Kyle Smith’s hat trick leads Edward Little past Cony.
By Peter Mullen
Staff Writer

AUBURN – If you could see the scoreboard, and hear the frustration in Edward Little hockey coach Jamie Belleau’s voice at the same time, you might have gotten confused.

Senior forward Kyle Smith scored three goals, and Colby Gilbert added a pair as the Red Eddies downed Cony 6-1 at Ingersoll Arena Wednesday night.

Despite the score, and the one-sided stats, it was anything but a relaxing night for Belleau.

“Cony played a very strong game defensively,” said Belleau. “They did what they needed to do to minimize our scoring opportunities. It was a struggle for us. And when a team does that we need to work harder and play a little bit smarter.”

It started out looking like it might be yet another cake-walk for the Red Eddies (7-0).

Less than a minute into the game, Gilbert intercepted a pass at the Cony (3-6) blue line and skated in alone on Cony netminder Mike Lovaglio. His wrist shot found the back of the right side of the net. One shot, one goal.

Not to be outdone, the Rams managed to pull off the same fete.

At the 2:14 mark of the first period, Cony’s Chris Vachon put the puck behind EL goalie Kris Bennett to knot the game at one.

Smith’s first goal, the one that proved to be the game-winner, came at the 4:11 mark of the middle period.

He took the puck behind the Cony goal and wrapped it around, slipping it to the right of Lovaglio.

“Gilbert took a shot from the point,” said Smith. “The goalie thought it was going to go around the net but it got caught up behind. I caught him off guard and it was open.”

Smith added an insurance goal just before the end of the period with assists to Joel Pepin and Gilbert.

EL added three goals in the third. Matt Couturier rounded out the scoring for Edward Little.

Despite the outcome, it was the team’s need to make adjustments that had Belleau muttering from his perch standing on the EL bench.

“It took some time for our kids to adjust to what Cony was doing,” said Belleau. “They stacked their defense down low and what we needed to do was move the puck to the point and get some shots on net and clear out the front of the net. When they finally did adjust, they were able to score some goals.”

“They were playing down low, bunched up in front of the net,” said Smith, the EL captain. “We didn’t get too many good shots on net.”

Belleau was pleased with his defense. Cony was held to just eight shots in the game, and just two in the second period. One of those was an iced puck during a penalty kill.

“I think our defense did a good job,” said Belleau. “When Cony was able to mount an attack our defense shut them down. I’m pretty pleased with the way our defense played.”

“We came out with a much better effort tonight,” said Cony coach Chad Foye. “You have to play them sharp all the time because their forwards are so good. I think it was one of our better efforts of the year.”