Squirt Majors Weekend Report
This past weekend the Clippers’ Squirt Major team began their 2006-2007 season playing two formidable opponents. The home team split their weekend games.On Saturday the Squirts opened the season, hosting the Westchester Vipers in Cromwell. The Vipers took charge in the first period, scoring two goals within the first five minutes of play. The first period ended at 2-0 Vipers. The Clippers got on the board six seconds into the second period as Taggart Corriveau (1) took the opening face-off and fired the puck past a dozing Viper goalie. The Vipers answered the Clippers’ goal with their own. Clippers’ Matt Bucher (1) then took the puck out of his end, skated the length of the ice to bring score to within one again at 3-2. However, the Vipers came back with a vengeance scoring two more goals to close out the second period ahead 5-2 Vipers. The Clippers played the third period to a 3-3 tie with Corriveau (2, 3) scoring two goals; sandwiching an Adam Aresco (1) short-handed goal. Nick Adamsons assisted on the final goal. The final score of the game was 8-5 Vipers. Alex Ment made 21 saves in the effort.
On Sunday, NEEHL rival New York Applecore traveled to Cromwell. All summer, USA hockey has been preaching that the referees were going to strictly enforce the rules regarding excessive stick work and interference. They weren’t kidding! This game featured 25 penalties which resulted in special teams play for more than 80% of the game. The Clippers opened the game scoring when Corriveau (4) took feeds from Sliker and Adamsons and broke free to score. After Applecore scored to tie the game, David Piekut (1) skated through the defense to score with the man advantage. Will Lindlauf and Matt Trevethan added the assists. Again, Applecore bounced back to score twice. But with less than five seconds to go in the first period, Corriveau (5) stole the puck and tied the score as the horn sounded. The first period ended at 3-3. The second period was all Clippers as they scored three times, all on special teams. On the powerplay, Bucher (2) took the puck at his blue line, out-skated the Applecore defenders and snuck a backhand past the goalie. Just over a minute later, while a man down, Bucher fed a nice clearing pass to Danny Weir (1) who scored. Finally, with 0:28 seconds left in the period Corriveau (6), killing another Clipper penalty, scored unassisted. That goal gave him his second hat trick of the weekend. The second period ended at 6-3 Clippers. In the third period Evan Sliker (1) beat the goalie to make the score 7-3. Corriveau earned an assist. Applecore scored two goals with less than two minutes to go to bring the final score to 7-5 Clippers.
Article written by Karl Adamsons.
