The West Haven Squirt A travel hockey team split a pair of road games over the weekend. On Saturday, the Westies were overmatched by Greater New Haven A and lost 13-1. The team bounced back on Sunday to defeat Hamden A, 9-5. The Blue Devils are now 22-6-2 overall.
On Saturday at the Northford Ice Pavilion, the Squirt A’s ran into a powerful Greater New Haven Warriors team. Zach Goetze scored the lone goal for the Westies when he converted a breakaway in the third period.
The Blue Devils then traveled to Louis Astorino Rink in Hamden Sunday morning to face the Green Dragons as part of the “Winter Classic” weekend series between the Hamden and West Haven hockey programs.
The Green Dragons took a 1-0 lead 1:45 into the game when the puck squirted through Westies goaltender Jacob Silva. Sean Studley evened it at one at 8:27 when he redirected Ethan Kelly’s pass inside the near post.
Goetze deked and scored on a break just 34 seconds later, and Thomas Porto back-handed in a feed from Brady Price and Goetze another 34 seconds after that to give West Haven a 3-1 advantage after one period.
Porto to Goetze, back to Porto made it 4-1 in the first minute of the second period. Three minutes later, Dylan Bosworth found Goetze behind the net and he fed Porto in the slot to make it 5-1. Hamden scored two goals within seven seconds to cut it to 5-3, but Porto again scored from the slot from Price and Goetze for a 6-3 advantage after two periods.
Matthew Kelly sent a pass to Dylan Link who fired in from the right point to open the third period. After a Hamden tally, Bosworth went end-to-end while shorthanded for an 8-4 lead. Hamden converted on a power play, but Porto’s fifth goal, in the final seconds with an assist to Price, finished the scoring for the 9-5 win. Silva had 14 saves in net for the Westies.
The West Haven Squirt B travel hockey team split the weekend with a 6-5 loss against Avon and a 6-1 win against Hamden.
The Westies lost a well-played game on Saturday against Avon. Cameren Lipford had four goals and J.J. Hall found the back of the net once as well. Adding in with assists were Jack Frances, Chris Consorte, Rafi Treat and Lucas Iversen.
The Westies then followed up a tough loss with a big win against rival Hamden. Six Westies found the back of the net which included Jack Frances, Tyler McColgan, Treat, Hall, Gavin Coady and Lipford. Maddex Lafountain as solid in goal with 23 saves.
The West Haven Peewee A travel hockey team improved to 20-8-4 with a sweep of two games this weekend. The Westies opened with a 10-2 victory over ECHO in Bolton on Saturday.
Dave Brown led the way with three goals, Colin Deane scored twice, Nolan Cole had a goal and an assist, and Dante Hardt had two assists. The West Haven defense accounted for six goals in the game.
West Haven put the game away quickly, taking a 5-0 lead in the opening period. Brown scored off an assist from Hardt 3:53 into the game, Sean Bosworth scored from the point with 6:37 left in the period, and Jack Sellman scored off an assist from Cade Simone 36 seconds later. Deane and Brown capped the first period scoring with unassisted goals.
The Westies increased the lead to 8-0 with three more goals in the second. Hardt set up Brown 2:19 into the period, Deane scored unassisted with 6:30 to go, and Michael Madera redirected a shot by Mickey Dowd home for an 8-0 advantage. Jason Alling scored off an assist from Cole 2:25 into the third, and Cole added an unassisted tally less than four minutes later.
The Westies swept the weekend with a 3-1 victory over Hamden at the Louis Astorino Rink in Hamden Sunday morning. Jayden Spreyer led the Westies with two goals, while Deane added a pair of assists. West Haven took a 1-0 lead in the opening period when Spreyer scored off a perfect pass from Deane 1:13 into the game. Hardt gave the Westies a 2-0 lead 1:50 into the second off a rebound of a Brown shot, before Spreyer increased the lead to three goals off an assist from Deane with 7:32 remaining in the game.
Brendan Smith was sensational in goal, making several key saves early and a handful more late in the game.
The West Haven Bantam A team opened the weekend at home and delivered a decisive victory over Darien by the score of 5-2. On Sunday, the Westies traveled to play arch rival Hamden and lost 5-2
On Saturday morning, the West Haven Bantams had revenge on their minds. After losing 8-0 to Darien last week, the Devils looked like a different team.
After a scoreless first period, Ben Carfora dazzled his way through Darien’s defense to score two goals, the second one a shorthanded tally. The Westies played a strong game throughout, led by the tenacious fore checking of Joe Honcz, Mike Alfano, Ryan Bernardi and Andrew Wrzosek.
Darien cut the lead to one, but Carfora scored again and Luca Ubaldi added the Westies second empty net goal to give the Devils the 5-2 win. Joe Crisci was terrific in goal, making several nice saves. He was helped out on defense by Justin Pniewski, Joe D’Aurio and Adrien Fielosh.
On Sunday, the Bantams traveled to Hamden. They fell behind early, but battled back to tie the game at two at the midway point. Fielosh scored on a shot from the point and Carfora netted a rebound off a shot from Ubaldi. Hamden then assumed control of the game and skated away with the 5-2 victory