The West Haven Squirt A travel hockey team beat Wonderland, 7-3, at Bennett Rink on Saturday to notch its 10th win of the season.
The Blue Devils shut down the Wizards of Bridgeport behind Cameren Lipford’s five goals and one assist, and goaltender Alex Werle’s 24 saves. The dynamic duo was supported by center Tyler Silva (1 goal, 2 assists), forward Ryan Walsh (1 goal) and defenseman Kyle Guarino (2 assists), who also made several poke checks in key situations.
Walsh put the Westies on the scoreboard first, crashing the net and rebounding a shot by Silva at 5:04 of the first period. Lipford made it 2-0 just over two minutes later, catching a pass from Silva in the West Haven zone, deking his way up to the net, and backhanding a shot high to the glove side. The Wizards answered nine seconds later to make it a one-shot game. At 1:01 of the first, Lipford fired a wrist shot from the right faceoff dot to put the Blue Devils up 3-1. Kyle Guarino assisted on the play.
At 6:59 of the second, Silva rebounded a shot by Lipford and backhanded the puck into the upper corner to make it 4-1. Lipford then scored a short-handed goal to put the Westies up by four late in the period.
Less than two minutes into the third, Lipford one-timed a laser pass from forward Michael D’Aiuto to make it 6-1. After the Wizards cut it to 6-2, Lipford scored on a pass from Kyle Guarino and forward David D’Aiuto at 7:30 of the period to give the Blue Devils a five-goal lead. The Wizards scored once more at 5:27 of the third to pull within four.
On Sunday, West Haven fell 6-4 to Darien A1 in a hard-fought game at the Darien Ice House.
The Blue Devils came out strong, opening the contest with three straight goals. Lipford scored first on a rebound from forward Aedan Guarino. Michael D’Aiuto made it 2-0, crashing the net and scoring on a rebound set up by Walsh and Kyle Guarino. Lipford gave the Westies a three-goal lead at 6:59 of the first, going coast-to-coast before slipping a shot between the Darien goaltender’s legs.
Darien answered with three successive goals of its own, however, and tied the contest at 10:56 of the second. Lipford put the Blue Devils up 4-3 at 5:31 of the period after Westies defenseman Andrew Grillo made one of the defensive plays of the game. With Darien pressuring in the West Haven zone and tying Werle up on the left side of the net, Grillo dived across the ice to block a shot and stop a surefire goal. Lipford then picked up the loose puck, deked his way into the Darien zone, and wristed a shot from inside the box high to the blocker side.
Darien tied it at 10:57 of the third and netted the game-winner at 1:24 of the period. The team added a final goal 17 seconds later.
Werle tallied 23 saves for the Blue Devils.
The West Haven Peewee A travel hockey team used solid goaltending, tough defense and balanced scoring to post two wins over the weekend. The Blue Devils defeated Darien A, 3-1, and Western Minor, 6-1. West Haven is now 13-13-1 overall and 12-9-0 in CHC league play.
On Saturday night at Stamford Twin Rinks, the Westies faced Darien which had beaten West Haven, 8-0, earlier in the season. After a scoreless first period, Darien took a 1-0 lead off a scramble in front of the West Haven goal midway through the second.
Alex Bowery tied the game for the Westies six minutes later when he stole the puck from a defenseman and slid it through the five-hole.
Early in the third period, Ryan Pniewski hustled to keep the puck in the Darien zone. Bowery took it off the boards and centered to Ronnie Mastroni for a one-timer and a 2-1 lead. Jacob Silva (17 total saves) made a couple of clutch saves during a Darien power play late in the third. Mastroni then iced the game when Sean Studley won a face off to him and he snapped a wrist shot bar down for the 3-1 win.
On Sunday morning at Edward L. Bennett Rink, the Westies hosted Western Minor and posted the 6-1 win. Mastroni picked up right where he left off when he gathered the opening face off and fired a laser over the goalie’s shoulder seven seconds into the game.
