The West Haven Youth Hockey Mite B team was in action twice last weekend. Saturday saw the Westies hosting a strong Riverhawks Gold team. It was a tough battle as the goalies from both teams made several key stops.
Westie net minder Evan Harrison kept his team in the game with quite a few big saves. The Westies were led offensively by Logan Minio and Brady Salkins, and Ryan Schempp was a big presence on defense. Connor Owens worked hard along the boards for West Haven and Joe Mondo put on the pressure on the fore check.
The Mite B’s then took on the Green Dragons of Hamden. The Westies started strong, with Minio opening up the scoring. Jax Guarino, Anthony Parise, Schempp and Salkins also found the back of the net. Kyle D’Agostino had an assist, and Ethan McGrath made several nice passes to his teammates up the boards to start the attack on the Hamden goal.
West Haven traveled to South Norwalk Sunday morning to face the CT Junior Whalers, and came home with the win behind the strong defensive play of Schempp and Ben Trenchard, and the goaltending of Harrison.
Minio and Parise contributed to the win by putting the puck into the back of the net. Guarino and Owens made some great passes to put their teammates into scoring positions, and Joe Mondo hustled up and down the ice in the win.
The West Haven Squirt B travel hockey team went 2-0 this past weekend, starting with a 6-5 win against the Greater New Haven Warriors at Bennet Rink on Saturday. Sophia Locklear opened the scoring for the Westies with an unassisted goal in the first period. Locklear added another goal along with Jackson Troyer 15 seconds apart late in the first to give the Westies a 3-1 lead.
Troyer scored again in the second period, but with three seconds left, Greater New Haven tied the score at four. The Westies were able to take and maintain the lead in the third period with goals from Sydney Reed and Locklear, who finished the day with the hat trick.
Holden Napoletano, Marchello Criscuolo and Josie Reed were all credited with assists in the victory.
On Sunday, the Westies faced the Southern Stars at the Milford Ice Pavilion for the two teams second meeting of the season.
With stellar goaltending from Brendan Silva, the Westies were able to shut out the Stars for a 3-0 win. Despite numerous scoring chances from the Westies, the score remained scoreless until the Westies eventually got on the board when Josie Reed received a pass from Paul Clini and went coast to coast in the middle of the second. Napoletano and Locklear each added a goal, with assists from Jackson Troyer and Caitlin Aloi.
The West Haven Peewee A travel hockey team swept the weekend and posted two solid wins over CHC league opponents.
On Saturday afternoon at the Sono Ice House, the Westies dominated CT Jr. Whalers B, 12-3. On Sunday morning at Edward L. Bennett Rink, the Blue Devils downed Central A, 3-2. The Westies are now 4-3-0 in CHC play.
On Saturday, the Whalers took an early 1-0 lead, before Eddie Thomas scored a pair of goals to put the Westies ahead. The first was assisted by Leo Mazuroski and the second by Mikey D’Aiuto. Matt Molnar made it 3-1 with a rising wrister from Rafi Treat.
The Blue Devils then took over the game in the second period by scoring seven goals. Aedan Guarino scored from the slot and Treat snapped in a wrist shot. Cameren Lipford scored with his backhand and Mazuroski fired in a laser. Sean Studley notched two goals, before Lipford converted another backhand shot to make it 10-3 after two periods.
In the third, Zach Melchiore fed Lipford for a breakaway goal and Johnny Charbonneau converted Thomas’ pass. Cedrik Roy made five saves to post the win in goal for the Westies.
On Sunday morning against Central A, Kai Lupa got the start in goal and made several clutch saves while Mazuroski, Charbonneau, Ryan Pniewski and Gavin Coady played solid defense all game long.
The Westies took a 1-0 lead 6:37 into the game with a hard-working goal. Lipford’s initial shot was saved and Studley fetched it behind the net. He flipped a nice pass out front where Melchiore came down the slot and cashed it in.
Almost four minutes later, Mazuroski made a nice play in the defensive zone to collect the puck. He then shoved a pass ahead through two Central players that Lipford took to goal and converted for a 2-0 lead.
Early in the second period, Central made it a 2-1 game, but Lupa made a few key stops to keep it a one-goal game. Treat then bulled his way up the right boards, cut to the net, and jammed the puck past the Central goalie to make it 3-1 with 2:03 left in the second period.
The Westies did a great job of limiting the chances for Central in the third period. Central made it 3-2 with eleven seconds left in the game, but Studley won the ensuing faceoff and the Westies skated to victory. Lupa made 21 total saves to earn the win in net.
West Haven split a pair CHC league games over the weekend. The Blue Devils defeated the Central A Capitals, 5-4, and then fell 9-5 to New Canaan A1. West Haven is now 5-4-0 in CHC play.
On Saturday afternoon at Newington Arena, the Westies took a 2-0 lead in the first period and stayed in front for the rest of the game to earn the victory. Studley’s backhand shot was saved, but Lipford buried the rebound for a 1-0 lead midway through the opening period.
With 1:25 left in the first, Studley took the puck to the corner where a defenseman knocked it toward the slot. Lipford deposited it in the net to go up 2-0.
With West Haven leading 2-1, the two teams combined for six goals in the third. In the opening minute, Lipford made a sweet move around a defender and pushed a shot on goal. Melchiore jumped on the rebound to give the Westies a two-goal lead.
