North Haven High School boys’ varsity hockey won 2 of 3 games over the past week to improve their overall record to 5-5, halfway through the 2011-12 season. Roadblocks to a winning record have been injuries to key players and several close losses in overtime.

“We’re looking forward to getting back our players who have been out injured and improving our team moving forward into the second half of the season,” said head coach Tom Roche.

Last Wednesday night at Northford's Ice Pavillion, the Indians dismantled Daniel Hand of Division II by the score of 8-1.

“The boys were just coming off a loss, so we knew that we had to come out strong with a lot of energy to get back on track,” Roche said,

Indian skaters accomplished just that, netting a 1-0 advantage in the opening seconds.

“It started with Mike Andreucci winning the opening face-off and scoring the fastest goal in school history,” Roche said.

Daniel Hand tied the score at 1-1 shortly thereafter, but North Haven added seven more goals before the contest’s conclusion. Andreucci and Ken Broccoli each had a pair of goals and an assist to pace the offense, while freshmen goalie Andrew Graziano continued to perform well in the absence of injured senior goaltender Mike Amarone, making 35 saves.

“We played physical and strong the whole game,” Roche said.

Physicality has been an advantage for North Haven. “We have size on our side,” Roche said. “We’re not the fastest team out there, so we need to use that size to our advantage. Our coaching staff is really supportive of using a physical style of hockey.”

Last Saturday, NHHS traveled to Bennett Rink in West Haven to take on SCC rival the Amity Spartans, and came up against a squad of equal toughness.

“Amity is a good, strong, physical team also,” Roche said. “Going in, we knew this was going to be a close game, and we thought that with our depth we would be able to come out with a win.”

However, replicating an unfortunate theme to the Indians’ season, NHHS had a 3-2 lead with under two minutes to play but ultimately fell in overtime by the score of 4-3.

“We didn’t end the third period well. We let them back in,” Roche said. “This is the second time that we got beat in overtime after leading in the third period.”

Against Amity, North Haven seniors Broccoli and Andrew Babbidge scored goals and freshmen Cameron Owens tallied his first varsity goal and Gaziano stopped 24 pucks in the loss.

 Monday afternoon, North Haven defeated the Tri-Town co-op team comprised of skaters from Ellington, Somers and East Windsor by the score of 5-3.

“We came out aggressive, playing well,” Roche said.

Broccoli took over the team lead in goals (11) by scoring four, including an empty netter at the end when the close matchup was still just 4-3. On three occasions during the game, the score was tied.

“Going into the third period, we were up one goal, but we were nervous because of our history of backing up in the third period,” Roche said. “Broccoli was outstanding.”

Sophomore Chris Lion scored his first varsity goal for North Haven and Graziano performed admirably in net, making 22 saves.

Despite continued rough play in which Indians were on the wrong end of game misconduct and disqualification penalties, North Haven is getting stronger as younger players are seeing more ice time in the absence of elder teammates. Co-captain Johnny Johnson returned to lineup for Saturday's game and senior Mike Amarone should be available for competition with Darien on Jan. 21.