The West Haven Mite C team hosted the Greater New Haven Mite B team Saturday morning, falling, 10-2, to the older and more experienced team. The Westies played well and showed how much they have improved throughout the season.
Anthony Parise made some great saves in the goal, while Ben Trenchard and Julius Stokes broke up New Haven attacks and played well defensively. Logan Cole and Brady Salkins both scored, while Kyle Johnson and Jax Guarino pushed the puck up the ice and back-checked hard to help out the defense. Joe Mondo worked hard on both sides of the puck for the Blue Devil Mite C’s.
The West Haven Squirt A travel hockey team won, 4-3, over Watertown A1 at Taft School’s Mays Rink in Watertown on Sunday to improve to 18-12 in Connecticut Hockey Conference competition.
Forward Cameren Lipford (3 goals) put the Blue Devils on the scoreboard first at 10:55 of the opening period. Center Grady Schulte slid a pass across the crease from the right side of the net to a waiting Lipford, who fired a textbook one-timer to make it 1-0. The Red Wings answered and tied it up with just over three minutes left in the first.
Lipford then rebounded a shot by forward Aedan Guarino at 9:00 of the second to make it 2-1. At 3:05 of the period, Aedan Guarino grabbed the puck in the neutral zone, exploded into his offensive zone, and launched a wrist shot from inside the right faceoff circle high to the glove side to give the Westies a two-goal lead.
At 11:16 of the third, Lipford netted a wrister from inside the right faceoff circle high to the blocker side to put the Blue Devils up, 4-1. Westies goaltender Alex Werle made several outstanding saves in the period to protect the lead, including a tremendous glove save while momentarily losing his stick with 3:37 left in regulation. Werle, who finished with 25 saves, was once again supported by the defensive prowess of Andrew Grillo and Kyle Guarino.
In the closing minutes of the contest, however, penalties and miscues nearly derailed the Blue Devils’ otherwise strong team performance. The Red Wings pounced on the disadvantaged Westies, cutting it to 4-2 with 1:58 remaining before making it a one-shot game on a power-play goal with under a minute remaining.
The West Haven Peewee A travel hockey team opened play in the inaugural CT Ice Tournament with a pair of games on Sunday at the Milford Ice Pavilion. The Blue Devils lost the opening game to Hamden A, 9-2, then rebounded to trounce Riverhawks A, 9-0.
West Haven will face Yale on Tuesday night in the last preliminary game. The top two teams of the four will face off for the CT Ice championship on Sunday at Webster Bank Arena prior to the CT Ice college championship games.
Against Hamden, the Westies outshot the Dragons 10-2 in the opening period but trailed 1-0 at the first intermission. After Hamden made it 5-0, Chris Consorte roofed his shot with Brady Price assisting to get the Blue Devils on the scoreboard.
Price took Ryan Pniewski’s pass and snapped in a wrist shot to make it 5-2 early in the third period. Hamden then pulled away late. Greg Galasso started in goal and made 4 saves. Jacob Silva made 11 saves in relief.
Later in the day, the Westies faced a Riverhawks team that beat them, 9-5, four weeks ago. This time, the Westies jumped all over their opponent with five first period goals and dominated the action in a 9-0 win.
Price opened the scoring when he roofed a tough angle shot from Alex Bowery. Sean Studley centered to Price who tipped it to Mike Page who jammed it in. Bowery was denied in front, but skated behind and scored on a wraparound. Ethan Kelly drilled one through the five hole and Price roofed another wrist shot for a 5-0 lead.
Price earned a hat trick when he converted Bowery’s pass to open the second period. In the third period, Studley fired one off the goalie and in, Price converted yet another Bowery feed, and Ryan Pniewski ripped a slap shot from Ethan Kelly to cap the scoring.
Silva was very sharp and notched the shutout with 22 saves. Pniewski, Leo Mazuroski, Matthew Kelly and Jonathan Charbonneau were also terrific on defense.
The West Haven Bantam A travel hockey team suffered a loss and earned a tie this past weekend.
The Westies opened the week with a 6-3 loss to Wallingford Saturday morning at the Edward L. Bennett Rink in West Haven. Michael Madera led the offense with two assists.
Trailing 3-0, West Haven got within two goals on a goal by Jayden Spreyer off an assist from Madera. Matt Wezenski got West Haven within 3-2, before Wallingford again took a three-goal lead. Trailing, 5-2, Madera sent a nice pass in front to Matt Stevens, who made it a 5-3 game, but the Westies never got closer.
West Haven traveled to Greenwich Sunday morning and played to a 2-2 tie. Wezenski led the way with a goal and an assist.
Wezenski gave West Haven a 1-0 lead with an unassisted goal, then set up Mickey Dowd for a 2-1 lead with 11:17 left in the second. Greenwich scored a lot goal to pull out the tie.
Jason Alling, Wezenski and Haygen Axelrod all played well defensively for the Westies, while Bryan Hong was stellar in goal. Dante Hardt, Will Giaquinto and Kyle Dtoney played well on offense.
On Saturday, January 18, the West Haven Bantam A travel hockey team traveled to Choate to play Wallingford. Cody Rocchio (unassisted) started the scoring for the Westies in the first period. In the second period, Matt Wright connect from Zack Fonda to put the Westies up, 2-1. Yousaf Ullah (unassisted) extended the lead early in the third and the Westies held on to win, 3-1.
On Sunday, Stamford came to Bennett Rink for a rematch against the Westies.West Haven won 3-2. Yousaf Ullah (unassisted) put the Blue Devils up in first period but the Sharks answered back and went up 2-1. Ullah tied the game at two and then Nate Chiappetta redirected a shot from Ullah to put the Westies up, 3-2.