Congrats to UChoose Student-Athlete of the Week
Matt Lodato, Greenwich boys hockey

Matt Lodato, a senior forward on No. 1 Greenwich’s boys hockey team, is our ninth UChoose Student-Athlete of the Week of the winter and 19th of the 2014-15 school year!

Matt scored two key goals for the Cardinals last week. He scored the game-winning goal in overtime (his second score of the game) to give Greenwich a 4-3 win over Notre Dame-West Haven Feb. 12. Two days later, the Cardinals’ captain scored the game-tying goal as Greenwich and New Canaan skated to a 2-2 tie. Greenwich is 14-1-2 overall, 7-0-2 in the FCIAC.

Lodato’s overtime goal came after he helped Greenwich kill a five-minute major penalty after Notre Dame-West Haven rallied from a two-goal deficit to tie the score. From the game story of The Greenwich Time’s Scott Ericson:

In OT, Greenwich’s Matt Lodato — who was on the ice for much of the major penalty kill — got loose in front of the net before sending a screaming shot past the goalie’s glove side, giving his team the win.

“We were really fired up after we killed that one off,” Lodato said. “It’s a penalty we really didn’t need, but we just had to kill it off and bounce back. I just had a lot of time in front and I saw the lower right side open and I just hit it.”

Lodato scored twice for Greenwich, also connecting on a power play goal in the second period, giving Greenwich the lead heading into the third.

Congrats to Matt, who joins Greenwich boys basketball player Conor Harkins, Holy Cross-Waterbury girls basketball player RaShana Siders, Fairfield co-op boys hockey player Jake Fuss, Northwest Catholic boys hockey player Anthony Ceolin, Northwest boys basketball player Christian Thomas, Masuk-Monroe boys basketball player Bryan Acevedo, New Fairfield/Immaculate hockey player Peter Masi and Simsbury boys basketball player Rayon Christie as our winter Student-Athletes of the week

Our fall winners:

Fairfield Warde girls soccer player Taylor Gabrenas, Cheshire girls volleyball player Jillian Haberli, Torrington boys soccer player Kevin Vaca, Cheney Tech-Manchester quarterback Rafael Lebron, Maloney-Meriden soccer player Ricardo Lopez, Danbury boys soccer goalie Ian Shannon, Northwest Catholic-West Hartford running back Delano Robinson, Derby’s Ben Slowik, Norwich Free Academy’s Jawaun Johnson, Valley Regional’s Andrew Tuscano, Windsor’s John Nolan.

Click here on our guidelines for the award, which is determined in an online vote starting Sunday and ending Monday at noon. Be on the lookout for our next nominees of the 2014-15 winter sports season Saturday Feb. 20!

Photo courtesy Bob Luckey/Greenwich Time/Hearst Connecticut