2/21/25 - 2/23/25 - Friday to Sunday: Binghamton Tournament - Details to follow.
2/22/25 - Saturday - 9am - 10:30am: Practice (Learn-To-Skate from 9am-9:45am; Advanced/Intermediate from 9:30am-10:30am)
2/28/25 - 3/2/25 - Friday to Sunday: Rochester Tournament - Details to follow (please note this date has been updated from what was previously listed)
3/1/25 - Saturday - 9am - 10:30am: Practice (Learn-To-Skate from 9am-9:45am; Advanced/Intermediate from 9:30am-10:30am) - Last Practice of the Season (subject to change)
3/8/25 - Saturday: Long Island Blues Winter Classic - Details to follow.
3/15/25 - Saturday - 11:45am: Game @ Central Park North Stars (LeFrak Ice Rink in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NYC)
5/2/25 - 5/4/25 - Friday to Sunday: ASHA Pittsburgh Tournament - Details to follow.
There are hockey tournaments and then there is the annual Broome Includes International Special Hockey Festival in Binghamton, NY. This tournament always gets the Dare Devils out in masses and this year was a record setter in terms of attendance. We have 21 B/C skaters participating, four A players (Patrick Law, Captain Ryan Griffin, Will Milazzo and Reese Citro), superstar Goalie Matty Brighton, and veteran leader Ryan Tomkievicz (who provided inspiration to the team while he continues his comeback). The tournament opened with a family skate at the Farm Rink on Friday afternoon followed by a party and Dave & Busters. Everyone who attended both events had a great time. Below is a summary of the games and this will be updated throughout the weekend:
Saturday, 2/21 @ 9am vs. NY Raptors at Visions Veterans Memorial Arena
The Dare Devils opened the tournament with a tense matchup against the NY Raptors. Given we had 20 skaters participating, Coach Jordan had to get creative in setting up the lines and maintaining order on the bench. There was a method to her madness as she created 4 evenly matched lines and had them rolling all game long. The game was close from start to finish but the Dare Devils escaped with a narrow victory, led by stellar goaltending from superstar Matty Brighton.
The first line of Andrew Piccirillo, Andrew DePiero, Vincenzo Racamato, Shea Passikoff and Owen Silverstein showed great chemistry throughout the game while excellent defensive efforts were put in by Theodore Howard, Kevin Plunkett, Owen Silverstein, James Cooney, Henry Barrios, Ayden Duran and Madison Mitchell. Theodore Howard, Michael Benoff and Samantha Ciemiecki all played what could be considered their strongest games ever. All three were all over the ice and made several key contributions in all three zones.
The Dare Devils making the scoresheet were as follows: Owen Silverstein (2 goals, 1 assist), Andrew DePiero (1 goal, 2 assists), Connor Hung (1 goal, 2 assists), Theodore Howard (2 goals), Patrick Hung (2 goals), Riley Chiselko Seickel (2 goals), Vinny Racamato (1 goal, 1 assist), Danny Giger (1 goal, 1 assist), Liam Smith (1 goal), and Samantha Ciemiecki (1 assist).
Saturday, 2/21 @ 12pm vs. Ottawa Bandits at Riverbend Ice Center
In our 2nd game of the tournament, the Dare Devils faced off against our friends from Canada's capital city, the Ottawa Bandits. Backed by otherworldly goaltending from superstar Matty Brighton, the Dare Devils prevailed by a score of 5-1, but the game was much closer than what showed on the scoreboard.
Living up to the Canadian mantra, "The True North strong and free," the Bandits played inspired hockey and gave us one of our best matchups of the season. Both teams came out of the gates flying but neither side was able to get one past the talented goalies until Patrick Hung buried a breakaway off a beautiful assist from Ryan Kientz, about 10 minutes into the game. That goal was quickly followed by a Danny Giger goal, with assists going to Aaron Quintana and Michael Benoff.
The Dare Devils continued to attack with Patrick Hung channeling the sage wisdom of Coach Myles by using the boards to break out of the defensive zone to free himself for a breakaway, where he was able to bury his second goal of the game. Continuing his progression this season, Sean Glassett played a strong game and his hard work paid off when he banged in his own rebound to put the NJ squad up by a score of 4-0. The Bandits were finally able to solve Brighton to get Ottawa within striking distance but Vinny Racamato put the game out of reach when he buried a beautiful goal in the final minutes of the game.
The game continued to be a back and forth affair as the clock wound down, and the Dare Devils were able to come away with the victory because Brighton made numerous high danger saves, including a beautiful glove save in the closing minutes to seal the win. In addition to Brighton, a solid defensive effort was put in by Connor Hung, who thwarted several Ottawa chances in front of his goaltender. Theodore Howard, Joel Gooblar and Samantha Ciemiecki were all strong on pucks and were able to play possession hockey to keep the ice tilted towards the Ottawa net.
