The West Haven Mite C team played twice this weekend, going 1-1. On Saturday, the team hosted the Hamden Mite C’s, with the Westies coming out on top, 11-4. Hamden jumped to an early lead, but West Haven quickly answered when Logan Minio converted a breakaway after Ben Trenchard played him a pass through two defenders. The Minio-Trenchard connection continued when Trenchard scored his first career goal off a Minio pass. Anthony Parise, Brady Salkins, Jax Guarino, and Kyle Johnson also scored, and Julius Stokes played great defense, protecting Evan Harrison in goal. Joe Mondo made a few great passes to help West Haven keep possession.
On Sunday, the Westies traveled down the Merritt to take on New Canaan in its outdoor rink. The Mite C Winter Classic saw the Westies play hard, but they came up just short,8-7.
Minio kept up his scoring ways, netting four, the first off a great pass from Johnson. Johnson added a goal of his own, as did Salkins and Parise, who also picked up an assist. Harrison made several big stops, and Mondo played great defensively. Trenchard and Guarino fought hard for the puck along the boards.
The West Haven Squirt A travel hockey team downed the Whalers, 8-2, in a Connecticut Hockey Conference matchup at Champions Skating Center in Cromwell on Sunday.
The Blue Devils harpooned the Whalers behind a powerhouse offense guided by Cameren Lipford (4 goals) and a staunch defense steered by Kyle Guarino and Andrew Grillo. The defensive tandem aided stalwart goaltender Alex Werle throughout the game by keeping the puck out of the West Haven zone.
Despite a slow start for both teams, the Westies struck first. At 6:25 of the opening period, Lipford rebounded Kyle Guarino’s shot from the right point to put the Blue Devils up, 1-0.
The Whalers tied it less than a minute into the second before Westies’ center Grady Schulte fired the go-ahead goal on a wrist shot high to the glove side, assisted by forward Michael D’Aiuto. The Blue Devils never looked back. Forward Dhruva Garani scored in front of the net at 8:46 of the period to make it 3-1.
Lipford deked his way into the Whalers’ zone and launched a wrister high to the glove side to give the Westies a three-goal lead. Defenseman Gavin Coady then took the puck from behind his own net and went coast-to-coast before wristing it past the Whalers’ goaltender at 6:11 of the second.
Forward David D’Aiuto continued the onslaught, burying a shot from the slot to make it 6-1. The Whalers cut it to 6-2 with 43 seconds left in the period.
Just 21 seconds into the third, Lipford drained a shot between the pipes on a pass from forward Aedan Guarino. Lipford made it 8-2 on a wrist shot high to the blocker side to close out the contest. Center Tyler Silva assisted on the play.
The West Haven Peewee A hockey team split a pair of games on Sunday and now stand at 13-12-0 in CHC league play. The Westies lost to Hamden A, 11-6, and then rebounded to defeat Ridgefield A, 4-1.
Sunday’s first game was at Louis Astorino Rink in Hamden versus the Green Dragons. The Blue Devils jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the opening minute. Ethan Kelly, in his first game back since breaking his wrist in early October, knocked the puck back to Leo Mazuroski for a shot from the blue line. Ronnie Mastroni tipped it in at the far post, before Hamden scored four goals for a 4-1 lead at the first intermission.
Mike Page scored a power play goal with a wrist shot to make it 4-2 just 1:27 into the second, but Hamden responded with five goals for a 9-2 lead at the second intermission. Sean Studley converted Ethan Kelly’s pass on a 2-on-1 to make it 10-3 early in the third period. Studley scored a short-handed goal with 3:36 to play off a nice stretch pass up the middle from Mazuroski. Page buried Mastroni’s pass from behind the net on a power play, then recorded a hat trick when he redirected Jonathan Charbonneau’s point shot in the final minute to make the score 11-6.
Greg Galasso made 14 saves over the last two periods. Jacob Silva made 9 saves in the first period for the Westies.
The Westies then returned home to Edward L. Bennett Rink for an evening game against Ridgefield A. The Lions dropped the Blue Devils, 4-3, last week.
This time, the Westies came out strong and dominated puck possession early in the game. Mastroni gave West Haven a 1-0 lead midway through the opening period when he wristed home a pass from Ethan Kelly.
One minute later, the Westies struck again. Dylan Bosworth passed to Ryan Pniewski for a shot from the point through a screen. Brady Price cleaned up the rebound for a 2-0 lead. The Lions scored a power play goal and it was 2-1 at the break.
