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Kreiser's
Korner KREISER’S KORNER (March 24, 2005) Finishing in first place during the regular season was no guarantee of playoff success in Floral Park Screaming Eagles Hockey during the 2004-05 season. Only one of the three division winners skated home with the playoff championship. In the Junior Division, the Green Gardens Kings rode a powerhouse offense to a first-place finish. Scoring leader Bryan Collins (32 goals, 26 assists, 58 points) and runner-up Andrew Gateson (24-23-47) fueled an attack that rolled up 96 goals, 43 more than any other team. The Kings got at least one point in 14 of their 15 games, losing only once in regulation, though they dropped three overtime decisions. But the runner-up The Equipment Room Maple Leafs had the Kings’ number in the finals, winning the third and deciding game 6-2 to skate off with the championship. Joe Penteck scored three goals in Game 3 as the Leafs raced to an early 3-0 lead, allowed two tallies in the middle period, but put the game away with three more tallies in the final period. Goaltender Thomas Fangman made 25 saves. The Leafs had rolled to a 7-3 victory in the opening game of the series behind two goals and three assists by Keith Dunbar. They appeared poised for a sweep when they took 1-0 and 2-1 leads in the second contest, but Kevin Dunbar’s three goals and one assist sparked the Kings as they rallied for a series-tying 6-2 victory. The Kings had rolled through the first round of the playoffs, sweeping two games from the V&A Gourmet Deli Red Wings. The Wings jumped out to an early lead in the decisive game on a goal by Kevin Breen, but Collins poured in five goals as the Kings rolled to an 11-1 victory. The Leafs were tested twice in their semifinal series by the Floral Park Motor Lodge Bruins, but rallied for 2-1 and 4-3 victories. The Bruins took the lead in the opener on a goal by Bobby Pizzuro early in the second period, but Matt Brzoza tied the game in the final minute of the period and Penteck scored the game-winner with 2:32 left in regulation. The Leafs took an early 3-1 lead in the second game before Tim McQuade scored twice for the Bruins to even the score. But Penteck sent his team to the finals by scoring the game-winner with 13:52 remaining to complete a hat trick. In the Bantam Division, the Jameson Bruins came on strong down the stretch to claim the regular-season title, then rallied again to take home the playoff championship. Led by the high-scoring duo of Vinny Prizzi (41-9-50) and Nick Reda (30-13-43), the Bruins finished with just one regulation loss during the regular season, though they dropped four overtime decisions. That was enough to put the B’s comfortably in front of the Floral Park PBA Maple Leafs and DePhillips Sports Red Wings, who tied for second place. The Bruins were tested in their playoff opener, as the Con-Kel Landscaping Flyers twice rallied from two-goal deficits to pull even at 4-4 late in the third period. Joe Monahan scored twice in the final period to pull the Flyers even, but with overtime looming, Reds scored on a breakaway with 43 seconds left for a 5-4 victory. Prizzi had four goals and Reds added three to power the Bruins to an 8-3 win in the series clincher. Matt Watts, the leading scorer in all divisions (64-11-75), powered the Red Wings into the finals. He connected for six goals in the opener as the Wings rolled to a 7-4 victory. Mike Tangredi had a pair of goals for the Leafs, who got as close as 4-3 early in the third period before Watts scored three times to put the game away. Watts had four more tallies in the clincher, a 6-3 victory. A. J. Morena had a pair of goals for the Leafs, but Andrew Setaro stopped 24 shots to send his team to the championship round. Watts came up big again in the opening game of the final, scoring with 3:19 remaining in overtime to give the Wings a 4-3 victory. But the Bruins got a spark in the second game from Kevin McCarthy, who stepped in as goaltender when the regular starter was unavailable and made 21 stops as the Bruins rolled to an 11-4 victory. Prizzi scored six times and Reda had four goals and three assists. Watts scored three times but was denied on at least a half-dozen wide-open chances. The Bruins’ high-scoring ways and McCarthy’s solid goaltending continued in the third and deciding game. Prizzi and Reda each scored four times and McCarthy made 17 saves to give the B’s the championship with a 10-7 victory. Watts had four goals for the Wings, but it wasn’t enough. In the Pee Wee Division, the Associated Foods Flyers were nearly invincible during the regular season, rolling to an 11-1-1 record. But after sweeping the Oppenheimer Bruins in the semifinals, the Flyers came up short in the finals, losing to the Ciro’s Pizzeria Maple Leafs in a pair of close games. The one-two punch of Chris St. Clair and Adam Cieslewicz , each of whom finished the regular season with 24 goals and 12 assists for 36 points and a share of the scoring title, powered the Flyers to a sweep over the Bruins in the semifinals. St. Clair and Matt Szala each scored three times in the opener as the Flyers rolled to a 10-2 victory. Jake Seide and Gerard Farrell scored for the Bruins. The Flyers had to work a lot harder for the clincher. Cieslewicz gave the regular-season champs an early lead, but Farrell’s power-play goal early in the second period evened the score. Cieslewicz scored again later in the period, and goaltender