Long Island Tournament - Saturday - 3/8/25

The Dare Devils made their way to Bethpage, Long Island today for the annual Long Island Winter Classic. This year, the format was slightly different than previous iterations, as there were only four teams participating in the tournament: the Dare Devils, the Long Island Blues, the FDNY hockey team (yes, that's the NYC Fire Department) and the Suffolk County Sheriffs Department hockey club. The NJ collective was slated to play their opening game against the Suffolk County Cops and the final matchup versus our fierce rivals, the Long Island Blues. 

A lot of Dare Devils players signed up to travel to the Island today, but the coaching staff started receiving word that several players were backing out as we neared the opening game. We couldn't understand why so many players were canceling their plans, but it started to make sense in the locker room. The chatter amongst the players was that they had to be on their best behavior or the consequence could be that they would be carted off to "Juvie" by Suffolk County's Finest. Perhaps some of the squad couldn't handle that pressure and they decided it was best to lay low in NJ for the day. However, the fear of being locked up was unwarranted as the Suffolk County team couldn't make it as they had to deal with wildfires in Eastern Long Island (we hope our friends from Suffolk County were able to limit the damage). In their place, the FDNY team stepped in and played an extra game against the Dare Devils.

3/8/25 @ 4:15pm vs the FDNY Bravest:

Coach Skip from Long Island pleaded with us to bring our biggest and baddest "A" players to the festivities this weekend. Skip's request became clear when we saw the FDNY squad step onto the ice for our opening game. They were big, they were strong, they could skate and they could shoot the puck. But the Dare Devils came prepared with some ammunition of our own - we rolled three lines, including our superstar "A" line of Captain Ryan Griffin, Kory Wadleigh, Will Milazzo, Reese Citro and cagey veteran Nick Ritter. 

The Bravest got on the scoreboard first, putting one past our guest goalie, Hung Boy #4, on the opening shift. It looked like we had some tough sledding ahead of us, but Shea Passikoff went to work on the forecheck, powering the puck out of the corner to beat the fire goalie on the short side. Two shifts later, Nick Ritter took the puck into the offensive zone and rifled a shot into the upper corner of the net that the FDNY goalie had no chance on. The game stayed close throughout but the Dare Devils started pulling away in the last ten minutes and won the game by a score of 13-7.

The Dare Devils on the stat sheet were: Shea Passikoff (3 goals, 1 assist), Patrick Law (3 goals, 1 assist), guest player Linus Donahue (2 goals), Patrick Hung (2 assists), Hung Boy #4 (2 assists), Nick Ritter (1 goal), Aaron Quintana (1 goal), James Cooney (1 goal), Micayla Shields (1 goal), Kory Wadleigh (1 goal), Owen Silverstein (1 assist), Will Milazzo (1 assist), Orion Lee (1 assist) and Connor Hung (1 assist). Owen Silverstein, Captain Ryan Griffin, Will Milazzo, Nick Ritter, Andrew Katz, Liam Smith, Kory Wadleigh and Reese Citro all put in spirited defensive efforts. Hung Boy #4 played a solid game in net, settling down after the opening goal.

A special thank you goes out to New York's Bravest for taking the time to show our team a great game today. We appreciate you today and we appreciate you for everything you do for your community. Thank you!

3/8/25 @ 5:30pm vs. The Long Island Blues:

With the Suffolk Cops unable to make it to the rink, the schedule was thrown into disarray, and the Dare Devils found out that they would be playing back-to-back games. In the 2nd game, the Dare Devils took on the well-coached Blues team from Long Island. This was truly a battle of the special hockey heavyweights. As discussed with Coach Skip during warmups, both coaching staffs ensured that each team's "A" line would be matched-up with each other throughout the game. This led to some chippy, unbelievable, evenly-matched hockey across all of the lines. The game was tight, but the Dare Devils prevailed by a score of 6 to 3.

The Dare Devils jumped out to a quick lead and never took their foot off the gas as the game progressed. Will Milazzo opened the scoring by blistering a shot past our good friend, Taylor Esposito, Superstar Reese Citro scored a hat-trick (including putting home a penalty shot), Micayla Shields snuck in a rebound and Patrick Law scored a beautiful breakaway goal. Kory Wadleigh and Captain Ryan Griffin both received assists. Patrick Hung, Connor Hung, Captain Ryan Griffin, Kory Wadleigh, Liam Donahue, and Will Milazzo all put in solid defensive efforts. Once again, Hung Boy #4 was solid in net.

3/8/25 @ 7:30pm vs. The Long Island Blues:

After a cut of the ice, the awards presentation (where the Dare Devils received some more hardware), a captivating rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner, and a delectable barbecue dinner in the party room, we played a second game against the Blues. Several Dare Devils players left after dinner so this time, we were only able to run two lines during the game. Line 1 consisted of Captain Ryan Griffin, Kory Wadleigh, Patrick Law, Patrick Hung, Connor Hung, and Micayla Shields. The 2nd line was James Cooney, Shea Passikoff, Liam Smith, Orion Lee, Linus Donahue and Aaron Quintana.

Despite being short handed, the Dare Devils acquitted themselves well. Long Island threw out their most talented players throughout the game but the NJ squad kept up. After Patrick Hung put in a breakaway goal to give the Dare Devils an early lead, the Blues answered with four unanswered goals. The Dare Devils had their opportunities but they ran into the hottest goalie in ASHA, Taylor Esposito. Last week, the Dare Devils had the pleasure of playing in front of Taylor but this week they experienced the nightmare of playing against him. Taylor stood tall in goal today - he flashed his glove on multiple occasions and showed great lateral movement, while tracking the puck perfectly all evening. Liam Smith, Captain Ryan Griffin, Patrick Law and Kory Wadleigh all had several Grade A scoring opportunities but had trouble solving Esposito. It wasn't until the final minutes of the game that Kory Wadleigh and El Capitan were able to break the plane of the goal-line. But it was too little too late. The Dare Devils ultimately lost a hard-fought battle by a score of 5 to 3.

In another physical match-up, we experienced a scary moment with about 20 minutes remaining in the contest. After being attended to by the medical staff, our superstar Patrick Law needed to shake-off a heavy collision, but he seemed to be in good spirits after the game. We hope you are feeling good Patrick and you definitely earned the game puck!

Thank you Hung Boy #4 for filling-in the goal today. You played inspired hockey and definitely had a hand in helping us win the cup. In addition, we owe a debt of gratitude to Coach Skip, Coach Rob, Coach Jim, the Blues players and all of the Blues support staff and family. Today was a great tournament. We loved the competition and the sportsmanship. We can't wait to come back again next year. Thank you!