Five minutes into the second period, Mazuroski one-touched a pass to Studley as he broke out of the Westies zone. Studley flicked the puck past a defenseman and then sniped a rising wrist shot to make it 3-1. Late in the period, Alex Bowery jammed in Kelly’s feed on the doorstep to make it 4-1.
Silva played the first two periods in goal and saved 13 shots. Galasso played the final period and made seven saves in the victory.
The West Haven Peewee AA team began the weekend early, traveling to Darien to face second-ranked New Canaan in CHC play and posted a 6-0 victory.
The Devils opened the season on the road falling to New Canaan and recently defeated NCWC at home, 6-3.
Nicky Stevens got West Haven going 3:33 into the first after finding a loose puck and scoring with a top shelf wrister. Brody DiNuzzo then went coast to coast just a few minutes later for a 2-0 lead to close out the period. Gabe Locklear drew the faceoff back to DiNuzzo who sent it to the net where Stevens tapped in the rebound for a 3-0 lead.
With just over a minute remaining in second period, Billy Mascari set up Tim Donohue, giving West Haven a 4-0 lead. Early in the third, Locklear scored from DiNuzzo for a 5-0 lead. Mascari added another unassisted as West Haven won 6-0. The goaltending was outstanding as Nate Kempton and Tyler Donroe came up big each time New Canaan attempted to shift momentum.
West Haven traveled to Newington on Saturday to face 19th-ranked Central A and posted a 14-2 win. Scoring early and often in the contest, the Devils put together a strong team effort with solid goal tending, goals and assists coming from each line. Jack Aloi delivered the final blow before the Devils moved on to face Darien AA at home on Sunday. Beckett Stenz was solid defensively and chipped in with a goal as well. Thomas Porto found his way in the scoring column.
West Haven hosted fourth-ranked Darien AA and posted a 6-0 win. The Westies took an early lead after Billy Mascari drove the net, shot, and Tim Donohue roofed his rebound with 7:05 remaining in the first. DiNuzzo collected a loose puck in the neutral zone before beating the goalie for a 2-0 lead. DiNuzzo would stop Dariens breakout in the offensive zone, lose a few defenders and find Gabe Locklear backdoor for a 3-0.
John Donohue powered his way past a defender 3:56 into the second period, put a laser on net that led to a Mascari goal off his rebound. Two minutes later, DiNuzzo added to the lead going coast to coast as he finished with a wrap-around goal. In the third period, Nicky Stevens stripped the puck from Darien, walked in and sniped one top left corner for a 6-0 win.
Kempton and Donroe were on top of their game, combining for another shutout.
The West Haven Bantam A travel hockey team won its only game of the weekend with a 5-2 victory over Greenwich Saturday morning at the Edward L. Bennett Rink in West Haven. Cam Delvecchio led the offense with one goal and two assists, while Mickey Dowd scored twice.
Matt Wezenski gave West Haven a 1-0 lead off an assist from Haygen Axelrod with 6:46 left in the first. With the game even at one, Jayden Spreyer scored off an assist from Delvecchio for a 2-1 lead with 23 seconds to go in the opening period.
West Haven took a 4-1 lead in the third as Dowd scored off an assist from Delvecchio, and Delvecchio added an unassisted goal 5:49 later.
Bryan Hong continued his strong play in goal, making numerous saves in the first two periods to keep West Haven in front.
The West Haven Bantam B travel hockey team traveled to Hamden to play the Dragons and posted a 6-0 win. A little over five minutes into the game, Matt Wright put the Blue Devils up with an unassisted goal. Two minutes later, Jamie Kerzner (Yousaf Ullah assisted) added another goal.
In the second period, Yousaf Ullah took a pass from goalie Austin Fruin and scored to put the Westies up by three. The Westies added goals from Zack Fonda and Alex Kurowski, off assists from Ullah, and Wright, off an assist from Fonda, sealed the shutout win for Fruin and the Blue Devils.
On Sunday at the Bennett Rink, the Westies faced Darien’s A1 team and played to a 2-2 tie. Alex Kurowski got the Westies on the board with one minute left in the second period with assists from Fonda and Ashley Welch.
Darien answered back with 5.2 seconds left in the period. Darien went up by a goal with 8 minutes left in the game.
With 1:34 on the clock, the Blue Devils took a timeout and started to put some pressure on Darien, before Yousaf Ullah found a seam to rush the puck allowing Austin Fruin to get to the bench for an extra attacker. Javed Ullah was the extra attacker who got to the front of the net in time to deflect a shot from Wright to tie the game at two with 50 seconds remaining.