Hall's Four Goals Lead Middle Country Past Kings Park/Commack, 7-2

A heated battle between two of the league's premier teams turned ugly, first on the scoreboard, then on the surface Monday night, as the Middle Country Cougars bested Kings Park/Commack, 7-2.

"Tonight, their top guys were better than our top guys," said Kings Park head coach Kurt Twining.

J.T. Hall led the way for the Cougars, winners of eight straight, with four goals and an assist on the evening.

"He's the magician," said Middle Country (9-2-0) head coach Tom Argano. "He does everything you ask for and then some."

"We tried to shut J.T. down and keep him out of the play," said Twining. "But he's a slippery kid who came here fired up."

With the loss, Kings Park (9-2-0) loses an opportunity take sole possession of first place ahead of both Middle Country and Long Beach. Currently, the three teams sit tied atop the Suffolk County High School standings with nine games to play.

Middle Country came out looking to avenge their season-opening loss, a 9-1 drubbing at the hands of KPC, and did so quickly. The Cougars jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period on a goal by Matt Grimaldi, followed by a pair from Hall.

"He's a kid that you never have to question what he does," Argano said of Hall. "He just knows the game better than anybody out there. Him and Tolesca are like puck magnets. "

Hall's first goal came off a pass from Mike Cartwright that sprung him on a breakaway. He came in and deked goaltender Mike Fazio, sliding the puck past him on the backhand at 11:25.

Two minutes and 27 seconds later, Hall got past Kings Park's defense again, and beat Fazio to the near side.

Corey Twining notched his first of two goals on the night for Kings Park, converting a pass on a two-on-one break from his brother Kurt, to beat Sam Rozzi and cut the lead to 3-1 at 13:18 of the second period.

"Whenever I assign Corey [a defensive role] the puck seems to find him," said coach Twining. "Sometimes even as a defensive center, he can generate some offense."

Tom Telesca gave the Cougars their three-goal lead back at 4:48, taking a feed from Grimaldi and beating Fazio.

Fazio allowed seven goals on 28 shots, though Twining was quick to come to his goaltender's aid.

"A lot of the goals weren't Mike's fault," he said. "When you give up that many odd-man rushes, there's really not much he can do about it. He's been our go-to guy the past few seasons so we stuck with him tonight. It was only 5-2 going into the third period."

The teams exchanged goals late in the period as Twining tallied his second off a feed from Matt Goldberg from behind the Cougars' net, but just 17 seconds later at 1:10, Hall notched his third of the game, on a slap shot from just inside the blue line that beat Fazio low to the stick side.

Hall got his fourth and final goal on his third breakaway of the contest. He took a pass from Cartwright, raced in untouched past a winded pair of defensemen and beat Fazio through the legs. The Kings Park goaltender never even moved.

"They beat us 9-1 the first game so we were out for revenge," said Argano. "We're the defending champs and we want to go out and give them our all. This team is clicking on all cylinders right now. We've got kids who are playing and stepping up who I could never expect."

One of those unexpected contributions came late in the game, from forward Brian Malone. Malone raced to a loose puck behind the Kings Park net, beating out defenseman Alex Rysdyk, walked out and beat Fazio over the shoulder to cap the scoring.

The play seemed to sum up Kings Park's night.

"They were gunning for us tonight," said Twining. "They came prepared. They were more prepared than we were, so hopefully we'll get them the next time around. We'll probably face them in the playoffs."

Frustrations started to boil over late in the game. During a stoppage of play, Rysdyk started wildly throwing punches at a number of Cougars' players. He landed more than a few on Michael Caraturo's helmet before the linesmen could wrestle him to the ice.

Both players were ejected and will face future suspensions, pending a league hearing.

"Every time our guys came off from a shift I told them 'Don't play into this nonsense. Just play smart, and use your heads,'" said Argano. "In the end it got a little crazy, boys will be boys, but it could've been worse."