'99 Pee Wee NY Rangers

Recap of the semifinal game by our own Andy LeSueur:

Well, the 2012 PW Rangers run has come to an end and it was a thrilling ride while it lasted. Many, many thanks to Coaches Devenney and Messier, all of the other bench coaches – Holmes, Heffernan and Sweeney, all of our terrific billet families, Kerry for the impeccable logistics and tourney/team information and all the other parents who tried to spur the boys on to one more victory.
Alas, it was not to be – the previously unknown (to me anyway) North Shore Winter Club, hailing from the upper reaches of Vancouver, proved to be the better team last night and certainly had the best player on the ice and probably in the tournament. Keep an eye on Jordy Bellerive in the future – he lit us up for 4 goals and 1 assist in the 5-2 loss.
The game was delayed by over 90 mins which did not help our cause, but when it finally got underway at 10pm, the Rangers’ momentum appeared as if it would continue. In the opening minutes, the Rangers were crisp on passes and forechecking. 6 minutes into the period, Christian LeSueur drew a hooking penalty on NSWC (it was one of only 2 penalties they had all night compared to our 7 or 8). The Rangers power play looked great – lot of puck movement in the corners, behind the net and finally to the defense. Josh Decarolis found the twine on a great feed from Daniel Petrick to make it 1-0. That ended the scoring for the first period.
Our trips to the penalty box began right at the beginning of the second period – we were called for an offensive zone infraction and Jordy Bellerive drove past our defenseman and fed the puck to an open NSWC player in front – 1-1. After another Rangers penalty, Tyler made the first of a number of toe saves on good scoring chances by NSWC. After another offensive rush, Jordy struck again on a low drive from the slot 2-1 NSWC – end of second and time for a much deserved break for the Rangers.
However, the third period started out with another penalty for the PWR, again in the offensive zone, and again, Jordy made us pay with a top shelf wrister – 3-1 NSWC and we looked a bit deflated. In the next series, Jordy picked the pocket of our d-man and scored yet another unassisted goal on a very strong deke – 4-1 NSWC. And to add insult to injury, Jordy did the same thing on the other side of the ice and made us pay 5-1. To the boys’ credit, they kept fighting to get back into the game and scored in the final 2 mins on a great goal by Devin Heffernan on a feed from Michael Eustace to make it a final 5-2 loss.
Credit all of the boys for coming together as a team – both on and off the ice and playing a great tournament all week – certainly the highlight being the packed house OT win over the Detroit Red Wings earlier in the day.

Rangers eliminated in semifinals, 5-2 loss to North Shore Winter Club, from BC. Tough loss, but it was a great week! Merci Quebec!

Recap of the Flyers Game:

Well, after a few days off from competition, the NY Rangers Express was finally back on the main ice at Le Colisee against a well-regarded Flyers squad bolstered by boisterous and some might say, downright cocky, fans. Flyers squad was made up of a lot of Comcast players, supplemented by 2 from the Minutemen, and a couple from the Little/JR Flyers as well. As always, the expectation was for a chippy game from the Flyers.
Today's game followed the Red Wings (aka Little Caesars) thrashing of the Islanders 7-1. The winner of our game plays the Wings tomorrow at 215p.

Finally, the Rangers offense began to get on track today. The scoring started with Christian LeSueur stealing the puck from the Flyers in the neutral zone and outhustling the defense to put a wrister past the goalie on what may have been the first shot of the game - 1-0 Rangers. A mere minute later, the line of Holmes, Mella and Moyle made it 2-0 when Matty Holmes took a feed from Mella and Dimurro and slipped it past the netminder. Tyler Haywood provided solid goaltending all period on the few shots he faced
At the beginning of the second period, at the very end of the Rangers second penalty kill, the Flyers capitalized on a slow line change and scored on a 2 on 1 to make it 2-1. No sooner had your Scribe finished putting pen to paper on their goal, then Alex Mella followed the rebound off a terrific 2 on 1 opportunity with Will Christensen and buried a great wrister past the beleagured Flyers goalie for a 3-1 Rangers lead. This goal resulted in the Flyers pulling their goalie.
Nick Abbruzzese drew the first Flyers penalty for holding after some great stickhandling midway through the second period. The Rangers capitalized on the power play - with LeSueur feeding Petrick who then found Christensen in front of the net for a 4-1 lead.
After a near miss on a Philip Kemp-led 2 on 1, David Farrance took a feed from Nolan Moyle and let loose on blast with 35 secs left that the goalie saved initially, but then lost the handle on his glove and the puck bounced into the net - 5-1 Rangers to end the second
The third period was not our finest effort of the tourney --- the Flyers came out aggressively and kept us bottled up in our zone for the first 2 or 3 minutes of the game before Moyle took advantage of aggressive forechecking and stole the puck from the Flyers D and then drove hard to the net and got one through the five hole to make it 6-1. The Rangers brought in Eric Green to replace Tyler for the final 8 mins or so. Sure enough the Flyers began with the stickwork - the refs called a few penalties but missed a blatant two-fister that knocked the stick out of Will Stephenson's hands in the neutral zone. Flyers scored 2 goals before the end of the period on odd-man rushes where our backchecking was, uh, a bit less intense than it had been in the first and second periods.
Overall, a great win for the team - finally a game with more than two goals for us and an all-around team effort with great forechecking and penalty killing by Josh DeCarolis, Devin Heffernan and Michael Eustace and more controlled neutral zone play, especially by Patrick Burkinshaw
Rangers will face-off against the highly touted Wings on Saturday at 215p - immediately following the winner of the Devils vs. Northshore/ St Louis Blues game(to be played today) - should be a great game.

Many thanks to the Petricks(again) for hosting the film session and making dinner for the team tonight --- let's keep the mojo going.

Apologies above for any missed goals/assists or great plays - I am still interning under the Master Scribe, Ken Burkinshaw.