Squirts Win Western Mass Freeze Out Hockey Tournament

The Squirt B team of the Western Connecticut Youth Hockey League, which includes four Newtown players, took home the first-place trophy at the Western Massachusetts Freeze Out Tournament held at the Mullins Sports Complex, UMASS, Amherst, over the Martin Luther King Weekend.

Newtown skaters who helped the team to the title are defensemen Adam Gay and Nathan Torre-Tasso, left wing Justin Moore, and right wing Thomas Phaneuf. The Newtown players contributed goals and/or assists in all four games of the tourney. On Friday evening’s game, Reed Intermediate School fifth-grader Thomas Phaneuf, had an assist but the team fell 5-3 in the only loss of the tourney verses Needham, MA.

In Saturday morning’s game, the team bested Clifton Park, NY with Reed Intermediate School fifth-grader Justin Moore contributing two assists, Phaneuf scoring a goal and adding an assist, and Nathan Torre-Tasso also scoring a goal. In Saturday afternoon’s win over Amherst, MA Torre-Tasso contributed assists on both of the two goals of the game, as the team advanced to the finals.

The championship game on Sunday morning was a rematch with Needham. Moore energized the local team by scoring the first goal of the game midway through the second period. Phaneuf contributed an assist shortly thereafter, and Gay, a Sandy Hook School fourth-grader, rocketed the last puck into the net in a 4-2 win.

With the team’s second tournament win of the year, the skaters are excited to finish the remaining weeks of the season strongly as they head into a state championship run.