The sign reads, “Lake Placid Home of the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics”. As the Americans boast, it was the place of the event of the century. The U.S. 4-3 win over the U.S.S.R.  This past weekend, our Devils Atom team had a similar victory of 3-2 championship win in sudden death overtime over the Lake Placid Bombers to claim the Lake Placid Cup.

It was a great weekend for hockey. On Friday, January 6th, opening ceremonies were held with our EH Devils facing the NJ Penguins. Captain Tyler Toomey opened the game with a deft shot on net at 41 seconds into the first period to open the onslaught of Devils’ goals. With our Devils’ dominating the Penguins, it allowed Coach Tutt to switch things up and play our defense offensively. Thus, allowing our blue line guards such as Joey Schulz and Dylan Early 3 goals between them.

Chris Ferri played a hard game with non-stop skating and puck action earning him Player of the Game. With no slap shots allowed a moment of humor happened when Malcolm Alderdice slapped a heater resulting in the whistle blown and the Ref commenting, “No slap shots Bobby Hall.” Goaltender Moses Brajkovich earned a shut out, with the final score 11-0.

Game 2 on Saturday, January 7th; saw the Devils facing White Plains, NY. Jordan Tutt opened the game with a top shelf goal at a minute and a half into the first period. Again, our Devils were a powerhouse to the White Plains. With a few of our Devils scoring multiple times.

Coach Tutt switched to a cycling the puck strategy to work on practice exercises in a game situation. Although, this was an easy win, it was not without notable plays. Matthew Vavaroutsos had a hard bar down goal and Jake Saunders ended the game on a breakaway resulting in a goal. Player of the game was Liam Galton and goaltender Brayden Kelso earned a shut out with the final score 12-0.

Our real competition came in Game 3, when the Devils faced the Lake Placid Bombers. Iain Panagiotou opened the game a little over 2 minutes in period 1 with a goal to start us off. This game showed Matthew Collette’s fierceness for playing the puck hard, which won him Player of the Game.

Ethan Seifried was relentless from the blue line with shot after shot on net. Tanner Crang popped a well-placed goal to end the scoring at 7-0. Goaltender Moses Brajkovich earned a second shut out of the tournament.

On Sunday, January 8th, saw our Devils facing the Lake Placid Bomber for gold. In a nail biting game that proved Lake Placid weren’t going down without a fight and with feelings of 1980 all over again, the battle was on. With Lake Placid popping in 2 goals the Devils were feeling the pressure.

Although Lake Placid had the upper hand the Devils never lost their momentum and with the relentless efforts of Brendan Abbott’s puck pinching along side Cameron Cooper’s solid puck control in the back end; it allowed the Devils to regroup and regain the 2 goals to tie it up.

The third period saw solid hockey played from both sides forcing the game into sudden death overtime. A little over 2-1/2 minutes saw Liam Galton score the winning goal for the EH Devils to capture the gold! MVP of the tournament was awarded to Chris Ferri.

Thanks Devils for the exciting hockey and our coaching staff; Bill Tutt, James Toomey, Craig Saunders, John Brajkovich and our manager Jen Tutt.