Saturday, 2/21 @ 2:30pm: Long Island Blues/NJ Dare Devils vs. Nova Cool Cats/Montgomery Cheetahs at Visions Veterans Memorial Arena
Our good friends from Long Island put out an SOS for additional players as they only had 5 skaters and goalie Taylor Esposito make the trip up here from downstate. Liam Smith, James Cooney, Aaron Quintana, Shea Passikoff and Michael Benoff answered the call and were more than happy to get the extra ice time while helping out the Blues.
Understanding the importance of continuity and familiarity, Coach Skip decided to keep the Long Island boys together as one line and the Dare Devils all played together on the second line. In what can be described as a tale of two states, the contrast between the lines spoke volumes towards the strong Long Island coaching provided by Coach Skip, Coach Rob and Coach Jim. The Blues quintet played with structure in both the offensive and defensive zones and continually went out of their way to make the extra pass. Meanwhile, the NJ boys didn't seem too keen on playing defense and left superstar Taylor Esposito on his own to make numerous high danger saves. In fairness to the Dare Devils players, it was their 3rd game of the day and it looked like they were tired. At any rate, hopefully Coach Skip's offer of an apprenticeship to Coach Myles still stands as the Dare Devils can use some work in terms of structure and teamwork.
While the Dare Devils didn't play much defense, they did make their presence felt as they were on the ice for the final shift of the game, and Shea Passikoff was able to break up a 14 to 14 tie by burying a shot through the five-hole of the goalie to seal the victory. All of the Dare Devils who participated made the score sheet, led by Shea Passikoff (4 goals), James Cooney (1 goal), Aaron Quintana (1 goal), Liam Smith (1 assist) and Michael Benoff (1 assist). In addition to his unbelievable goaltending, Taylor Esposito also recorded an assist on Shea Passikoff's second goal of the afternoon.
A special thank you goes out to Coach Skip, Coach Rob, Coach Jim and all of the Blues players for graciously welcoming our players onto your squad today. We loved playing with you and can't wait to see you in Long Island in a couple of weeks.
Today was the big day. After months of coordination, Frank was finally able to gather the vast majority of the Dare Devils players, coaches and front office folks for the annual team picture. Almost everyone showed up to Codey today, with a few notable exceptions. Esteemed former team manager Andy Piccirillo is still vacationing on the Italian Riviera (or maybe he was just in Brick). But don't fear, Frank assured us that he will be able to superimpose Andy's image into the team photo, patent leather loafers and all. We can't wait to see how the picture turns out. Frank also took pictures of the action at practice and the link can be found here. Thank you, Frank and team!
Given the great turnout for picture day, Coach Myles had a lot of players to work out at practice today. We started with a leisurely warmup and then all of the players headed over to the arena seats to cheese for the team photo. Once Frank was comfortable he captured the perfect depiction of the 2024-2025 Dare Devils, he released the players back onto the ice to proceed with practice. Veteran superstar Ryan Tomkievicz gave a spirited pep talk to the team prior to the commencement of drills. It was great to see you back with the team today, Ryan!
Ryan got all of the players fired up for the power skating drills. I've never seen the players skating with so much focus and determination. Once the edge-work concluded, Coach Myles split the team into three stations to finish-up practice. Coach Eric led passing and shooting drills, Coach Ray coordinated puck-handling/skating and Coach Myles ran the players through a gauntlet of breakout drills, holding the blue-line and shooting practice. Great work today Dare Devils.
Next weekend, we have our annual Binghamton tournament for the traveling players. For the team members not making the trip, Coach Steve Toledo will be running a standard practice for the team at Codey, with the learn-to-skate session from 9:00am to 9:30am and the advanced/intermediate practice running from 9:30am to 10:30am.
The hills of Austria were alive today with Coach Brendon's sound of music and skiing. Meanwhile, back in West Orange the Dare Devils' storage closet was alive with the sound of . . . success: we were able to get two new players--Joshua and Tony--on the ice thanks to a team effort, including Kelly Scorsune and Ms. Grace. Thank you everyone! - Bernard
And here's John Smith's recap from practice (thanks John!):
The Dare Devils stayed ahead of the incoming inclement weather as they held practice this morning in their normal 9am time slot. Despite missing a few regulars (who were hopefully in more alluring locales), practice was well attended as the steadily increasing roster added two more players to their ranks welcoming Joshua Chen and Tony He. A good sign that there are new players is when the “legacy” jerseys start showing up on the ice while the newer players await their own jerseys. Today, veteran Dare Devil Nick Ritter sported his own version of a legacy jersey, wearing a yellow jersey that legend says goes back 40 years.
