Markeshia Ricks Photo
Fire dominated the match early.
The trash talk started during the weekly Compstat meeting at police headquarters, where the Chief’s Cup had resided for the past year. But in the end, it was the firefighters who earned their bragging rights at the 20th anniversary contest of the two powerhouses of public safety.
Firefighters and police officers exchanged their everyday uniforms for hockey jerseys and met for that contest Saturday at David S. Ingalls Rink for their annual match-up for a good cause.
In the past, the friendly hockey game has been played to benefit a police officer and a firefighter, or their families. This year, with no one directly connected to either service in need, two New Haveners with cancer were chosen to benefit from the money raised.
Janelle Rodriguez, third from the right, with her family and Detective Mike Defonzo (far left), Lt. Herb Johnson (second from the right) and Detective Mike Torre (far right).
One beneficiary, 17-year-old Janelle Rodriguez, stopped by 1 Union Ave. Thursday with her family. Janelle was diagnosed with stage four fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma, a type of liver cancer, last December. Since then the cancer has spread to her lungs and she is expected to soon being a fourth round of chemotherapy at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
Isaiah Williams.
The other beneficiary was American Medical Response EMT Isaiah Williams. The 23-year veteran of the service also is battling cancer.
Before the two teams battled it out Saturday, a ceremony was held to honor both Williams and Janelle. Police Capt. Julie Johnson, who currently is the commander of the city’s police academy, and Fire Capt. Seamus Bohan, who is assigned to Squad 1 Division 2, also were recognized respectively as police officer and firefighter of the year.
NHPD battled back in the third period but came up short.
The firefighters dominated the game early in the match, scoring the first two goals in the first period. Then, with less than two minutes in the period, the police officers were able to score a goal.
But the firefighters were, well … on fire. In the second period, they picked up three more goals and held the police officers scoreless for the period. In period three, the firefighters again scored two more goals.
NHPD Coach Mark Decola tried one last pep talk.
Just when it looked like the police might not have anything left, they scored. And when they came out of a huddle with their coach, Mark DeCola, the police officers scored again, managing to close some of the distance between them and the firefighters.
2016 Chief’s Cup champs pose with Chief Ralph Black.
But the final score was 7 to 4 in favor of the firefighters. The Chief’s Cup will spend the year in Fire Chief Ralph Black’s office until the two squads meet again at the center of the rink in 2017.
Fire Roster: #6 Chris Zyskowski; #8 Todd Hall; #10 Brett McCarthy; #14 Marc Giannelli; #15 Mike Pomichter; #18 Mike Ciaburro; #20 Ryan Gilhuly; #28 Rob Celentano (C); #30 Jeff Seward; #35 Anthony Avitable; #51 Scott Leddy; #57 John Twohill; #77 Ken Goodale; #94 James Kiley.
Team Police.
Police Roster: #2 Mike Torre; #3 Herb Johnson; #4 Ron Ferrante; #7 Chris Consorte; #9 Mike Criscuolo; #10 Mike Hurley; #12 Bryan Jock; #17 Dan Sacco; #39 Joe Woznyk; #46 Evan Beauvais; #67 Tom Glynn; #73 Dennis Mastriano; #74 Scott Jason; #77 Mark Salvati; #90 Mike Defonzo; #92 Steve Torquati.
Why is hockey such a big sport with cops and firefighters?