The Colonials tied the contest in the opening minute of the second period and went on a power play looking for more. Bowery denied them when he took Jonathan Charbonneau’s pass and slid a shot inside the far post for a short-handed score.
West Haven then took over the game from there.Brady Price took the puck to the net and Chris Consorte cleaned it up with six seconds left in the second. Zach Melchiore made it 4-1 in the third with helpers from Price and Consorte. Mastroni fed Bowery for a long wrist shot and Dylan Bosworth finished the scoring with a breakaway goal with Matt Kelly assisting. Greg Galasso was clutch with his glove and finished with 18 saves.
The West Haven Bantam A travel hockey team won its only game of the week, defeating the Ramapo Saints, 8-0, Saturday afternoon at the Edward L. Bennett Rink.
Cade Simone led the way with two goals and an assist, Michael Madera added a goal and an assist, while Dante Hardt and Gabe Mongelli each had two assists.
West Haven took control of the game with three goals in a span of 41 seconds in the opening period. Cam Delvecchio got the ball rolling with a goal off an assist from Sean Bosworth, before Mickey Dowd scored off an assist from Jayden Spreyer 31 seconds later. Just 10 seconds later. Madera took a pass from Simone and scored for a 3-0 advantage.
The Westies increased the lead to 4-0 with 1:10 remaining in the second as Dave Brown scored off assists from Mongelli and Hardt.
West Haven put the game away with four goals in the third period. Will Giaquinto scored off assists from Matt Stevens and Jason Alling, 4:16 in, Simone scored an unassisted goal with 6:06 remaining, then added another tally off assists from Kyle Droney and Madera. Chris Adkins rounded out the scoring, assisted by Hardt and Mongelli.
Bryan Hong and Brendan Smith each played well in goal, combining for the shutout. West Haven’s defense of Bosworth, Brown, Alling, Haygen Axelrod, Josh Gyolai and Matt Wezenski each played very well to aid in the shutout.
The West Haven Bantam A travel hockey team won three games this weekend.
On Saturday, the Blue Devils traveled to South Kent to play Northwestern and came away with a 6-4 victory. Northwestern jumped out to an early lead, but the Westies took the lead by the end of the first with unassisted goals from Yousaf Ullah and Matt Wright.
In the second period, Javed Ullah connected on a pass from Zack Fonda to take a 3-2 lead into the third. After falling behind 4-3 halfway through the third, the Westies tied the game on a goal from Wright off an assist from Alex Kurowski. The Westies took the lead on a goal from Yousaf Ullah off an assist from Ashley Welch. An empty net goal from Wright, for his hat trick, and 24 saves from Austin Fruin sealed the win.
On Sunday morning, the Westies started December in Pawling, New York against Trinity-Pawling and posted a 7-2 victory. Trailing 1-0, Cody Rocchio answered back 30 seconds later with assists to Danny Johnson and Carson Lee.
The Westies added goals from Fonda (Javed Ullah assisted), Yousaf Ullah (unassisted and short-handed) and Nate Chiappetta (Kurowski assisted) to end the first period up, 4-1.
In the second period, the Westies got goals from Yousaf Ullah (unassisted), Jamie Kerzner, his first of the season off an assist from Kurowski, and a short-handed goal from Wright off an assist from Fruin.
Both teams were held scoreless in the third as West Haven won 7-2. Fruin had 22 saves.
In their third game of the weekend, the Westies faced off against the Southern Stars and once again fell behind in the first period before posting the victory. The Westies were unable to get a puck past the Stars goalie until the third period when Fonda scored off assist from Welch and TJ Levenduski to tie the game.
With four minutes left on the clock, Yousaf Ullah found a seam to get around the Stars defense and tucked a puck around an outstretched Stars goalie. Despite a valiant effort from the Stars, Fruin and the rest of the Westies shut the door and win the game, 2-1.