Bantam Minor Weekend Report
After a 0-9-1 stretch, the Bantam Minors finished off the
year strong finishing in 2nd place in the Salisbury Christmas
Tournament. The Clippers had a warm up game vs Greater Bridgeport on 12/23
and came away with a 9-0 victory to stop their long non-winning skid. In
the Bridgeport game, the Clippers were led by hat tricks from Kurt Wehr
and Shaymus Standish. Peter Eshenfelder tallied his first goal along with
Scotty Bialczak. Nick Kruczek also scored for the Clippers. The Clippers
dominated from start to finish with assists going to Ross Burton(2), David
Beisler, Mike Diglio, Shayne Catala and Peter Eshenfelder.The Tournament started on Wednesday 12/28, with the Clippers facing off with a strong Brewster team. Brewster scored first at the 6 minute mark of the first period to take a 1-0 lead. The Clippers tied the score 1-1 on a goal from Ross Burton assisted by Garrett Ercolani and Sam Nassetta four minutes into the second period. Bruce Bedrick put the Clippers on top 2-1 with an assist going to Nick Kruczek just a minute later. Brewster, a big strong skating team, came back to tie the game 2-2 with five minutes left in the second period. The Clippers won the game in the third period with a goal from Nick Kruczek. The Clippers held off the Brewster team with excellent goal tending from Trevor Hirst and solid defensive play from Mike Diglio, David Beisler, Garrett Ercolani, Peter Eshenfelder and Kurt Wehr.
The Clippers had a second game on the 28th and faced the host of the Tournament in Salisbury. This was a very physical matchup as the bigger home team tried to impose their will on the Clippers. The only score of the game came in the second period as the Clipper's Ross Burton scored on an assist from Sam Nassetta. The game was very hard hitting but it should be noted neither team had a penalty. Scotty Steele was outstanding in net and made 13 saves to earn the shutout. The Clippers were masterful on defense and Coach Burton lauded the entire team for their efforts.
Thursday the Clippers faced off against Columbia and the long drive showed as Columbia jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead with only five minutes gone in the game. The Clippers seemed to get their second wind with a goal by Mike Diglio to get the Clippers back in the game as the first period ended. Nick Kruczek scored two goals early in the second period assisted by Mike Diglio and Bruce Bedrick and the Clippers with a 3-2 lead seemed poised to take control of the game. Columbia was not done and tied the game 3-3 as the second period ended. Garrett Ercolani scored the go ahead goal just 10 seconds into the third period assisted by David Beisler and the Clippers were off to the races. Sam Nassetta scored five minutes later assisted by Scotty Bialczak, and Nick Kruczek completed the scoring and his hat trick as the Clippers started the tournament 3-0 with this 6-3 victory over a game Columbia team, this was another clean hard hitting game where no penalties were called on either team.
The Clippers, undefeated, faced off with the other undefeated team, Bethlehem, NY. The New Yorkers were a 1991 team and the 1992 Clippers had no answer for the extreme physical play. Bethlehem scored an impressive 8-2 victory over the Clippers and dominated with rough, often dirty tactics to try to intimidate the younger Clippers. The Clippers gave as well as they got but were plagued by retaliatory penalties as the New Yorkers scored on 4 power play goals.
Saturday, in the Championship game, the Clippers faced off again with the New York team and had no answer for their bigger stronger foes as Bethlehem skated to a 6-0 victory over a game but outmatched Clipper team. The Clippers showed a lot of heart and effort in this Tournament and with newly found spirit and confidence in each other, the Clippers skate into 2006 with high hopes. The word "team" now means something to this group and they are pulling for each other both in the locker room and on the ice with good leadership from Captains Ross Burton and Mike Diglio and great effort from all the players and Coaches.
Article written by Paul Beisler.
ed. SpeedyGreen