Conor Power preserved the lead for a 2-1 victory. Dominick Roberge excelled in net for the Bruins, keeping his team in the game with 25 saves. The Leafs had to go the limit to win their semifinal series. Scott Naab had three goals and an assist in the opener as the Leafs held off the North Fork Bank Red Wings 4-3. The winners led 4-1 with less than two minutes to play, but had to hang on after the Wings rallied on goals by Connor Vidasolo and Katie Sweeney. In the second game, the roles were reversed, with the Wings scoring early and hanging on for a 4-3 victory. Zach Chilelli had a pair of goals for the Wings and set up Kevin Lavelle for what proved to be the game-winner late in the final period. Doyle was the star in the third and deciding game, stopping all 18 shots he faced before his teammates came up with a pair of late goals for a 2-0 victory. Doyle and Kevin Konzelman went save-for-save until Timothy Drake scored with less than five minutes to play. Naab added an insurance goal with 16 seconds remaining. Doyle continued his excellent play in the finals, allowing just two goals in two games as the Leafs skated to 3-1 and 4-1 victories. Szala gave the Flyers the lead in the opener, but Doyle was flawless the rest of the way, and Naab set up goals by Drake and Ryan Glynn to give his team the lead. Jocelyn Penteck, the division’s top playmaker with 19 assists, added an insurance goal. Szala also gave his team an early lead in Game 2, but again the Leafs shook off the early deficit. Penteck tied the game late in the first period, Naab put the Leafs ahead with 11:35 remaining in regulation, and added assists on late goals by Drake and Alex Meisel. In the Squirt Division, where playoffs are not held, the Allstate Insurance Maple Leafs held off a challenge from the Gebhardt’s Restaurant Red Wings to finish first. The race went down to the final game of the season, with the Leafs coming out on top thanks to a season-ending 4-2 victory over The Equipment Room Flyers. Connor Vidasolo, the division’s top scorer (43-1-44) had four goals for the winners, offsetting a pair of tallies by Matt Sweeney. The Wings had their chance for a share of the top spot, but the Con-Kel Landscaping Bruins had other ideas. Andrew Prizzi and Anthony Gibbons each had a pair of goals as the Bruins skated home with a 6-2 victory. Logan Pietroforte added a pair of assists as the Bruins scored six unanswered goals after spotting the Wings an early 1-0 lead on a goal by Chris St. Clair. Nick Konzelman kept the Wings off the board until St. Clair scored again with just two seconds left to play.
Kreiser’s Korner (through Dec. 22)
The one-two punch of Bryan Collins and Andrew Gateson has the Green Gardens Kings closing in on a first-place finish in the Junior Division of Floral Park Screaming Eagles hockey. Collins tops all scorers with 34 points (17 goals and 17 assists), while Gateson is second with 31 points (17-14-31). Gateson was at his best in the Kings’ final game before the holiday break, scoring three goals, including the equalizer, in a 6-6 tie with the V&A Gourmet Deli Red Wings. Gateson’s power-play goal with 1:44 left in regulation gave the Kings a point in a game in which they never led the last-place Wings. Henry Hughes had a four-goal night for the Wings, who ended a six-game losing streak. Though they reached the holiday break with a division-leading 17 points, the Kings haven’t had it easy. They’ve lost just once in regulation, but have played two ties and dropped three games in overtime, including their next-to-last contest before the break, a 3-2 loss to The Equipment Room Maple Leafs. Joe Penteck’s second goal of the game at 49 seconds of OT gave the Leafs the win. But one night later, the Leafs’ offense came up short in a 2-1 loss to the Floral Park Motor Lodge Bruins, who got third-period goals from Tim McQuade and Mike Weiss to break a scoreless tie, then hung on for the win as goaltender Steve Maturo made 17 saves. The victory put the Bruins into second place with 15 points, two behind the Kings and two ahead of the Leafs. The Wings are last with eight points.
The Bantam Division is a free-for-all, with all four teams reaching the holiday break within four points of one another. The Jameson’s Bruins got to the break in first place despite winning only four of their nine games. But the B’s lost only once in regulation – they’ve dropped four overtime decisions, which earned them a point in each game. Two of the losses came to the Con-Kel Landscaping Flyers in a three-day span in early December. Michael Carleo scored with 2:01 left in OT for a 4-3 victory to break up a goaltending duel between the Flyers’ Matt Kreiser and the Bruins’ Chris Kryda. Two days later, Joe Monahan’s goal at 1:41 of overtime gave the Flyers a 10-9 victory. The Bruins got even in their next meeting, pounding the Flyers 9-3 behind Vin Prizzi and Nick Reda, who scored three times each. But they dropped their final pre-holiday game, again in overtime, losing 2-1 to the Floral Park PBA Maple Leafs. The DePhillips Sports Red Wings capped an up-and-down pre-Christmas schedule on an up note with a 6-5 victory over the Flyers, giving them a 5-4-0-0 record and tying them with the Maple Leafs for second place, two points behind the Bruins. Division scoring leader Matt Watts had five goals for the Wings, giving him 48 in just nine games. He also leads all scorers with 58 points. Monahan is second in both categories with 27 goals and 32 points.
