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Steelers shut out

St. Joe’s wins despite Novelli’s strong goaltending

OBSERVER Photo by Ron Szot The Steelers’ Jackson Taylor (60) lays a check on St. Joe’s Kyle Schneider (9) during a Thursday night high school hockey game at Fredonia State’s Steele Hall.

The Dunkirk-Fredonia Steelers have certainly had better games. The defending state champs were shut out at Steele Hall, 5-0, by St. Joe’s on Thursday night in a varsity hockey matchup.

After an early goal by Michael Merrell, St. Joe’s was in control early. Despite the early 1-0 hole, however, the Steelers were kept in the matchup by goalie Nick Novelli. The junior goalie blanked the visitors the rest of the first period, highlighted by a glove save on a shot from near the face-off circle.

At the end of the first period, the Steelers felt very much in the game.

“Coming into the matchup, I thought we could skate with them. I think we saw that in the first period,” said Dunkirk-Fredonia coach Mark Taylor.

After the strong finish to the first period, Novelli picked up right where he left off at the beginning of the second period, without allowing a goal for the first 13 minutes of the second period. The Steelers (5-6-2), though still trailing, looked like a team that could handle the test of one of the most respected programs in the state.

“I think our goalie played out of his mind at that point,” said Taylor. “Nick Novelli did a great job keeping us in that game.”

After that stretch — a scoreless stretch of more than 25 minutes — it all turned in the blink of an eye.

St. Joe’s scored back-to-back goals in less than two minutes, as Matthew Orlowski and Bryce Scheeler both found the back of the net. Suddenly, the Steelers were trailing by three heading to the final period of action.

“We took a couple of stupid penalties that helped that quite a bit,” said Taylor.

St. Joe’s added two more goals in the third period — the first by Frankie Attea, followed by Gabe Rapini finishing off the scoring on the night.

The Steelers only managed ten shots on goal, while St. Joe’s tested Novelli 32 times.

Despite the lopsided score, Taylor was still able to see the positives for Dunkirk-Fredonia.

“We could compete with them. We could skate with them,” said Taylor. “They’re one of the best teams in New York State in club hockey, and we competed with them.”

Taylor was pleased specifically with his goaltending from Novelli. He knows that if the Steelers are going to have the kind of success they had last season, he needs more from the rest of the team.

“Nick played outstanding. He never gave up, right ’til the end,” said Taylor. “We just need the players in front of him doing the same thing.”

Twitter: @bradencarmen

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