NobleKing peewee Knights strike gold

October 28, 2015 · 0 Comments

Congratulations to the NobleKing peewee A team as they captured the gold medal at the Can/Am Challenge Cup in Lake Placid, NY Oct. 22-25.
After the long drive and an emotional opening ceremony in the famed 1980 “Miracle on Ice” arena, where assistant captain Michael Termini had the honour of carrying the tournament torch and lighting the cauldron, the team walked away with a 2-2 tie against a tough Buffalo Bisons team.
This was thanks to a late first period blue line goal from Sam Degli Angeli on a beautiful pass from Cameron Robinson, and a great, late third period goal from Liam McPhillips on a pass from Degli Angeli.
Game two the next day saw the Knights face the Westchester Quakers, who also provided a tough challenge, yet the team was able to eke out a 1-0 win, with Robinson’s goal off a textbook pass from Vincenzo Marra, giving goaltender Steven Selvaggi his first of three shutouts in the tournament.
The young Knights found their stride on Saturday with a solid 3-1 game three win against the Southtown Stars on fantastic pass plays from Robinson to Derek Evangelista; Termini to Aurelio De Rose, and Alex Ayzenberg to Vincent Albanese.
Game three was shortly followed by impressive performances by team members in the skills competition. With their fellow teammates cheering them on, especially injured goaltender Matthew Maniatis, Selvaggi took the runner-up trophy in the Shoot-Out Challenge, while skaters Owen Clark, Aurelio De Rose, Anthony Macedo, and Ryan Dimitroff dominated both the preliminary and final heats of their relay competition to capture the trophy.
Immediately following the skills competition, each member of the team recorded points on the game sheet of their final round robin game, including a couple of assists from Christopher Petrungaro to Albanese, to give NobleKing a punishing 7-0 win against the Pickering Panthers. This gave the Knights a berth in the gold medal game on Sunday where they would again face the Buffalo Bisons.
The Knights took advantage of an early power play in the first minute of the championship game, as Macedo sent a rocket from the point top shelf past the strong Bison goaltender off of a perfect pass from Termini, giving the Knights the lead. Both teams battled heavily for the rest of the period yet the score remained 1-0 at the first intermission.
A few minutes into the second period, Robinson posted his team-leading fifth point of the tournament on a beautiful goal from tape to tape passes from Clark and Degli Angeli, to give the Knights a 2-0 lead. With a minute and a half left in the second period, Termini took advantage of a big rebound off of another Macedo shot from the point to give NobleKing a 3-0 lead. This lead would be threatened in the last minute of the second period as a couple of Knights were sent to the penalty box, giving the Bisons a 5-on-3 power play for the remainder of the period and for the beginning of the third.
Selvaggi’s hot glove and strong defensive plays by all of the penalty killers frustrated the Bisons who were unable to capitalize on their two-man advantage. The Knights’ lead was again threatened with five minutes remaining in the game, as the Bisons were given yet another 5-on-3 power play, however, the Knights held their ground and never looked back as they treated their boisterous parents and siblings in the stands with an exciting win to capture the gold medal.
Congratulations to all of the players and to their amazing coaches, Rob De Rose, Dan Dimitroff, Joseph Petrungaro, Tory Termini, and Domenic Albanese, on striking gold in Lake Placid.