On Saturday December 21st the Jr. Redmen Squirt AAA Hockey Team kicked off their busy Christmas schedule with a 3-2 win over the Winchester Sachems. The Jr. Redmen will play 6 games over the next week including games in the annual Boston Bruins Christmas Tourney.
The Jr. Redmen came out buzzing and controlled play for much of the first 3 minutes of the game, getting quality scoring chances from Alex Pescatore, Billy Doherty, and Conor Cremin. The Sachems started to use their size and speed to create offensive zone chances and took a 1-0 lead with 8:38 left in the 1st period. Justin Rooney nearly tied the game for the Jr. Redmen when he took the puck end-to-end on a great rush but his wrister rang off the left post. The Sachems took a 2 goal lead with 5:02 left in the initial period on a nasty wrist shot by big #15. The Jr. Redmen battled back looking to cut into the 2 goal lead but the Sachem goalie made great back-to-back saves on Maci Chapman and Sean Murphy. The Jr. Redmen were finally rewarded for their hard work when Jason Cooke beat the Sachem goalie on a nice deke move, assist to Brady Chapman.
The 2nd period started with the Jr. Redmen determined to tie the game and did just that with 10:50 left when Timmy Sweeney made a great play at the Sachem blue line to keep the puck in the zone. The line of Billy Doherty, Sean Murphy, and Alex Pescatore then worked the forecheck to perfection, resulting in Pescatore firing a hard wrister under the sliding goalie, assists to Doherty and Murphy. The Sachems fought back looking to regain the lead but Jr. Redmen goalie Ben O’Keefe made 3 highlight reel saves on the same shift to keep the score tied 2-2. The Sachems kept attacking but great defensive efforts from Andrew Grieco, Timmy Sweeney, Jack Griffin, and Justin Rooney kept the puck away from the Jr. Redmen net. With time winding down in the 2nd period the Jr. Redmen had a great chance to take the lead but shots by Jake McDonough, Andrew Della Piana, and Conor Cremin were all turned away by the quick Sachem goalie.
Find out what's happening in Tewksburyfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Both teams were determined to get the win headed into the Christmas break and they came out flying to start the 3rd period. Shifty #3 from Winchester had an early breakaway in the 3rd period but once again Jr. Redmen backstop Ben O’Keefe made the big save. With just over 5 minutes left to play in the period the line of Conor Cremin, Andrew Della Piana, and Jake McDonough worked the offensive zone cycle to perfection resulting in a point blank shot for Della Piana but the Sachem goalie made a great diving save to keep the score deadlocked. The Jr. Redmen kept attacking and took the lead 3-2 with 4:15 left in the game when Maci Chapman made a nice clearing pass to Jason Cooke at center ice, Cooke skated the puck into the offensive zone, drew the Sachem defender to him, and slid a perfect pass to Brady Chapman. Brady wasted no time and fired the puck over the goalie’s blocker and into the back of the net, assists to Jason and Maci. The final 4 minutes of the game were up-and-down with both teams getting scoring chances. The Sachems pulled their goalie with 1:35 left in the game but the Jr. Redmen got great defensive efforts from Sean Murphy, Alex Pescatore, Justin Rooney, Andrew Grieco, and Brady Chapman to keep pucks away from Benny O’Keefe and left the rink with a well-deserved 3-2 win.