Whatever they were wearing, all the Dare Devils looked sharp today. The practice pace was fierce as the players fired pucks in all directions. Team Manager Bernard Cooney should have earned combat pay as he put his life on the line fishing pucks out of the net. We may have to get him a Kevlar suit if he is to continue that line of work. For the second half of practice, coach Myles put the team through their skating drills and the players responded with high intensity and determination. It looks like they all want to be in tip top shape for next week’s team picture. The team was then split into two groups to work on skating, passing, and shooting drills. As usual, the junior and senior coaches did an excellent job with the newer players and the veterans as well.
Crab cakes and hockey, that's what Maryland does! According to the neighbors, Coach Bernard can be heard screaming this while practicing crossovers on his ODR in the wee hours of the night. The Dare Devils can now attest to the fact that Maryland does indeed have hockey, with a bit of Old Bay seasoning sprinkled on top. Seven Dare Devils players travelled down to Ocean City Maryland for the annual Special Hockey Beach Bash 3 vs. 3 tournament, held at the historic Carousel Resort. Below is a summary of the events (spoiler alert, the Dare Devils won the Championship):
Friday, 1/31/25 @ 2:20pm vs. Baltimore Saints B Capitols:
In a matchup of tournament heavyweights, the Dare Devils opened the weekend against the talented Capitols squad, based out of Baltimore. The Caps scored a quick goal in the opening minute, but the Dare Devils regrouped and answered with two goals of their own, scored by Patrick Hung and James Cooney. There was a lot of action throughout the contest but the goalies for both teams (including Dare Devils guest goalie Kieran Coughlin) were amazing and made countless high-danger saves all afternoon. However, the Dare Devils continued attacking the net, with Connor Hung burying a goal and Shea Passikoff scoring a hat trick to put the Dare Devils up by the score of 6 to 3 with three minutes remaining in the game. Just as the Dare Devils were feeling confident that they would prevail, the Baltimore squad put in 3 unanswered goals to tie the score up at 6, in the final minute of the game. The teams traded chances as the clock wound down but the game justly ended in a tie. The score sheet for the game is as follows: Shea Passikoff (3 goals), Patrick Hung (1 goal, 1 assist), Ayden Duran (2 assists), James Cooney (1 goal) and Connor Hung (1 goal). Liam Smith played a strong game but was stymied by the talented Capitols goaltender on multiple occasions. In addition to chipping in a goal, Connor Hung played solid defense all game.
Saturday, 2/1/25 @ 8am vs. Nova Cool Cats B:
After an early wake-up call, the Dare Devils took on the DC based Cool Cats on Saturday morning. Similar to Friday's game, both teams matched up well and played an exciting, back-and-forth game. Led by guest goalie Ethan Davidson, the Dare Devils had a well balanced attack and ultimately prevailed, winning the game by a 3 goal margin. The Dare Devils were aided by the cheering section, who lifted the players spirits while razzing baby brother Bernard at the same time. All of the Dare Devils contributed to the score sheet: Owen Silverstein (6 goals, 1 assist), James Cooney (4 goals, 2 assists), Shea Passikoff (4 goals), Patrick Hung (3 goals, 1 assist), Connor Hung (3 assists), Liam Smith (1 goal) and Ayden Duran (1 assist).
Saturday, 2/1/25 @ 2:20pm vs. Washington Ice Dogs B:
After some morning naps and lunch, the Dare Devils were back at it in this early afternoon battle against the Washington Ice Dogs. In another evenly matched game, the Dare Devils kept the pressure on and gutted out a victory over the talented Ice Dogs. James Cooney opened with a goal on the first shift and the NJ squad kept attacking as the game progressed, backed by stellar goaltending from guest goaler Joey Del Guidice. The Dare Devils were led by Patrick Hung (4 goals, 1 assist), Owen Silverstein (4 goals), James Cooney (3 goals), Liam Smith (1 goal, 1 assist), Shea Passikoff (1 goal), Ayden Duran (1 goal), and the defensive efforts of Connor Hung. The Dare Devils efforts in the round robin portion of the tournament have put them in a great position for Championship Sunday - we will find out our opponent for the Championship Game later this evening.
