Tewksbury Redmen Mites Hockey Team Continue Winning Streak - Sweep Weekend Action

The Tewksbury Redmen Mites Hockey Team continues their strong play with recent wins against Saugus & Waltham.

The Redmen traveled to Kasabuski Rink in Saugus for an early morning tilt against the Saugus Sachems and came away with a 5-3 win.  The Sachems came out flying and peppered Redmen goalie Benny O'Keefe with a number of shots early but Benny kept the Sachems off the scoreboard, turning away 2 breakaways.  The Redmen finally got their wake-up call and started to take over play midway through the 1st period.  Tenacious forechecking by the Andrew Grieco/Jack Griffin/Alex Pescatore line led to a great goal by Pescatore to put the Redemn  up 1-0.  The Sachems took a 2-1 lead in the 2nd period but the Redmen responded with a flurry of goals.  Brady Chapman won a faceoff in the Saugus end, got off a quick shot, and Billy Doherty pounced on the rebound to tie the game 2-2.  The Redmen then turned to their "offensive" defense tandem of Jason Cooke & Sean Murphy to close out the game.  Jason Cooke scored on one of his patented end-to-end rushes to put the Redmen up 3-2.  Sean Murphy then scored 2 consecutive goals on great individual rushes to put the game out of reach.  The Redmen relied on the "girl-power" defensive efforts of Maci Chapman and Jade Owrika to keep the Sachems off the board for the remainder of the game.

On Sunday February 12th the Redmen took their road show to Waltham for another early morning game against the Waltham Hawks and kept the winning streak alive with an 8-3 win.  The Redmen went down 1-0 early in the first period but the rowdy Redmen crowd, led by the "brothers & sisters" crew, pushed the Redmen to score the next 5 goals.  Jason Cooke lit the lamp midway through the 1st period to tie the game 1-1 on a pretty goal assisted by Maci Chapman.   Some outstanding forechecking & puck pressure in the Waltham zone by the Jake McDonough/Timmy Sweeney/Andrew Della Piana line increased the lead to 2-1 on a nice shot from McDonough.  Conor Cremin, playing his first game on defense, scored on a wrist shot from the slot off a nice pass from Della Piana to make the score 3-1.  Sean Murphy continued his scoring streak, adding 2 goals on breakaways (his 9th goal in the last 4 games), and Andrew Della Piana put the Redmen ahead 7-3 with a nice wrist shot from the left face-off dot.  Great scoring chances by both Jade Owrika and Maci Chapman  (off great passing from Billy Doherty and Brady Chapman) were turned away by the Waltham goalie.  Jake McDonough added his 2nd goal of the game to close out the scoring for the Redmen.  Once again, the Redmen received an "MVP" type performance from goalie Benny O'Keefe, who made numerous saves on breakaways to keep the Redmen ahead throughout the game.

The Mites players, coaches, and families would like to thank Sean Sweeney for his role as "Team Photographer".