The West Have Mite A travel hockey team split a pair of games this weekend. Saturday started off with a tough loss against a very good Southeastern Seahawks team. The Blue Devils came back on Eric Boguniecki Day at West Haven with a tough fought win against Darien. Matt Cicosantti and Finn Moriarty led the scoring for West Haven.
The game was ultimately decided by the outstanding goaltending of Alex Werle, who made multiple saves for the Westies to pull out the win.
The West Haven Squirt A travel hockey team extended its winning streak to 14 consecutive games with three more victories this week. The team has been improving in all facets and the winning streak has been built on strong defense, unselfish offense, clutch goal-scoring and solid goaltending.
On Tuesday, the Westies defeated Ridgefield A, 5-0, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. They followed with home wins at Edward L. Bennett Rink, defeating Darien A1, 8-2, on Saturday and Wonderland Wizards A1, 4-3, on Sunday. The Squirt A’s overall record is now 17-4-1.
The Blue Devils and their families boarded a bus to the Barclays Center on Tuesday morning for an Election Day tilt before attending the New York Islanders-Edmonton Oilers game later that night. In the opening period versus the Ridgefield Lions, Brady Price gave West Haven a 1-0 lead at the 4:30 mark off a feed from Zach Goetze.
The Westies then took command of the game with three second period goals. Dylan Link fed Thomas Porto, who deked left and scored right at 4:42. Porto then redirected Goetze’s seeing-eye pass at 9:29. Matthew Kelly chipped ahead to Sean Studley who made a nice hustle play up the left boards and fired toward the net where Ryan Pniewski finished the job for a 4-0 lead at 10:40. In the third period, Porto went the length of the ice and finished top shelf to complete his hat trick and cap the 5-0 win. West Haven goaltender Jacob Silva made six saves to earn the shutout.
On Saturday morning, the Blue Devils faced the last team to beat them, Darien A1, who topped West Haven 9-5 on October 1. Led by outstanding goaltending from Silva (20 saves) and the defensive pairings of Connor Moriarty and Dylan Bosworth, and Matthew Kelly and Link, the Westies’ defense showed how much it has improved and shut down the Darien attack. This allowed the Blue Devils offense to take over, which it did by scoring three goals within the opening two minutes of the first period.
Porto stole a pass and fed Goetze for the initial tally, before Pniewski knocked in a rebound of Ethan Kelly’s shot. Goetze hit ahead to Price whose initial shot was stopped but he quickly snapped the puck to Porto who buried the one-timer for a 3-0 lead. On a power play, Goetze passed to Price, who fired off the post, but Porto back-handed in the rebound for his second straight hat trick and a 4-0 advantage at 4:23. Darien scored off a scramble a minute later, but Silva made six clutch saves in the period to keep it 4-1.
Darien gained momentum with another goal 1:37 into the second. Porto put an end to any possible comeback when he finished off Goetze’s sweet pass at 7:55. Porto returned the favor and hit Goetze for a breakaway at 10:53.
In the third period, Porto tapped in a power play goal in the opening minute from Price and Goetze, and then finished a breakaway in the final minute to complete the scoring. Silva came up clutch between the pipes many times throughout the game.
On Sunday, the Westies watched the Eric Boguniecki Day ceremony from the stands faced the Wonderland Wizards A1 team on the ice. The Wizards took a 1-0 lead on a short-handed, breakaway goal with 1:05 remaining in the first period. Just over three minutes into the second, Wonderland scored from the slot for a 2-0 lead.
With time winding down in the second period, West Haven’s top line got them right back in the game. Porto wristed home a pass from Price in the slot with 1:50 on the clock. Goetze then one-timed Price’s feed 33 seconds later to tie the game. With 49 seconds left, Silva made a kick save and then a glorious glove save on the rebound to keep it 2-2 at the second intermission.
