SJB tops West Islip; both fighting for playoff berths

Last season, a Suffolk hockey league game between St. John the Baptist and West Islip was only intriguing because the teams were evenly matched.

The game itself though had little meaning, as both squads finished at the bottom of the standings with one win a piece at the end of the year, splitting the season series against each other for their only victories of the season.

This year though has been a different story.

Through 11 games, both SJB  (6-5-0-0, 12 points) and West Islip (5-5-0-1, 11 points) are in the playoff race, owning the seventh and eighth seeds, respectively. With eight of the league’s 12 teams reaching the postseason, Monday’s lone battle between the two all of a sudden became much more significant.

SJB jumped out to an early 5-0 first period lead, and ended up doubling West Islip’s score to win the game 12-6. Matt O’Shaughnessy and Drew Drasser each had two goals and two assists and Brett Rooney led the way with four goals for the Cougars.

SJB coach John McDermott said that improved team chemistry has been crucial to this year’s turnaround.

“Our teamwork is better,” he said. “Being able to play together when you [have limited practice time] each week is key and you have to enforce that everyday and have [the players] buy into it to be successful.”

McDermott added that making the playoffs was a realistic goal, but one that would not come easy.

“I think we’ve got a challenging schedule but we have high hopes of finishing in a good position so we can perform well in the playoffs,” he said.

Tom Connor’s five points and Noah Wild’s three assists led West Islip in the loss. Assistant coach Mike Flaherty said the team played a physical game, but that his team simply got out-skated.

He added that despite Monday’s performance, West Islip’s improved defense and goaltending is what has put them back in contention this season. The numbers back him up, as West Islip’s 40-to-55 scoring ratio has already improved over last year’s 42-to-151 differential.

“We’ve had better goaltending and we brought some younger players up that have fit in well and have given us a better contribution than we’d thought,” Flaherty said. “We still need to be more disciplined and that showed [Monday] in that first period, but it’s still been our defense that has gotten us here so far.”

Even though West Islip’s improvements are substantial, Flaherty said that like St. John, the team wants more than just to reach the playoffs.

“We have more wins now than we’ve had the last two seasons so we’ve already made some great strides and making the playoffs would mean the world,” he said. “But we want to get a better seed too so we have a chance to maybe pull an upset when we get there.”