Binghamton Tournament Summary
A good number of Dare Devils made the pilgrimage up to Binghamton for the annual ASHA Broome Includes International Festival Tournament. This is a special event as we get to play on the beautiful outdoor "Farm Rink" at the Pierce Family Compound (a much nicer outdoor venue than MetLife Stadium).
The weekend started with Captain Ryan Griffin, Shea Passikoff, Coaches Myles, Billy, Steve Toledo and Brendon attending the Friday night game to see the Binghamton Black Bears take on the Watertown Wolves in an action packed FPHL contest at Visions Veterans Memorial Arena. There were fights, blood, and goals with the home team prevailing by a score of 6-3. A great time was had by all of the Dare Devils representatives in attendance.
On Saturday night, all of the teams were treated to a night at the museum. It was a great party and all of the players and families had a ton of fun.
Three Dare Devils A players are playing on mixed A teams throughout the tournament. It was reported that Ryan Griffin scored 2 goals for the green team, Will Milazzo played strong defense for the green team and Reese Citro put in a solid all-around performance for the red squad in the games that occurred on Saturday morning.
El Capitan (Ryan Griffin) and Will Millazzo led the green A squad to a 5-3 win over the blue team in their afternoon tilt. Ryan (aka Cap) scored a nice goal to help seal the win for the greens. Reese Citro once again played an excellent afternoon game and led the reds to victory.
The A main event was on Sunday morning. Captain Ryan Griffin, Will Milazzo and the greens took on Reese Citro and the reds. Reese led the reds to an undefeated weekend. However, Reese offered up the following: "you guys did he good job coaching Ryan. He is very difficult to play against." A players - Great job representing the Dare Devils this weekend!
Dare Devils B/C vs. Philadelphia Flyers 2/24/24 @ 9am:
The Dare Devils B/C squad opened the tournament with a narrow loss to the Philadelphia Flyers team at the Farm Rink. The Dare Devils had a tough time getting out of the gate in this game. Perhaps it was the cold or maybe it was the last minute schedule change that forced the esteemed Andy Piccirillo to alter his plans and make the late Friday night drive up to Binghamton to get here in time for the 9am puck drop. The Dare Devils still gave it a go, braving the sub-freezing temperatures and were in the game throughout. The NJ team was led by a spirited performance from goalie Aria Berlin, who made numerous acrobatic saves to keep the score close. Owen Silverstein (assisted by Andrew Piccirillo) and Patrick Hung scored for the Dare Devils. The Dare Devils ran into a hot Flyers goalie who stopped point blank shots from Patrick Law, Andrew DePiero, Shea Passikoff and Patrick Hung. Strong defensive efforts were put in by Sean Glassett, James Cooney, Kevin Plunkett, Orion Lee and Connor Hung.
Dare Devils B/C vs. NY Raptors/CP North Stars/Space Coast Supercanes combined squad 2/24/24 @ 4pm (By John Smith on site and Coach Brendon on closed circuit TV):
After a lengthy delay to deal with sun related open-air ice issues at the Farm Rink, the Dare Devils found themselves in an early 2-0 hole against the Eastern NY Super Team. It was starting to feel like this would turn into a losing weekend for the Dare Devils. Luckily, Owen Silverstein maintained his composure and took matters into his own hands by getting the Dare Devils back into the game with an unassisted wraparound goal. Soon after, defensive specialist James Cooney went to work in the offensive zone and scored a greasy goal right in front of the opponents crease to tie the score and change the momentum in the game. The Dare Devils went up by a goal when Owen Silverstein put home an Andrew Piccirillo assist. However, the lead was short lived as the super squad quickly put two more on the board to wrestle the lead back. Andrew Piccirillo tied the score back up when he took a clean center-ice face-off to the net for his first goal of the tournament. After the NY team took back the lead again, Patrick Law scored an unassisted goal quickly followed by another Owen Silverstein goal to complete his hat-trick and seal the victory for the Dare Devils. The Hung boys (Patrick and Connor) played strong defensive games for the Dare Devils. Patrick was given the enviable task of matching up against the top NY line throughout the game and Connor had a couple of key blocked shots that stopped scoring threats. Aria Berlin was once again brilliant in defending her crease to get the victory. She made numerous point-blank saves to help the Dare Devils come out victorious.
Dare Devils B/C vs. York Polar Bears 2/25/24 @ 8am:
Keeping to the tournament theme, the Binghamton schedulers did not offer any favors to the Dare Devils with the early wake-up call for today's game. Despite the early start, the Dare Devils played extremely well against the formidable York Polar Bears. However, the Dare Devils may need to go back to school to relearn the alphabet as this was the best B/C team we have ever played against. York had several extremely skilled players on their team and they were ultimately too much to overcome as the Dare Devils suffered a tough loss, despite putting in a valiant effort. Connor Hung opened the scoring for the Dare Devils by blasting a 70 foot shot past the unsuspecting Polar Bear goalie. The Hung Boys were at it again for the 2nd Dare Devils goal. Connor made a great defensive play and passed the puck to brother Patrick who buried his shot past the goalie. Patrick Law, playing his best game of the season, was all over the ice today. He made several key defensive stops and scored the 3rd Dare Devils goal of the day by putting home a breakaway. He was right back at it on his next shift as his shot from just inside the blue line was deftly tipped by Andrew DePiero (looking like Chris Kreider) into the net. Aaron Quintana played a focused game on both the offensive and defensive ends and James Cooney was once again a steady defensive presence. The ultimate star of the day for the Dare Devils was goalie Aria Berlin. She made numerous key saves, including several pad stops. The highlight was when she flashed her cat-like glove to snare a Polar Bear snap shot that was headed for the upper corner. Great effort, Aria, and great effort Dare Devils!