The game remained tight and both goalies were sharp in the third. The Wizards regained the lead with 4:35 remaining in the game. It took less than a minute for the Westies to respond as Bosworth stole the puck at the red line, sped into the Wizards’ zone, and roofed his shot with 3:50 to play.
In the final minute, Porto won the puck at the red line and found Goetze, who one-timed his pass to a streaking Price on the wing. Price then roofed his wrist shot with only 52 seconds on the clock to finish off the comeback win. Silva finished with 18 saves.
The West Haven Peewee A travel hockey team split a par of games this weekend, losing to the Riverhawks, before rebounding to blank Greater New Haven. The Westies had defeated Greenwich Skate Club to open the week in a day game at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Against Greenwich, the Westies used a pair of goals by Jayden Spreyer to post a 2-1 victory. Spreyer gave the Westies a 1-0 lead off an assist from Nolan Cole with 2:55 left in the first.
After Greenwich evened the game in the second period, West Haven broke the tie less than a minute later as Spreyer scored an unassisted goal with 2:26 left in the second. Brendam Smith played well in goal for the Westies, making several stellar saves in the final period to preserve the win.
The Westies opened the weekend with a 7-1 loss to the Riverhawks in Shelton on Saturday. Trailing 3-0 after one period of play, West Haven scored its only goal on the power play when Cade Simone scored off an assist from Dave Brown.
That was all the scoring on the day for the Westies as too many penalties did not allow the Westies to get going in the game.
The Westies rebounded for a split of the weekend and improved to 15-6-2 with a 3-0 victory over Greater New Haven Sunday morning at the Edward L. Bennett Rink on Eric Boguniecki Day.
West Haven took control of the game with two goals in the final 1:23 of the opening period. Colin Deane gave the Westies a 1-0 lead off an assist from Spreyer in front, before Simone scored off assists from Michael Madera and Mickey Dowd for a 2-0 advantage.
With Smith keeping the Warriors off the scoreboard with the help of defensemen Sean Bosworth, Jack Sellman, Jason Alling, Haygen Axelrod, Bruno Martone and Brown, the Westies were able to ice the game in the third period.
With 3:04 left in the game, Shane Repetto took control of the puck off a faceoff, walked in, and lifted a shot into the net for the 3-0 final.
For the second time in three weeks, the West Haven Bantam A travel hockey team completed a three- game sweep over a weekend. The Westies disposed of the Yale AA team 7-2 on Friday, then handled the Wizards B team 4-1 and the Wizards A1 team 3-2 over the rest of the weekend to improve their overall record to 11-6 on the season.
On Friday night, the Westies traveled to Northford and avenged an earlier season loss to the Yale AA team. Ben Carfora opened up the scoring by taking an offensive zone face off right to the net and putting it past the Yale goaltender.
Carfora then assisted on the first of Michael Kelly’s two goals, before Rocco Plano rounded out the first period scoring, giving the Devils an early 3-0 edge. Yale had their chances, but Joe Crisci was there to stop 27 Bulldog shots. Andrew Wrzosek completed the Westies scoring off a pass from Joe Honcz as the Westies beat one of the states better teams.
On Saturday afternoon, the Bantams traveled to Bridgeport to play The Wonderland Wizards B team. It was a sound win as the Westies never trailed and controlled the play most of the night. Anthony Peschell led the scorers, netting two, the second coming off a beautiful pass from line mate Nick Boanno, who finished the night with three assists. Ryan Smith also had a nice goal as he followed his own rebound to tap in a goal. Kelly also scored with the assist going to Adrien Fielosh. Nick Link stopped 19 of 20 shots in a fine performance.
On Sunday back home in Bennet Rink, the Westies battled the Wizard A1 team. In a tightly contested battle, the Devils scored first as Ryan Smith fired a shot from the point past the Wizards Goalie. The Wizards came back to tie, but that did not last long as Carfora put the Westies back in front. Luca Ubaldi then added a breakaway goal for a 3-1 lead. The Devils hung on for their third victory in as many days.