Binghamton Tournament Summary: 2/21/25 - 2/23/25

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.