The West Haven Mite B hockey team played twice this weekend, going 2-0. On Saturday, the Westies hosted East Haven, coming out on top behind the strong goalkeeping of Evan Harrison.
West Haven set the pace when Brady Salkins scored early in the game, quickly followed up by Ryan Schempp scoring two quick goals in succession. Ethan McGrath picked up his first career goal for West Haven, and Kyle D’Agostino picked up two of his own. Tony Parise scored as well, and Salkins added two more to pick up the hat trick. Jax Guarino showed a lot of hustle, getting up and down the rink to guide his team to victory.
Last Sunday, the Blue Devils traveled to Avon. In a tight game, Logan Minio put the Westies up early with a great goal jammed in between the post and the goalie’s pads. Avon tied the game, but the Westies go-ahead goal was a great play as Ben Trenchard won the puck behind his own goal, and then played a pass up the boards to Minio. Minio found Connor Owens open in front of the Avon goal, and made a pass to Owens, who shot it past the Avon goalie.
Schempp added to his weekend tally, scoring again. Joe Mondo played a great game in the win, using his speed to back check and break up a few plays.
The West Haven Mite B travel team took the trip down to New Canaan to play at New Canaan’s outdoor rink Sunday morning. The Westies jumped out to an early lead from a Parise goal, after he followed up a Schempp shot and nailed home the rebound.
Schempp later picked up a goal of his own and Parise picked up the hat trick. Guarino, Salkins and Minio also picked up goals. Connor Owens and McGrath found a strong partnership, as Owens assisted on McGrath’s goal and then McGrath returned the favor on the next shift, setting up Owens in front of the New Canaan net. D’Agostino rounded out the scoring for the Westies.
Evan Harrison came up with some big saves between the pipes, assisted by Trenchard and Mondo, who were both solid on defense in the win for the Blue Devil Mite B’s.
In the final weekend of play before the mandatory pause, the West Haven Squirt B travel hockey team opened with a 3-2 win against the Southern Stars.
After trailing 0-1 in the first period, the Westies got on the board when Jackson Troyer scored unassisted. With less than a minute left in the opening period, Josie Reed scored off a pass from Ava Schoeman to give the Westies the lead. Troyer added another unassisted goal in the second period.
Despite a late goal in the third period from the Stars to cut the lead by one, the Westies were able to maintain the lead and earn the win due to the solid goaltending of Brendan Silva. Forwards Sydney Reed, Jocelyn Kenny, Paul Clini and Marchello Criscuolo all contributed offensively.
On Sunday, the Westies faced a tough Watertown Red Wings team for their first meeting of the season and played to a 5-5 tie.
The Westies found themselves down 2-0 at the end of the first period. Never a team to quit, West Haven quickly regrouped and posted three goals in the second period – Troyer unassisted, Sophia Locklear, assisted by Ava Schoeman, and Schoeman unassisted.
The second period ended 3-3 after Watertown tied the game with less than a minute left in the period. Watertown added two more goals in the third and the Westies found themselves trailing again, 5-3.
Brynn Gooley and Holden Napoletano had a few scoring chances, but it was Schoeman who was able to cut Watertown’s lead when she went coast to coast late in the third.
After pulling the goalie to add the extra man advantage, the Westies applied strong pressure in the last minute. With 42 seconds left in the game, Locklear received a pass from Caitlin Aloi and buried the puck to tie the game at 5-5.
After a layoff of almost three weeks, the West Haven Pee Wee A hockey team returned to the ice for three games this weekend. On Friday night, the Blue Devils traveled down I-95 to Greenwich for an outdoor game under the lights at the Greenwich Skating Club against Greenwich A and fell 8-1.
Sean Studley put the Westies up 1-0 less than three minutes into the game when he contained a loose puck in the slot and roofed it. Leo Mazuroski was strong on defense for the Blue Devils, but Greenwich pulled away for an 8-1 win. Cedrik Roy (17 saves) started in goal and Kai Lupa relieved (7) for the Westies.
On Saturday afternoon, the boys played another outdoor contest, this time against New Canaan A1 at the New Canaan Winter Club, and fell 10-2.
Under a hot sun, Eddie Thomas scored on a wraparound to tie the game at 1-1 in the first period. Studley blew through a pair of New Canaan defenders and went bar down while being dragged down from behind in the second period. Lupa started in goal and made 10 saves while Roy made eight saves in relief.
The Westies returned home to Edward L. Bennett Rink on Sunday for their final game before the shutdown and fell to Darien 6-3.
Darien took an early 2-0 lead before Lupa came on in relief in goal and held them in check. Lupa made many clutch saves and allowed the Westies to creep back in the game in the third period.
Down 5-0 with 10 minutes to play, Thomas flipped the puck out front from behind the net where Zach Melchiore knocked it home.
Darien scored a power play goal, but the Westies kept coming. Gavin Coady’s shot from the point was redirected inside the near post by Thomas. In a flurry out in front of the Darien net, Melchiore knocked the puck to Studley who flipped in a back hand shot to make it 6-3. Mazuroski and Johnny Charbonneau were tough on defense for the Blue Devils.