Sunday, 2/2/25 @ 9:15am vs. Baltimore Saints B - Championship Game:
After finishing 2-0-1 in the opening round, the Dare Devils were on pins and needles wondering who they would face in the Championship Game. While the team was resting their weary muscles in the hot tub, word came in that we would play the vaunted Baltimore Saints B squad in the championship. The Saints B have some of the biggest, baddest, imposing players in special hockey, so it was important for the Dare Devils to get hyped up for this game. Sensing the importance of preparedness for this matchup, Coach Bernard scheduled a team dinner in the attic game room at The Greene Turtle Sports Bar & Grille. It was a great bonding experience for the boys and most of them ate protein heavy meals to get ready for the big game the next morning. It seemed to have worked as intended - the Dare Devils came out flying and put in a very solid effort against the Saints. As expected, this was an intense game with the teams trading goals throughout. In a Hung heavy game, the Hung boys were all over the score sheet. Patrick Hung scored 7 goals and brother Conner netted 2 as the Dare Devils found themselves tied at 9 with the Saints in the final minutes of the game. James Cooney decided to take matters into his own hands and won a puck battle in the defensive zone and quickly turned up ice towards the goal. Cooney deked past two defenders and found himself alone in front of the talented Saints goalie. Coach Terence had been preaching all game that the Dare Devils need to aim for the high corners when shooting on the Saints net. Cooney heeded the advice of Coach T and buried the game winner in the top corner to seal the victory for the NJ squad.
Way to go, Dare Devils! We are proud of your efforts!
What's old is new and what's new is old. Today, the Dare Devils traveled south on the Parkway for a game against our good friends, the Woodbridge Warriors. Anyone looking at the Dare Devils bench could have easily thought that we travelled back in time to 2017. Esteemed former Head Coach Steve Ritter and our well-respected ex-Manager Andy Piccirillo took on the bench coaching duties for today's contest. Supporting Coach Ritter and Andy were Coach Jordan and part-time journalist John Smith. Coach Myles should be nervous as this was the most organized our bench and line changes have been in years.
In what most spectators agreed was the strongest refereed game in ASHA history, the teams battled back and forth throughout. However, both teams showed great sportsmanship. The Warriors were gracious enough to share their goalie with us and we returned the favor by letting the Warriors borrow some of our strongest players, Kory Wadleigh, Madison Mitchell, Nick Ritter and Alfonso "Fonzi" Mosca. From the 1st puck drop, the game stayed close until the final buzzer. The Dare Devils were always in the game but were unable to tie the score in a frantic final minute and ultimately lost the game by one goal. The Dare Devils making the box score were Lindell Lu (1 goal), Patrick Hung (2 goals), Shea Passikoff (1 goal), Patrick Law (1 goal), Sean Glassett (1 goal), Owen Silverstein (1 goal), Andrew Piccirillo (1 goal), Henry Barrios (1 assist) and Samantha Ciemiecki (1 assist). In addition to the offensive contributions, James Cooney and Connor Hung played strong defense, Liam Smith made several great passing plays, Kevin Plunkett was active on the forecheck and was continually disrupting the Warriors in the corners, and Riley Chiselko Seickel was a beast in the face-off circle all game.
The Dare Devils moonlighting with the Warriors all played strong games with Kory Wadleigh scoring 2 goals and 1 assist, Nick Ritter chipping in a goal, Madison Mitchell playing steady defense and Fonzi Mosca playing a spirited offensive game.
In addition to the game, the Dare Devils also held our regular practice at Codey. With Coach Terence conspicuously absent (he was last seen at 6am smoking Malboro Reds at a low-stakes Vegas baccarat table), Coach Myles held the fort down, running the team through the learn-to-skate session and formal drills. After practice, Captain Ryan Griffin held a birthday celebration in one of the Codey party rooms - Happy Birthday Cap!
The Dare Devils once again had to deal with a modified practice time. This time around they were able to keep it in the morning hours and the 10:45am start time seemed to agree with them. The ability to sleep in an extra hour and 45 minutes clearly gave them some added juice as they were crisp and sharp all practice long.
The practice started as usual with the learn to skate session from 10:45 to 11:30 and the turnout was great. Many of the recent additions to the team continued their impressive progress with the veterans in attendance helping out their new teammates.
For the second half of practice, coach Myles split the team into 3 groups and alternated the groups in 3 separate drill stations. The players worked on their passing, stickhandling, and shooting skills. Every player was focused and worked hard on improving their skills with great help as usual from all the junior and senior coaches.
Word around the rink was that Veteran Dare Devil Will Trampota found a dead wasp on the ice. This bodes well for the Dare Devils as seeing a dead wasp signifies the end of a threat, conflict, or negative situation and that new opportunities await you. Here’s to new opportunities.
We were originally supposed to have practice at 9pm tonight but the schedulers at Codey took mercy on the Dare Devils and moved the practice up to 7:45pm. While not our normal 9am slot, the 7:45pm start time was much more humane and conducive to a great showing by the players and coaches.
