The West Haven Squirt A travel hockey team went into the Thanksgiving break on a 17-game winning streak and had not tasted defeat since Oct. 1. As play resumed this weekend, the Westies faced two of the top teams in the region with both games at Edward L. Bennett Rink.
On Saturday morning, the winning streak was snapped with a 2-2 tie against the Wonderland Wizards A, and on Sunday morning, West Haven lost to Riverhawks A, 4-3. West Haven is now 17-5-2 overall.
West Haven was shut out, 3-0, by the Wizards early in the season, but Saturday’s rematch proved how much the team has improved. Goaltender Jacob Silva was superb between the pipes with 19 saves and the defensemen (Connor Moriarty, Dylan Bosworth, Matthew Kelly, and Dylan Link) played tough, smart hockey.
Blue Devil Thomas Porto opened the scoring four minutes into the first period when he snapped home a wrist shot with Bosworth assisting. Then, with 1:16 remaining in the period, Brady Price hit Zach Goetze from behind the net and Goetze went top shelf to give the Westies a 2-0 lead.
Wonderland cut it to 2-1 midway through the second period and tied the game when it pulled its goalie and scored with 42 seconds left. The Westies almost won it when Goetze threaded a pass to Bosworth toward the blue line and the defenseman’s shot whistled just wide of the net with five seconds on the clock.
Sunday’s game was a back-and-forth affair with both teams using their speed to generate offense.
Goetze gave West Haven a 1-0 lead two minutes into the game off some nice touch passing from Price and Porto. The Riverhawks tied it 1-1 three minutes later at 5:13 when Silva made an initial save, but could not keep out the rebound.
Porto won the resulting faceoff to Goetze who hit ahead to Price who found the upper left corner to regain the lead at 5:20. The Riverhawks evened the game at two, and took the lead at 3-2 with 1:21 remaining in the first period when the Westies failed to clear the puck from their zone.
Silva then kept the Westies in it with several clutch saves in the second period. Porto tapped in a feed from Goetze and Price with five minutes left in the game to knot it again at 3-3. But, the Riverhawks scored with 1:44 left on the clock for the 4-3 advantage. The Blue Devils earned a power play and pulled the goalie in the final minute, but could not find the equalizer. Silva finished with 23 saves in the game.
The West Haven Peewee A travel hockey team moved to 17-7-4 with a win and a tie this weekend. The Westies opened the weekend with a tie against Watertown, before posting a win over Ridgefield on Sunday.
West Haven opened the week with a 3-3 tie against Watertown in Shelton. Trailing 1-0, the Westies tied the game 3:47 into the second period when Mickey Dowd scored off an assist from Colin Deane. Watertown took a 2-1 lead with 24 seconds remaining in the middle period, but a rush by Nolan Cole ended with an unassisted goal to even the game with 8:03 remaining.
After Watertown took a 3-2 lead with 4:56 to go in the game, West Haven tied the contest when Michael Madera scored with 1:16 remaining in the game.
Brendan Smith was superb in goal, stopping numerous chances from in close, including a spectacular glove save with two minutes to go to keep the Westies within a goal.
West Haven closed the weekend with a 2-1 victory over Ridgefield Sunday morning at the Edward L. Bennett Rink in West Haven. Trailing 1-0 in the second period, Madera took a pass from Dave Brown and fired a shot to the top corner for the equalizer with 2:19 left in the middle period.
The game remained even at one until Brown ripped a shot into the net with 8:38 left in the third for a 2-1 lead.
Jack Sellman, Sean Bosworth, Haygen Axelrod, Jason Alling, and Bruno Martone played well on defense for the Westies, while Smith again came up big in goal several times to preserve the win.
The West Haven Bantam A travel hockey team played three games in the past two weekends. Last week the Westies played the Ferroni Hockey Academy out of Ontario, Canada and drooped a 3-0 decision. Last Saturday, they rebounded with a solid 7-2 win over Greater New Haven. On Sunday, in a rematch, the Westies fell to Greater New Haven 2-1
On Friday against Ferroni, the Devils skated well, but were unable to score against a very fast Canadian Squad. Ryan Smith, Nick Boanno, Rocco Plano, and Michael Kelly, playing their last weekend before heading to high school action, carried the play for Westies all night.
On Saturday against Greater New Haven, Ben Carfora led the way with three goals and two assists. The Westies were never threatened and dominated play most of the game. Smith scored twice in an outstanding effort. Kelly and Andrew Wrzosek also found the net.
This past Sunday in a rematch with Greater New Haven, the Bantams played their first game without their players who left for high school. The Westies struggled to adjust and could not amount much offense.
After falling behind 2-0, West Haven mounted a late surge and did score on a shot by Nico Bruneau off a pass from Anthony Peschell. The Westies pressured late, but had a goal disallowed and could not force the tie.