Rochester Tournament Summary - 2/28/25 to 3/2/25

The annual Rochester Friendship tournament was scheduled earlier than usual this year. Thirteen Dare Devils skaters and our favorite guest goalie, Taylor Esposito, made the trek up to Tim Horton's Ice Plex in Rochester, NY for the weekend event. The players started trickling into town at various times between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. Fortunately, the tournament schedulers did us a solid and scheduled our first game for 11:20am on Saturday (although there was a mandatory coaches meeting at 8:30am on Saturday where the Dare Devils representatives were schooled on the Canadian translation for a lacrosse ball). Just like in Binghamton, Coach Jordan took on the lead bench coaching duty and once again found some magical line combinations. The Dare Devils were on point all weekend long, displaying great puck movement, defensive structure and sportsmanship. As has been the case at recent tournaments, the Dare Devils were a cohesive unit and found themselves lifting the championship trophy at the end of the weekend. Below is a summary of the events:

Saturday 3/1/25 vs. Cambridge Ice Hounds @ 11:20am

The Dare Devils opened the tournament against a talented group of players from Cambridge, Ontario. Continuing the trend from the championship game in Binghamton last weekend, the Dare Devils played solid defense and were consistently making passes to their open teammates. This was a matchup of two of the most talented goalies in special hockey - Taylor Esposito made countless strong saves and he was matched throughout the game by his Cambridge counterpart.

Cambridge opened the scoring several minutes into the game and the Dare Devils had their opportunities early but had a difficult time solving the Cambridge netminder. Shea Passikoff, Riley Chilselko Seickel, James Cooney, Owen Silverstein and Patrick Law all had grade A scoring chances in the opening minutes but they were stonewalled by the talented Ice Hounds backstop. 

It wasn't until Liam Smith found a streaking Owen Silverstein about 7 minutes into the game that the Dare Devils were able to get on the scoreboard. But even then it wasn't easy - Smith sprung Silverstein on a breakaway but Owen's initial shot was stopped by the goalie. Silverstein kept his composure, gathered the rebound and found the back of the net on a pretty wraparound. Once he scored the first goal, Silverstein gained some confidence and quickly put two more into the net, with an assist going to Mike Benoff on the 2nd goal, to secure a hat trick before the game was halfway over.

Cambridge kept the pressure on and went up by a score of 4 to 3, but then Shea Passikoff deked past a couple of defenders and fooled the Cambridge goalie with a wrist shot from the hashmarks to tie the score up at 4. Cambridge answered to go up by one, and then Captain Ryan Griffin found rising superstar TJ Howard at the blue line where TJ took a few strides before rifling one through the goalie's five-hole.

Sensing an opportunity, Coach Myles pleaded with the team to go hard on the forecheck. James Cooney and Patrick Hung heeded the coaches advice and went to work in the corner. Cooney wrestled the puck from a Cambridge defender and setup Patrick Hung for a score to put the NJ squad up by one. However, the lead was short-lived as Cambridge tied the game up at 6 on a pretty passing play. The teams battled in the closing minutes but neither team could score another one as the game ended in a tie.

Solid defensive efforts were put in by Captain Ryan Griffin, Connor Hung, Richie Sherman and Ayden Duran. In addition to leading the charge with his stellar goaltending, Taylor Esposito acted as a third defenseman as he made several strong passes out of the defensive zone to free-up his teammates.

Lastly, the Dare Devils and Cambridge showed great sportsmanship, led by Captain Ryan Griffin and his Cambridge counterpart, to ensure that both teams had opportunities to touch the puck and get shots on net. Way to show the world the camaraderie that Canada and the US have historically displayed towards one another!

Saturday 3/1/25 vs. Buffalo Sabres Thunder @ 3:10pm

In the afternoon tilt, the Dare Devils faced off against the Buffalo Sabres Thunder. Once again, star goalie Taylor Esposito stood on his head, this time leading the Dare Devils to a victory that was decided via shootout. The players must have had a protein fueled lunch because they were jumping from the first shift of the game. But it wasn't all pedal to the metal for the Dare Devils - the team made the coaching staff proud by showing great sportsmanship throughout the contest.

