Pee Wees Skate To Second In New Hampshire Tournament

The Pee Wee B team of the Western Connecticut Youth Hockey league, with a handful of Newtown players, took home the second-place trophy at the Deep Freeze Tournament in Waterville Valley, N.H., over the Presidents’ Day weekend.

The boys faced off against highly competitive teams from hockey strongholds including Andover, Bridgewater, Fitchburg, and Leominster, Mass. On Saturday the Pee Wees tied their first game, against the South Shore Brewins, and won their next two.

In Sunday’s afternoon final, the Western Connecticut boys played the Twin City Youth Hockey team, which they had defeated earlier in the morning. Despite scoring the first goal on the very first shift of the game, the Western Pee Wees could not regain the momentum and ceded first place to Twin City.

Goaltender Nick Chaloux put up a strong fight and was helped in his defensive efforts by fellow Newtown Middle School seventh grader Sam Cox. Newtown’s Nate Sanchez, Riley Burns, and Matt Pelisson played solidly on offense. Assistant coach Mike Sanchez, of Newtown, rallied the team from the bench.

Thanks to the weekend’s wins, the Pee Wee B team, whose home ice is in Danbury, heads into the end of the season with a stellar record of 29-9-2.