Day 1 Highlights: Shootout, Sweeps, and So Much More at the T1ER East NAHL Experience

The T1ER East NAHL Experience weekend is finally here and it featured a full slate of 18U and 16U matchups at the Hollydell Ice Arena. With exhilarating contests on display here are a few games that had us on the edge of our seats! Click here to see all the results.

18U:

The Philadelphia Hockey Club played host to the Danbury Hat Tricks on Friday afternoon. Both teams heading into the contest were 4-4 on the T1ER season. As both teams were looking to be above .500, the matchup featured the home team securing a decisive 4-1 victory. The contest opened up with Philadelphia Hockey Club’s Charlie Deitz finding the back of the net unassisted midway through the opening frame. Following Deitz, three minutes later, Ryan Frey extended Philadelphia’s lead with an eventual game-winning tally. Heading into the middle frame, the Hat Tricks were down 2-0. At the 10:37 minute mark, Danbury’s Jeffrey Saul finds twine to cut Philadelphia’s lead in half. However, the Hockey Club responded with a power-play tally a little over a minute later. With 2:50 on the clock in the second, Frey scores his second of the game to give Philadelphia a 4-1 lead. The final frame was scoreless with both teams trading chances. Philadelphia secures the victory, looking to extend their winning ways into Saturday.

Looking to open up the weekend with a win, the Philadelphia Little Flyers face the Long Island Arrows in a matinee matchup. This contest spotlighted an offensively prowess Little Flyers roster. The first frame featured a trio of goals by Philadelphia starting at the 9:52 minute mark. Cam Rosenberg finds the back of the net first, followed by Riley Andrews five minutes later. The eventual game winner was decided in the first frame when Michael Cellucci followed up Andrews’ goal with a tally 10 seconds later. The Little Flyers head into the second period with a 3-0 lead. The middle frame kicked off with Philadelphia’s Shane Gleisner tallying his first and second goal of the game within seven minutes of each other. With 1:36 left on the clock, the Little Flyers strike on the penalty kill. Hayden Hoffmaster finds the back of the net, giving Philadelphia a 6-0 lead. The Arrows were able to light the lamp on the man advantage with 12 seconds to spare in the second period. Long Island’s Cam Kalberer scores, looking to build some offensive momentum for his team. The final period saw Long Island find twine once more. Vittorio Marino scores for the Arrows, making the score 6-2. The Little Flyers would skate away with a victory and their first win of the weekend.

16U: 

After suffering a loss earlier in the day, the New Jersey Jr. Titans were hungry to pick up a victory at the Hollydell Ice Arena. The Jr. Titans squared off with the Long Island Gulls and battled from behind. The Long Island Gulls get on the board first and tally a trio of power-play goals in the opening frame. Heading into the second period, the Titans had some work to do. With 14 seconds left in the second frame, the Jr. Titans’ Mathis Vasquez finds the back of the net on the man advantage to cut the deficit 3-1. Heading into the third period, New Jersey got to work. First, Miles Hess finds twine a little over five minutes into the frame, following him a little over a minute later was Vasquez tallying his second of the game. As the contest was tied 3-3, Long Island responded with another power-play goal, this time by Freddie Blakeley. With less than four minutes on the clock, New Jersey’s Hess finds the back of the net unassisted to even the contest 4-4. The Gulls responded two minutes later with Andrew Firth tallying his second of the net, to give Long Island the lead. However, the Jr. Titans were not backing down. New Jersey’s Vasquez finds twine with 47 seconds to spare and notches a hat trick in the process. As the game moved into extra minutes, the Titans were able to come out victorious when Zach Mulholland scored the game-winning goal at the 34-second mark. The Titans win in a 6-5 overtime thriller.

Playing in their home rink, the Philadelphia Hockey Club sweeps the day. The team first secures a big 5-1 victory against the Danbury Hat Tricks in the morning. Four of the five goals scored by the Philadelphia Hockey Club were notched on the power play. Braden Betancourt scored a hat trick with the Philadelphia Hockey Club, while contributing to a goal. He sported a four-point performance in this affair.

​Heading into game two of the day, the Philadelphia Hockey Club was in the hunt to continue their winning ways. The team faced the New York Saints in the afternoon, picking up a 2-0 shutout victory. The contest kicked off with Philadelphia’s Keeghan Middleton finding the back of the net at the 14-minute mark in the opening frame unassisted. The middle period would be scoreless, with both teams trading chances, New York outshooting Philadelphia 10-6. As the game moved into the final frame of play, the Hockey Club would add insurance to the board when Brayden Boucher found the back of the net on the power play. Between the pipes for Philadelphia, Jackson Siefert secured the victory in the blue paint, turning away all 32 shots on net.