The West Haven Squirt A travel hockey team played with a lot of heart, but came up short in the 25th annual Haunted Shootout tournament this weekend at the New England Sports Center in Marlborough, MA.
The Blue Devils fell 7-2 to Nutley-Clifton (NJ), 3-2 to the Rye (NY) Rangers, and 8-4 to Black Ice of central Vermont.
In the three games, forward Cameren Lipford led the Westies in scoring (3 goals, 2 assists), Andrew Grillo and brothers Aedan and Kyle Guarino anchored the defense, and goaltender Alex Werle made 72 saves.
Against Nutley-Clifton, Lipford had two unassisted goals — a wrist shot off the left post, which was short-handed, and a wrister from the right blue line — and Werle made 34 saves.
In the second game on Friday against Rye, Kyle Guarino put the Blue Devils up 1-0 at 8:55 of the first period on a shot from the right point assisted by forward Tyler Silva. The Rangers tied it and pulled ahead 2-1 at 9:05 of the second. Silva then tied the contest on a rebound from Lipford at 0:44 of the period.
Werle kept the Westies in the hard-fought nail-biter, making a remarkable glove save on a two-on-one break at 10:46 of the third.
In the final game on Saturday, Silva scored twice,as did Dhruva Garani and Michael.
The West Haven Peewee A travel hockey team dropped all three of its contests at the Haunted Shootout this weekend. The team is now 5-9-0 on the season.
In Friday’s first game of the tournament, the Westies fell 6-2 to Millbrook (NY) Knights. Connor Moriarty hustled and dove to knock in his own. Jacob Silva was solid in net with 23 saves.
In Saturday’s early game the Blue Devils were shut out 7-0 by the Maine Moose.
On Saturday evening, the Westies fell 5-2 to Genesis Hockey Club of Pennsylvani. Dylan and Ronnie Mastroni scored.
The Peewee B team made it to the championship game Sunday before falling in the title game.
In the Westies first game Friday morning against the Rye the Westies were held scoreless until the third period when a string of passes from Juliana Gonzalez and Nolan Fortier ended on Dan Lavallee’s stick and he found the back of the net past a solid Rye Goaltender.
On Saturday, the Westies faced off against the New Hampshire Avalanche and won, 4-2. The Westies got off to an early 2-0 lead as Lavallee and Eddie Thomas scored.
Juliana Gonzalez had the eventual game winner. J.J. Hall sealed the victory when he smashed home a rebound in the third period.
Later that same day, the Westies took on Greater New Haven and won, 7-1. The Westies took an early lead and never looked back. Goals came from Hall, Thomas, Gonzalez, Fortier, and Jack Francis.
The win against Greater New Haven moved the Westies to second place in the division and setting up for the championship game against Rye Sunday morning.
The Rangers were up 1-0 after the first period and led 2-0, before Thomas grabbed a loose puck in the neutral zone, skated his way to the top of the slot and beat the goalie just over his blocker. Tyler McColgan had an outstanding tournament playing some great two-way hockey.
West Haven Peewee AA team traveled to West Chester Ice Line Rink in PA to take part in The EJEPL 2nd Showcase event, where the Devils played in four games over two days. The Devils were missing a key defenseman Cooper Deko, who was out for the Showcase.
West Haven opened up on Friday facing off against Palmyra Black Knights AA and posted an 8-0 victory. Gabe Locklear, Brody DiNuzzo, who scored a hat trick, Thomas Porto and Connor Benz scored
West Haven played Montclair Blues AA in their second game of the day and won, 6-1. Jack Aloi, Eberhart (2), Nick Salzano, Billy Mascari, and DiNuzzo rounded out the scoring.
On Saturday, West Haven faced Princeton Tigers AA and won, 6-3. Salzano, Locklear, and Tim Donohue, who had two goals, provided the offense. DiNuzzo found a loose puck in neutral zone, before taking it rest of the way unassisted.
The Devils entering their fourth and final game of the Showcase against Howard Huskies AA and posted a 6-1 victory. Nicky , Locklear, DiNuzzo, and Mascari (Locklear) scored for a 4-1 lead. Salzano scored the final two.
Peewee AA’s went 4-0 and outscored the opposition, 26-5.
On Sunday, the Peewee AA’s traveled to South Windsor resuming CHC play against South Windsor Knights A team and posting an 11-0 victory. Mascari scored three goals, while John Donohue, DiNuzzo and Salzano each scored twice. Beckett Stenz had an assist.
Cooper Deko’s defense was outstanding against South Windsor. Tyler Donroe and Nate Kempton split all five games over the weekend. Both goaltenders were a huge part of the team’s success.
The West Haven Bantam A travel hockey team lost in the semifinals in Marlborough this weekend. After opening the tournament with a pair of victories and playing as the third seed, West Haven fell to Parkland, 4-0,in the semifinals.
Brendan Smith and Bryan Hong played well in goal throughout the tournament, while Sean Bosworth, Haygen Axelrod, Dave Brown, Jason Alling, Matt Wezenski, and Josh Gyolai all played well defensively.
West Haven opened the tournament with a 5-1 victory over the Delco Phantams. Brown, Mickey Dowd, Cam Delvecchio, Colin Deane and Brown, again, provided the scoring.
West Haven won the second game of the tournament 9-0 over Genesis. The Westies scored five times in the first period and never looked back. Delvecchio twice, Brown, Jayden Spreyer and Michael Madera gave the Westies a 4-0 advantage. Chris Adkins scored, and Bosworth increased the lead to 7-0. Brown and Wezenski, off an assist from Gabe Mongelli, rounded out the scoring in the third.
West Haven fell in the third game, 2-1, against the Maine Moose. Trailing 2-0, Delvecchio scored West Haven’s lone goal with a tally with 24.9 seconds to go in the middle period.
Gabe Giaquinto, Kyle Droney and Dante Hardt all played well on the offensive side for West Haven.
The West Haven Bantam B travel hockey team placed second in Marlborough.
The Westies won the first game Friday against the Springfield Capitals, 3-2. Yousaf Ullah (unassisted) opened the scoring in the first period, followed by an unassisted goal from Matt Wright in the second. With the score tied, a late game power play goal by Ullah from Wright would hold as the game winner.
Later on Friday, the Westies faced the Rye Rangers and posted a 5-0 victory. Goaltender Austin Fruin got his first shutout of the tourney and improved to 2-0 on the tournament. The West Haven goals were scored by Wright off an assist from Kevin Gardner, Gardner twice, Javed Ullah, assisted by TJ Levenduski, and Alex Kurowski, assisted by Javed Ullah and Ashley Welch.
West Haven’s third game against the Sharks was a physical test but West Haven posted 2-1 victory to lock up the top seed.
Javed Ullah scored off an assist from Welch to tie the game at one in the second period. With 3:25 left in the third period, Danny Johnson scored on a rebound from Javed Ullah.
On Sunday, the Westies faced Greater New Haven Warriors and posted 1-0 semifinal victory. Both goalies carried shutouts late into the third period. New Haven called a timeout with the face off in front of Fruin and would allow the Westies to plot a plan of attack. Welch got the face off back to Yousaf Ullah who would break the puck out to a hard skating Wright. Wright created a scoring chance and with the rebound laying in the crease, a hard skating Alex Kurowski knocked in the rebound for the game- winner, moving the Westies into the final.
A rematch against the Sharks in the final saw the Blue Devils lose, 2-0, and take home second place.