Mite 1

Wakefield Mite 1 Team Wins “Winter Classic” Tournament!

The Wakefield Mite 1 Hockey Team recently won the Winter Classic Tournament in Hooksett, NH with a thrilling 4-2 win in the Championship game.  The tournament was hosted by the New Hampshire Junior Monarchs Hockey Program.  To get to the championship game on Sunday the team had to win a game on Friday and two games on Saturday - beating the host team on Friday, the Greenwich Blues from CT Saturday morning, and the Providence Junior Bears from RI Saturday afternoon to get their spot in the finals on Sunday.  Once Matt Elwell scored the first goal of the tournament late in the first period on Friday with a wrist shot from the point the Wakefield team seemed to settle down and the offense got to work.  Three different players played goalie in the three preliminary games – Tyler Sandonato, Nick Knowles, and Matt Conley – with all three making great saves in each game.  Every player had at least 2 points in the tournament as the offense was really spread around and both forward lines – Jaccob McArthur, Nick Wesley, Ryan McGann and Michael Parent, Jacob Dubuque, Braden Carroll, contributed equally to the offense.  The defense was led by Matt Elwell, Matt Conley, Alex Fata, Nick Knowles, and Tyler Sandonato, only allowing 7 goals in the 4 games.

In the championship game Wakefield played another team from Providence, and it was clear in the first period that it was going to be a close game with both teams getting good chances to score until Nick Wesley broke the scoreless tie – beating the Providence goalie with a nifty goal from in close with four minutes left in the first, the assist going to Jaccob McArthur.  The second period saw both teams make many good defensive plays with Matt Elwell, Alex Fata, Matt Conley, and Nick Knowles all stepping up to make one good defensive play after another.  Wakefield’s defense was tested even further, as they had to kill off six shorthanded situations in the game.  In net Tyler Sandonato made many tough saves to keep the game close - heading into the third period the teams were tied 1-1, and you could feel the buzz in the rink, as everyone was ready for an exciting finish.  Once again Tyler was able to keep the game tied in the third with several great saves until the offense was able to break through with three goals in the last 5 minutes of the game – with five minutes left Ryan McGann crashed the net and stuffed home a rebound on a nice rush to the net by Braden Carroll with the other assist going to Matt Conley.  Two minutes later it was Jaccob McArthur scoring a beautiful breakaway goal with a backhanded deke, with the assists going to Jacob Dubuque and Michael Parent.  Two minutes after that Ryan McGann scored his second goal of the period with a nice wrist shot to make it 4-1, Nick Wesley assisted on the final goal.  Providence scored with one second left to make the final score 4-2.

Throughout the tournament every player on the team had at least 2 points, 3 different players played goalie, and it was a real team effort, in light of this when it was time to award the tournament MVP, the award was given to the entire team.  To add to the excitement of the weekend the Squirt 2 team also played in the tournament – they also made it to the championship game and won – they played right before the mite championship game.  Needless to say both teams players and parents cheered both teams on and there was a lot of excitement for Wakefield Youth Hockey when both teams came out victorious in the championship games!