Southern Connecticut Hockey League

Hamden,CT.

The New Haven Mustangs defeated the CT. Redwings 12-5 on Tuesday night to advance to the SCHL Finals.

It was the Mustangs who opened the scoring first when forward Dan Mauriello left a pass for defenseman Mike Acabbo who then found forward Vanja Duric at the back door to finish the play and take a 1-0 lead. Defenseman Paul Wiggin would score a few minutes later to put his team up by 2, but Redwings forward Ralph Difonzo found the back of the net with 1:33 remaining in the first period to place cut the lead to 1 goal, heading into the second period.

Redwings forward Mike Routh scored on a slap shot from inside the left face-off circle on an assist from forward Nick Sylvestre to tie the game at 2-2. Just 40 seconds later, forward Craig Cushing fed Acabbo with a pass on a 2 on 1 that would end up in the net to give the Mustangs the lead once again. This lead would be short lived as the Redwings answered back with a goal by forward Shawn Nutcher assisted by forward Mike Nutcher to tie the game at 3 a piece. From this point until the end of the second period, the Mustangs took control of the game and would score 6 unanswered goals on a run that lasted from the 6:42 mark of the second period into the 8:08 mark of the third.

With the score now 9-3, the Redwings would continue to work hard and would score two more goals, 1 from Mike Nutcher, and another from forward Brian Roche. The Mustangs would receive 3 more goals from Mauriello, forwards Sean Donohue and Kyle Amarone. Mauriello finished the game with 2 goals, and 2 assists. Cushing would end the night tallying 1 goal and 3 assists, while Wiggin scored a hat-trick and added 1 assist to earn the first star of the game.

Dan Ells made 41 saves for the Mustangs, with Anthony Avitable making 39 saves for the Redwings. The Mustangs will face the winner of tonight's game between #1 Chip's and # 4 Dragon Club which is set to drop the puck at 9:45pm.