The game was dominated by defensive play with both teams defense playing fast and hard. Make no mistake, hitting was rampant in this game. Canandaigua, now 10-3-3-1 on the season, got their first score at the 11:32 mark of the first period on a rush at the Victor net that saw Ethan DeCicco get the third rebound shot past sprawling Victor goalie Ray Rigby , who was starting just his second varsity game after getting a win in his first varsity start by a 4-2 score over Gates-Chili earlier in the week. Long-time Blue Devil goalie Zeb Clarke was still out due to injury, as was teammate Matt Portland, out for the season due to injury.
Goldstein, whose second goal was an open-netter with a little under a minute and a half to play, had this to say of his first goal, his teams second which came at the 7:54 point of the third period.
The Canandaigua Braves hockey team was on a mission facing the Victor Blue Devils at the Greater Canandaigua Civic Center Friday night.
Long-time Braves head coach Jim Armstrong was not present due to a family member passing away earlier in the week. It was a long time since Armstrong had not been seen on the Braves bench and his team, especially with the Blue Devils in town, had dedicated the game to their coach.
With sophomore Brave net-minder Doyle Kinnear rising to the occasion, facing several early one-man-down situations unscathed, along with teammate D.J. Goldstein netting his teams last two goals, Canandaigua pulled out a harder-than-it-looked 3-0 win over Victor.
“This was a great win for us because we played for coach Armstrong who had a tragic loss in his family this week,” said solemn CA assistant coach Bob Black. “We kind of dedicated the game for him and we knew that if we played the way we were capable of and with what we were working on that we were going to have a good game. The kids really came through.”
Yes they did.
While Kinnear was securing his fourth shut-out of the season, his defense in front of him was doing it’s best to help.
“We played great defense,” declared a grinning Kinnear rink-side after the game. “Brian Yehl was just great in front of the net. The whole defense in general played great. I could also see the puck really well tonight and it helps out a lot when you can see it that well. Victor has some great skaters but we shut them down tonight.”
The game was dominated by defensive play with both teams defense playing fast and hard. Make no mistake, hitting was rampant in this game. Canandaigua, now 10-3-3-1 on the season, got their first score at the 11:32 mark of the first period on a rush at the Victor net that saw Ethan DeCicco get the third rebound shot past sprawling Victor goalie Ray Rigby , who was starting just his second varsity game after getting a win in his first varsity start by a 4-2 score over Gates-Chili earlier in the week. Long-time Blue Devil goalie Zeb Clarke was still out due to injury, as was teammate Matt Portland, out for the season due to injury.
Goldstein, whose second goal was an open-netter with a little under a minute and a half to play, had this to say of his first goal, his teams second which came at the 7:54 point of the third period.
“It was probably my favorite. I gave the pass up to Connor Guay, he knew I was coming with him, he gave it right back. Beautiful play. I loved it.”
Then he too went on about the Braves defense, especially his teams young goalie.
“We played great defense, but not only that, our goaltender was fabulous tonight. Doyle Kinnear was on top of his game like I have never seen him and we need that from him. This was a good, hard fought game. It’s the Canandaigua-Victor rivalry, so it’s always going to be a good one. We knew we had to work hard and we did. It was a great game.”
Victor coach Mike Ferreri, a new father this week, agreed
“It was a good hard fought game by both teams,” he related while walking off the GCCC ice. “It was 1-0 all the way through, right to the end. I felt it was another good game for Ray Rigby. Got the ‘W’ in his first varsity start on Tuesday and then today. He played great today. He did everything we asked of him.”
Coach Black talked of Kinnear’s ability to bounce back after a loss.
“Doyle has been very solid for us all year long. We have relied on him a lot. It’s been great because if he has a bad game or a bad period he’s been able to bounce back and he did that tonight. He really kept us in the game when we were killing penalties and that gave us a lot of confidence the rest of the game. When you have someone playing that well in front of you.”
Kinnear ended up making 12 saves in the game while Rigby made 20 saves for the 3-10-1-1 Blue Devils.
Canandaigua now moves on to host Rush-Henrietta next Wednesday at 7:30 while Victor will be playing Webster Thomas at Thomas Creek, 7:30 next Tuesday. It is the last regular season game for both teams.