The West Haven Bantam AA travel hockey team closed out the regular season before the mandated pause with a pair of hard-fought contests this weekend. Unfortunately for the Westies, they were on the short end of the scoreboard each time.
In their first game in two weeks, the Westies played host to Ridgefield AA Saturday evening and fell 3-0. West Haven had plenty of scoring opportunities early, but could not cash in. Ridgefield took an early 1-0 lead, and held on before putting the game away in the third period.
Tyler Donroe played well in goal for the Westies, while Marco Goodmaster, and Jack Aloi were solid on defense. Nick Stevens, Mickey Dowd, Michael Madera, Brady Price, and Ronnie Mastroni all played well on the offensive side.
The Westies then hosted Darien AA Sunday afternoon and fell 3-2. Bryan Hong made several tough saves, while Nik Allan, Robert McCarthy and Max Schroeder were solid on defense.
Trailing 1-0 in the first, Zach Goetze evened the contest off an assist from Schroeder. The Westies took a 2-1 lead when Matt Stevens scored off an assist from Allan with 2:56 left in the first, but Darien evened the game in the second, and took the lead for good halfway through the third.
Thomas Porto, Anthony Ursini, Ben Gilbert, Dominic DiCiooccio, and Nick Eberhart all played well on the offensive side.
The West Haven Bantam A travel hockey team had only one game last weekend, and the Westies had a compete team effort to secure the win. On Saturday, the Blue Devils welcomed the South Windsor Knights to the Bennett Rink where West Haven skated to a 6-0 victory.
Yousaf Ullah got things started by going coast to coach and deking all the Knights that challenged him. M.J. Torre scored to close out the first period off a shot from the top of the circles, beating the goalie through the pads. Haygen Axelrod and Dylan Bosworth were credited with assists on Torre’s goal.
The second period brought two more goals for Torre to get the hat trick, with one of the goals being on the power play. Bosworth got the assists on both, making it a three-point day for the defensemen.
Alex Kurowski scored with four seconds remaining in the second period to make it 5-0, Torre was credited with the assist for his fourth point of the day.
Kurowski finished the scoring with nine minutes to play in the game with an unassisted goal. Connor Moriarty, Javed Ullah, Chris Consorte and Theo Diakomis all played well on offense.
JJ Alling and Brody Elam were strong on the defensive end. Greg Galasso and John Kennedy split time in the game, combining for the shutout in goal. The pair stopped a total of eight shots in the game.
With Governor Lamont’s order to pause youth sports going into effect on Monday, the West Haven Blue Devils Bantam A team looked to finish off the 2020 portion of their schedule with two victories. It turned out to be the best weekend of their season to date.
On Saturday, the Blue Devils welcomed the Wonderland Wizards A team to the Bennett Rink. When these teams met two weeks ago, the Wizards came out on top 6-0 in a game the Westies looked to forget.
Going into the third period of this past Saturday’s game, was down once again by a score of 2-0 in a hard-fought contest by both teams, but battled back to post a 3-2 victory.
With two minutes to go, the Westies used their only timeout to gather themselves and strategize the final few minutes of the contest. With 1:37 to go in the game, West Haven finally got on the board off a shot in front by Kurowski, off a feed from Yousaf Ullah.
31 seconds later, Torre roofed a goal on a shot from the outer circle to tie the game, with Kurowski getting the helper.
After a Wonderland timeout, the Blue Devils scored the game-winning tally on Torre’s second goal of the game, going five-hole just 16 seconds after the timeout, securing the comeback victory for the Blue Devils.
Mason Maiocco and Diakomis both played well on forward. Connor Bunnell and Bosworth were solid on defense. Kennedy started the game in goal against the Wizards with Galasso coming in to finish the game.
On Sunday, the Bantam A’s took a road trip to the Rose Garden Ice Rink in Norwich to take a tough Southeastern Seahawks team, who they lost to 4-1 just a month prior. This time, the Westies skated to a 6-1 victory over the Seahawks.
West Haven got things started by scoring three goals in the first period. The first came midway through the period off a shot from Consorte with Torre being credited with the assist. Torre scored his own goal just 1:12 later.
After the Seahawks scored less than a minute after the Blue Devils second goal, the Westies immediately answered just 30 seconds later with Kurowski’s second goal of the weekend. Javed Ullah was credited with the assist.
The second period saw only one goal, coming from Yousaf Ullah’s unassisted goal to make it 4-1. Torre went on to score the final two goals of the game in the third period, making it a hat trick for the forward and his sixth point of the weekend. Javed Ullah assisted on Torre’s final goal of the game.
Galasso started the game in goal, stopping seven of eight shots he faced. Kennedy came in to finish the game in relief, stopping all seven shots he faced.
Alex Bowery and Connor Moriarty played well in the game on forward. Elam, Joey DiGioia, Alling and Axelrod all played strong on defense.
For all your West Haven sporting news throughout the year, including game articles by Mike Madera, highlights, photos and more, visit www.westieblue.com.