Unfortunately, equipment manager Terence was unable to attend practice as he was participating in a wet January endeavor. As a result, Coach Myles was forced to assume the double duty of manning the equipment closet as well as running practice. Despite the chaos, Coach Myles once again came through by leading a great session while also ensuring that newcomer, Charlie Gao, was properly suited up for his first practice with the team. Charlie had a great practice today and we are looking forward to his continued participation with the Dare Devils. In addition to Charlie's great showing today, our other new team members (Darren Chuang, Charlie Alterman, Matthew Amato and Victoria Garay) continued their progression and they are all turning into excellent hockey players. Shoutout to Coach Eric, Coach Bernard and the junior coaches for all of the effort they are putting into getting the new players situated on the ice.
Coach Myles ran the players through several station drills, working on stick handling, shooting, passing and skating. Practice concluded with net races and a spirited game of sharks and minnows. All of the players worked hard with Quinn Phillips, Liam Smith, John Giblin (home for his winter break from college) and Jonah Barnes having particularly strong performances today.
One bright side to the evening practices is that the timing works well with Frank's retirement sleep schedule. Frank graced us with his presence today and we will post a link to his gallery as soon as it's available. As promised, the link to Frank's gallery can be found here. It was great seeing you today Frank!
Our neighbors to the south took a Saturday morning drive up the turnpike this morning as the NJ Dare Devils hosted the Philadelphia Freeze for an exciting matchup.
A large contingent of Dare Devils attended the game, so we lent 2 of our veteran leaders to the squad from Philadelphia as Captain Ryan Griffin and Will Trampota suited up in white to help the Freeze take on the Dare Devils who were clad in their black “Jersey” Jerseys.
Dare Devil goaltender Matty Brighton was spectacular all game long making numerous grade A saves. Griffin and Trampota in particular were both robbed of potential goals on multiple occasions by the stellar play of Brighton. They both eventually got on the score sheet for the Freeze with Griffin scoring 2 goals while Trampota has 2 goals and an assist.
The teams played two 30 minute periods with most of the scoring taking place in the first period. Patrick Law opened the scoring with an unassisted goal, followed by James McTernan’s first goal on an assist from Ayden Duran to put the Dare Devils up 2-0.
Griffin put the Freeze on the board with an end-to-end rush goal. The Dare Devils answered back when Patrick Hung took a rebound of a McTernan shot and scored a wraparound goal.
Alphonso “Fonzie” Mosca was then stopped on a breakaway chance by the Freeze goalie who also played a great game. Fonzie though was able to score by knocking in his own rebound.
Will Trampota returned the favor after he was also stopped by Brighton on a breakaway but was able to score on his follow-up shot. McTernan then got his second of the game bringing the score to 5-2. Trampota then fed a nice pass into the slot to the Philly Freeze Captain and big #9 buried it for the 5-3 goal. Griffin closed out the first period scoring with an unassisted goal making it 5-4.
The second period was more of a defensive battle as the Dare Devils defenseman Kory Wadleigh locked it down in the defensive zone. Each team added another goal in the second period. Brighton made 3 saves before Trampota got his second of the game on the 4th attempt to tie the game 5-5. Kory Wadleigh then made a great breakout pass from below the goal line to spring Lindell Lu for a breakaway goal beating the goalie to the glove side and giving the Dare Devils the 6-5 win.
School might be on holiday but the Dare Devils are not. Deviating from historical tradition, the Dare Devils held a winter break practice this morning. We weren't sure how many players would show up, but we figured it would be a good opportunity for the team to get in some conditioning work prior to the schedule picking up in the new year. Much to our surprise, 22 team members and a handful of coaches made the trek to Codey for practice today.
Given the heavy attendance, Coach Myles took the opportunity to run the players through power skating, stick handling, passing and shooting drills. In fact, Coach Myles did such an excellent job in introducing new practice schemes, the players and coaches on the PWHL's NY Sirens were seen taking copious notes from the stands. Hopefully Coach Myles receives some residual checks if the Sirens beat the Ottawa Charge tomorrow in their game at the Prudential Center.
In addition to his contributions on the ice, esteemed equipment manager, Coach Terence, was back at it in the equipment closet and he was able to resuscitate an old helmet that was previously deemed inoperable. Great job, Coach T! You are earning your keep.
Next week, Saturday, 1/4, we have a learn-to-skate practice from 9:00am to 9:30am immediately followed by a home game against the Philadelphia Freeze from 9:30am to 10:30am. More details to follow on the roster structure for our game against the Freeze.
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