Shea Passikoff opened the scoring by burying one past the Buffalo goaltender off of the opening faceoff. On the subsequent shift, Theodore Howard continued his precipitous rise by back-checking hard, using his reach to swipe the puck from the opposition, and quickly turning up ice and hitting Patrick Hung with a perfect pass that ultimately made its way into the back of the net.

Coach Jordan and Coach Myles advised the team that they needed to focus on teamwork and the players obliged for the remainder of the contest. Patrick Law scored three unanswered goals, all assisted beautifully by his line-mates. The first was setup by Ayden Duran, his second goal was the result of a perfect feed from Captain Ryan Griffin and the third was the completion of tic-tac-toe passing from Riley Chiselko Seickel and Ryan Griffin.

Passing is often times contagious, as was the case during the game this afternoon. Liam Smith had a particularly strong passing game, setting up his teammates with multiple pretty passes throughout the afternoon. Owen Silverstein fed James Cooney for a goal, Shea Passikoff scored his second of the game, with helpers from Captain Ryan Griffin and Patrick Law, and Richie Sherman concluded the regulation scoring, by converting his first goal of the season, off an assist from Patrick Hung.

Between the outstanding goaltending from Taylor Esposito, and the offensive fireworks from the team, victory seemed like it would be easy to come by in this game. However, Buffalo was a feisty organization and they clawed their way back into the game and tied the score up at the end of regulation. The game went to a shootout, and Richie Sherman, Michael Benoff, Connor Hung, Theodore Howard and Captain Ryan Griffin all converted their chances. That was all Taylor Esposito needed, and the Dare Devils rode his quick reflexes to the shootout victory.

Sunday 3/2/25 vs.  @ 9am vs. Steel City Ice Bergs

After staying up late attending the western themed Dance Party in regular NJ attire at the Doubletree Hotel on Saturday night, there was concern that the Dare Devils would be a step slow for the Championship Game on Sunday morning. With the exception of Coach Myles, everyone showed up spry for the game and took it to our Pittsburgh based opponents.

Liam Smith opened the scoring on the first shift, converting a nice breakout pass from Shea Passikoff, and the Dare Devils never looked back. Taylor Esposito was once again spectacular in goal and led the Dare Devils to the championship. All of the players made the scoresheet, led by Reilly Chiselko Seickel getting the monkey off his back and burying a beautiful wrister halfway through the game. Reilly had been stonewalled by spectacular saves during the first two games and celebrated his goal conversion with his patented skeet shooting the glove routine. The box score is as follows: Patrick Hung (4 goals, 1 assist), James Cooney (2 goals, 1 assist), Patrick Law (2 goals, 1 assist), Owen Silverstein (2 goals, 1 assist), Theodore Howard (1 goal, 1 assist), Richie Sherman (1 goal), Connor Hung (1 goal), Liam Smith (1 goal), Shea Passikoff (1 assist), Mike Benoff (1 assist), and Ayden Duran (1 assist).

A special thank you goes out to Taylor Esposito for stepping in and playing goal for us this weekend. We love playing in front of you and you were the main reason we took home the hardware - thank you Taylor!

3 vs. 3 A Games (2 games Saturday, 1 game Sunday)

Superstar Captain Ryan Griffin represented the Dare Devils in the A games this weekend. Similar to Binghamton, Ryan found himself on the scoresheet in all of the weekends A contests. He converted 5 goals on Saturday morning, 1 goal on Saturday afternoon and 1 goal on Sunday morning. Way to go Cap - you made us proud!

Saturday morning practice at Codey (last practice of the season)

For the players not traveling to Rochester, Coach Steve Toledo ran practice at Codey on Saturday morning. Unfortunately, it was our last practice of the season. Thank you Coach Steve and thank you Frank! Frank attended practice and captured everything. Frank's gallery can be found here. Thanks again, Frank!