The West Haven Mite A travel hockey team split the weekend, losing to Yale, then rebounding to beat Northwestern. Owen Santos and Brooklyn Maher challenged their opponents, and Aedan Guarino’s multiple goals helped lead the Westies to victory in a close game against Northwestern. Luke Jaques sealed the deal with the final goal of the game.
The West Haven Squirt A travel hockey team continued its winning ways with two more victories on Saturday. The Squirt A’s have now won 16 consecutive games and have an overall record of 19-4-1. The team defeated Whalers A, 9-2, on Saturday morning at Edward L. Bennett Rink, then traveled to the SoNo Ice House on Saturday evening and beat the Norwalk Roughriders, 7-1.
The Whalers took a 1-0 lead with a power play goal at 7:48 of the first period. but the Westies quickly came back to tie it. Brady Price led Zach Goetze over the blue line and then knocked in Goetze’s return pass at 8:39.
Just over two minutes into the second period, Goetze swept home a loose puck with Ethan Kelly and Ryan Pniewski assisting for a 2-1 lead. Five minutes later, Connor Moriarty kept a puck in the zone and passed ahead to Price. The winger then fed Kelly who deked and scored to make it 3-1.
Later, Thomas Porto gathered in the puck at the blue line and snapped a wrist shot home for a 4-1 lead after two periods. West Haven goaltender Jacob Silva was brilliant in the second period making nine saves.
The Blue Devils came out smoking in the third and scored four goals in the first three minutes. Porto scored from the slot with Goetze assisting, Sean Studley went five-hole with an assist to Ethan Kelly, and on the ensuing faceoff, Porto skated directly to the net and scored for his hat trick. On next faceoff, Goetze did the same. The Whalers scored off a scramble in front to make it 8-2 with 2:29 left in the game before Goetze went bar down from Price to earn his own hat trick and cap the scoring. Silva was strong in net and totaled 15 saves in the game.
On Saturday night the Roughriders took a 1-0 lead in the first period, before Pniewski jump-started the West Haven offense. Ethan Kelly passed to Studley, who found Pniewski in front, and the winger deposited the puck to make it 1-1. Pniewski then one-timed Studley’s feed on the power play three minutes later to give the Blue Devils a 2-1 lead at the first intermission.
Early in the second, Silva’s pad save went to Dylan Bosworth, who hit Goetze for a breakaway and a 3-1 lead. Dylan Link and Matthew Kelly were solid on defense for the Westies and held Norwalk to only two shots in the period. Goetze, from Porto and Price, scored with 19 seconds left in the second to make the score 4-1.
In the final period, Porto scored a power play goal from Goetze and Moriarty. Porto hit Bosworth for a point shot that Price neatly deflected past the Norwalk goalie. A Goetze breakaway from Porto and Bosworth ended the scoring, giving Goetze his second hat trick of the day, and giving the Westies the 7-1 win. Silva was solid again and finished with 12 saves.
The West Haven Peewee A travel hockey team moved to 16-7-2 with a split of its two games this past weekend. The Westies opened the weekend with a victory over Stamford, before falling to Wonderland at the Edward L. Bennet Rink in West Haven Sunday morning.
In the weekend opener in Stamford, West Haven posted 4-3 victory. The Westies took a 1-0 lead just 54 seconds into the game when Dante Hardt scored off of a rebound of a Shane Repetto shot, before Stamford evened the game with 1:27 left in the opening period.
The Westies took a 2-1 lead with 4:05 gone by in the second period when Nolan Cole scored a power play goal off assists from Jayden Spreyer and Haygen Axelrod. With the game even at two, Cole set up Spreyer for a 3-2 advantage with 1:07 remaining in the middle period.
Stamford evened the game at three, but West Haven scored the eventual winner with 9:36 remaining as Dave Brown scored off an assist from Michael Madera.
West Haven closed the weekend with a 5-2 loss against the Wonderland Wizards. Wonderland took a 2-0 lead just 3:15 into the contest, before Colin Deane cut the deficit in half with a power play goal off assists from Spreyer and Cole.
Trailing 3-1 in the third period, Brown scored an unassisted goal, but it was not enough as Wonderland added an insurance goal with 6:46 to go, and an empty net tally late in the contest.
The West Haven Bantam A travel hockey team continued its hot streak this weekend, winning all three of its games and extending its winning streak to seven. On Friday, West Haven defeated East Haven, 8-3, Saturday the Westies beat Southeastern, 5-0, and on Sunday, they won, 5-3, over the Riverhawks.
On Friday night, the Westies opened up quick as Anthony Peschell scored just 11 seconds into the contest. Nick Boanno followed with a goal 20 seconds later for a 2-0 lead. East Haven battled back to make it 3-3 after 2 periods, but the Westies dominated the third period, outscoring their opponent, 5-0. Peschell finished with a hat trick, Boanno added another tally to go along with his three assists. Ben Carfora also added a goal and four assists. Ryan Bernardi and Justin Pniewski were the remaining goal scorers.
On Saturday morning, the Westies hosted Southeastern and avenged an earlier season defeat. The Westies never gave Southeasten a chance, dominating them and outshooting them, 52 -13.
Michael Kelly knocked home a rebound off a shot by Ryan Smith early, then it would be Andrew Wrzosek and Rocco Plano who would both follow with goals which helped lead the Devils to victory. Defense played a huge factor in the game. Defensemen Joe D’Aurio, Adrian Fielosh and Luca Ubaldi, as well as the net minding of both Joe Crisci and Nick Link limited Southeasterns chances and preserved the shutout.
On Sunday afternoon, the Westies traveled to Shelton to play the Riverhawks. Although controlling most of the play, the Westies trailed 1-0 after the first period.
Ryan Smith changed that with two second period goals, and assisted on Plano’s goal as well to give the Westies a 3-2 lead after two. The Westies allowed that lead slip away, but Peschell and Bernardi netted the final two goals of the contest to give the Devils the lead they never relinquished.