Vasyuta Hat Trick Powers Garnets over Carmel

RHS Hockey

 

Vasyuta Hat Trick Powers Garnets over Carmel

 

By Leif Skodnick

 

RYE – A small tweak to the Rye Garnets’ power play began paying immediate dividends on December 18. Sasha Vasyuta scored three goals, Declan Lavelle added four assists, and Rye capitalized on all three man-advantage opportunities they received in a 6-3 win over Carmel at Playland Ice Casino as the Garnets improved their record to 3-2.

 

With Carmel’s Noah Richardson off for hooking, Liam Hurley found Vasyuta with a pass, and Vasyuta pumped home a shot from the low slot at the 5:00 mark of the first period to give Rye a 1-0 lead.

 

The play, which sent forwards Hurley and Declan Lavelle deep in the zone after the puck while Vasyuta went to the middle to wait for a pass, was the execution of a new power play system head coach Peter Thomas had instituted.

 

“Our old one wasn’t working,” Vasyuta said. “We have two guys down low, two up high, and I’m in the middle.”

 

Early in the second, a brief lapse by the Garnets resulted in two Carmel goals just 27 seconds apart when Jack Langan tapped the puck past Rye goaltender Anabelle Thomas at 2:16 of the second and Luke Golisano found the back of the net shortly thereafter.

 

“I think we eased up a bit there, kinda took our foot off the gas and let them get back in,” said Rye head coach Peter Thomas.

 

Just 17 seconds after Golisano scored for the Rams, his teammate Brendan Murphy took a cross checking penalty in the offensive zone. A little more than a minute later, Vasyuta capitalized again with his second power-play marker of the night.

“I just picked it up off the wall and ripped it top corner,” Vasyuta said of his second, which tied the game.

 

The Garnets would take the lead with a shorthanded goal by Emmet Carroll at 8:31 of the second. Carroll took the puck to the Carmel net and absorbed a hit while depositing the disk across the goal line to give Rye a 3-2 lead. Later in the second, Liam Hurley added the game-winner on the power play with assists from Vasyuta and Lavelle at 11:06.

 

“I feel like our power play should be scoring, I’d say at minimum on 30 percent of our opportunities,” Thomas said. “The puck movement was there, but I think it really started to click. We tweaked a few things to take advantage of the skill we had out there, and it started paying dividends for us.”

 

After killing a third period high-sticking penalty assessed to Paul Angelastro, the Garnets set up in the Carmel zone, and Lavelle found Vasyuta wide open at the right post where he tucked the puck behind Carmel goaltender Megan Ravert, who entered the game late in the third.

 

“We just have great chemistry on the ice and off the ice,” Lavelle said of Rye’s top line of himself, Vasyuta and Lavelle. “We all just see the ice really well and we know where we each are going to be, and we get the puck to spots for each other to score.”

 

Rye was 3-for-3 on the power play and Anabelle Thomas allowed three goals on 19 shots to earn the win.

 

The Garnets don’t play again until Jan. 3, when they face Clarkstown at Playland Ice Casino at 6:30 p.m.