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Health & Fitness

Jr. Redmen Squirt AAA Hockey team continues strong play, beats Watertown 2-1.

The Jr. Redmen Squirt AAA Hockey club skated at home for the first time this season against a big, fast & physical Watertown Red Raider team and left Breakaway Ice Center with a well-deserved 2-1 win.

The Jr. Redmen came out flying, controlling play for the 1st three shifts of the game, resulting in excellent scoring chances from Timmy Sweeney, Andrew Grieco, and Billy Doherty.  The Red Raider goalie was able to make the saves and kept the flying Jr. Redmen off the scoreboard.  The Red Raiders started to take play to the Jr. Redmen but were unable to get close to the Jr. Redmen net thanks to great defensive plays from Sean Murphy and Jack Griffin.  The Jr. Redmen had a great chance to take a 1-0 lead midway through the 1st period when Conor Cremin and Justin Rooney worked a nice give-and-go on the powerplay but Rooney’s wrister rang off the left post.  After a Jr. Redmen goal was called off by a quick whistle, the Red Raiders took a 1-0 lead on another questionable call by the referee.  The 1st period ended with the Red Raiders getting 2 quality scoring chances but Jr. Redmen goalie Ben O’Keefe made back-to-back highlight reel saves.

The Red Raiders came out extremely chippy in the 2nd period trying to intimidate the much smaller Jr. Redmen.  The Jr. Redmen used their team speed and puck moving abilities to stay away from the physical Red Raiders.  This resulted in a Jr. Redmen goal with just over 8 minutes to play in the 2nd period when defenseman Jason Cooke (whose younger brother Matthew was named the Fuddrucker’s Mite of the Week by the Valley League) picked up a loose puck to the left of his own net, skated through 3 Red Raiders and fired a Brad Marchand-like wrister into the top corner of the net.  The Red Raiders battled right back trying to take the lead but Andrew Della Piana broke up a 2-on-1 with a nice sliding poke check.  The Jr. Redmen had a great chance on the powerplay to take the 2-1 lead just as the 2nd period was coming to a close when Alex Pescatore, Brady Chapman and Andrew Grieco had 3 straight shots from the slot area that were turned away by the Red Raider goalie.

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The 3rd period was an up-and-down battle between two highly skilled teams.  The Red Raiders had the early chance to take the lead but the birthday boy in net, Ben O’Keefe, made a tremendous glove save on speedy #11.  The Jr. Redmen came right back and nearly took the 2-1 lead when Timmy Sweeney went in alone on the breakaway but his wrister bounced off the goalie’s mask.  The Jr. Redmen kept attacking and scored the go-ahead goal with 5:38 left in the game.  The line of Maci Chapman, Alex Pescatore, and Jake McDonough had over 1 minute of sustained pressure on the Red Raiders resulting in Pescatore jumping on a rebound and firing it under the sliding Red Raider goalie, assists to Maci and Jake.  The Red Raiders were determined to tie the game in the final minutes but great team defense from Sean Murphy, Jason Cooke, Justin Rooney, Brady Chapman, and Billy Doherty preserved the 2-1 win for the Jr. Redmen.

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