Three minutes later, Melchiore pounced on another rebound, this time off a Studley backhand, to make it 4-1. Central would not go away and scored twice within 28 seconds to cut it to 4-3 with nine minutes left in the game.
Just 25 seconds after the Caps closed the gap, Melchiore slid a pass to Studley who redirected it in and the Westies regained the two-goal lead. Central scored once more, but strong defending by Charbonneau and Mazuroski gave West Haven the win. Roy was solid in net for the Blue Devils with 19 saves.
On Sunday morning at Edward L. Bennett Rink, the Westies could not maintain momentum for any lengthy stretches and lost to New Canaan, 9-5. The visitors took a 2-0 lead just two minutes into the game, but Melchiore made it 2-1 when he skated into the zone and his shot deflected up and over the goalie with 22 seconds left in the first.
The Westies immediately tied the game at two just 27 seconds into the second when Studley dug the puck out from behind the net and Lipford one-timed his backhand pass home. New Canaan rallied for a pair of goals less than a minute later to regain a two-goal advantage. Lipford made it 4-3 off an assist from Studley 39 seconds later, but New Canaan made it 5-3 just 25 seconds later.
Eddie Thomas drove the puck to the net and it deflected in off the goalie to cut it to 5-4 with 9:13 left in the second period.
Trailing 7-4, West Haven countered again as Lipford fired a bouncing puck from the corner that Studley settled and fired into the top corner to make it 7-5 with over ten minutes left in the game.
Lupa was in net for the Westies and made 21 saves on the day.
The West Haven Bantam A travel hockey team split a pair of games this weekend. West Haven opened the weekend at Bennett Rink in West Haven with a 6-3 loss to the Yale JR Bulldogs AA team.
After going down two goals to start the game, the Westies were able to bring the game within one goal, before the end of the first period off a goal from Javed Ullah, with Alex Bowery getting the helper.
The Bulldogs made it 3-1 in the beginning of the second, but the Blue Devils once again were able to score to make it a one goal game. Bowery was able to capitalize off of a rebound by Chris Consorte. After going down, 5-2, West Haven scored off an unassisted goal by Yousaf Ullah on a low, hard shot to make it 5-3.
Yale scored late in the game for the final score of 6-3. John Kennedy played a full game in goal, keeping West Haven in the game. Haygen Axelrod, Theo Diakomis and JJ Alling all played well in the hard-fought loss.
On Sunday, the Bantam A’s traveled to Newington to take on the Central Capitals where the Blue Devils skated to a 6-3 victory.
Alex Kurowski got the scoring started for West Haven on a short-handed unassisted goal. Mason Maiocco scored the next goal to make it 2-0, with an assist from Yousaf Ullah. Kurowski scored his second of the game off assists from Yousaf Ullah and Bowery to make it 3-0, before Maiocco scored his second of the game to make it 4-0, with Connor Moriarty being credited with the assist.
After the Capitals scored twice to make it 4-2, the Westies answered 20 seconds later off of a turnover which lead to a breakaway goal by Bowery to make it 5-2. Moriarty got his own goal off a rebound in front from Brody Elam’s shot from the point.
Greg Galasso played in goal the entire time for the Blue Devils, making some spectacular saves. Dylan Bosworth, Joey DiGoia and Connor Bunnell all played exceptionally well in the win.
The West Haven Bantam AA travel hockey team went 2-1-1 in the EJEPL Showcase in Pennsylvania this weekend.
The Westies opened play Saturday morning with a 1-1 double overtime tie against the Long Island Gulls AA. West Haven scored its lone goal when Ron Mastroni scored off an assist from Brady Price on the power play with 5:42 left in the opening period.
Long Island evened the game 2:16 into the third and neither team scored again. Tyler Donroe was stellar in goal for the Westies with 40 saves.
After falling to Millbrook AA 4-0, West Haven rebounded with a 4-2 victory over Richmond AA Sunday morning. Donroe was again solid in goal with 24 saves, while Jack Aloi, Marco Goodmaster, Nikolas Allan, and Max Schroeder played very well defensively.
Michael Madera gave the Westies an early 1-0 lead when he scored in front off an assist from Ben Gilbert 5:49 into the contest. West Haven pulled away with two goals in the final 4:40 of the opening period when Gilbert scored unassisted and Allan scored off an assist from Zach Goetze with four seconds left in the first period.
Leading 3-1, West Haven put the game away with 8:41 left in the game as Gilbert scored his second of the game on the power play. Anthony Ursini, Dominic Dicioocio, and Nick Eberhart played well in the win.
The Westies closed the tournament with a 5-4 overtime victory over the Cutting Edge King Cobras AA. Mastroni capped the weekend when he scored 48 seconds into the extra session off an assist from Goodmaster.
The Westies took a 1-0 lead with 4:56 to go in the first as Thomas Porto picked up a loose puck and fed Matt Stevens for a short-handed goal.
With the game even at one in the third, Mastroni fed Gilbert for a power play goal and a 2-1 lead with 3:13 gone by. Madera gave West Haven a 3-2 lead with 6:23 to go in the third off assists from Price and Aloi, and Mastroni extended the margin to a pair of goals with 5:06 to go.
The King Cobras scored twice in the final 4:09 to force overtime, before Mastroni won the game for West Haven. Donroe made 25 saves in the win for West Haven.
For all your West Haven sporting news throughout the year, including game articles by Mike Madera, highlights, photos and more, visit www.westieblue.com.