In the Pee Wee Division, the Associated Foods Flyers have moved out to a commanding lead thanks to the high-scoring trio of Adam Cieslewicz, Chris St. Clair, and Matt Szala. Cieslewicz and St. Clair are tied for the scoring lead with 28 points (19 goals, 9 assists each), while Szala is fourth with 14-9 for 23 points. Tim Conway of the North Fork Bank Red Wings is third with 17 goals and 26 points. The Flyers haven’t lost since dropping a 9-6 decision to the Ciro’s Pizzeria Maple Leafs on Nov. 7, their second game of the season. They made it seven wins in a row and improved to 8-1-0-0 overall with a 4-1 victory over the Oppenheimer Bruins. Both the winning streak and the overall record are tops in any division this season. The Leafs posted an impressive 5-2-1 pre-holiday ledger despite a disappointing 8-5 loss to the Red Wings in their final game before the break. The Leafs have been sparked by the play of goaltender Conor Doyle, who’s tops in the Pee Wees with a 3.14 goals-against average. Despite their 3-5-0 record, the Red Wings have gotten a lot of offense (44 goals). But they’ve surrendered 42, almost as many as the last-place Bruins, who have gotten 12 of their 24 goals from Jake Seide.
The Gebhardts Restaurant Red Wings, the co-leaders in the Squirt Division, are the only team at any level of the league that went through the pre-Christmas portion of the schedule without a loss. The Wings went 5-0-3 in their first eight games. One of those ties was a 4-4 draw with the Allstate Insurance Maple Leafs, who share the top spot with the Wings. Conor Vidasolo of the Leafs and Chris St. Clair of the Wings had three goals apiece for their teams, with St. Clair earning a point for his team when he scored with 1:46 to play. The two players are running away with the scoring race. Vidasolo has 29 goals and 30 points to 23 goals and 25 points for St. Clair. Though they’ve struggled somewhat, both The Equipment Room Flyers and the Con-Kel Landscaping Bruins had their memorable moments. The Bruins rallied for a 4-4 tie with the Wings as Anthony Gibbons got the tying goal with 4:04 to play. The Flyers got their lone win early in December by beating the Bruins 3-2, as Matt Sweeney’s goal with 1:06 to play turned out to be the game-winner. That was payback for an earlier 3-1 victory by the Bruins.
Kreiser’s Korner (through 11-28) By John Kreiser Juniors Division The Floral Park Screaming Eagles’ season is off to a fast start, and so are the Green Gardens Kings, who’ve jumped out to the lead in the Junior Division by going unbeaten in regulation time through their first seven games. Led by the league-leading scoring duo of Bryan Collins and Andrew Gateson, the Kings went 5-0-0 with two overtime losses in their first seven games. Collins is tops with 13 goals and 23 points through November 28, while Gateson is tied for the goal-scoring lead with Henry Hughes of the V&A Gourmet Deli Red Wings at 11. Collins helped the Kings cap off the pre-Thanksgiving portion of their schedule by beating the Red Wings 6-3. Collins’ second goal of the game broke a 3-3 tie with 12:14 to play, and he finished the night with two goals and three assists. Mike Mulhall added three goals for the Kings and Desmond Zantua stopped 21 shots. The victory was revenge for the Kings’ first OT loss, a 10-9 shootout that saw each team each team blow leads on five occasions before Hughes scored his sixth goal of the night, beating Zantua on a breakaway with 2:19 left in the extra period for the game-winner. The Floral Park Motor Lodge Bruins also handed the Kings an overtime loss, rallying from a 2-0 deficit for a 3-2 victory. Tim McQuade scored a pair of third-period goals to force the overtime, then set up Ryan Oswald for the game-winner with 1:10 left in the extra session. The Bruins were a victim of a comeback in the only tie in the division during the first month, as the Wings overcame a 4-0 deficit to gain a 5-5 tie. Kevin White’s screen shot with 37 seconds left in regulation capped the Red Wings’ comeback, which was fueled by three goals from Kevin Breen. That comeback came one night
after The Equipment Room Maple Leafs used a comeback of their own to beat the
Wings, 4-3. The Leafs trailed 3-1 with less than seven minutes remaining, but
goals by Joe Penteck and Matt Brzoza tied the score before Sean Greene won it
with 1:18 to play. Offense has been plentiful in the Bantam Division, where a balanced attack has led the Jamesons Bruins to first place in the early going. Featuring three of the top six scorers in Vinny Prizzi, Nick Reda, and Kevin McCarthy, the Bruins won their first three games before losing a 6-5 overtime decision to the Floral Park PBA Maple Leafs in their last pre-Thanksgiving game. A.J. Morena’s goal with 2:31 remaining in the extra period gave the Maple Leafs the victory after Mike Tangredi’s goal with 48 seconds left in regulation forced the overtime. Before that, Prizzi’s four goals carried the Bruins to their third consecutive victory, an 8-4 triumph over the Con-Kel Landscaping Flyers. Reda added three goals to help overcome a three-goal effort by the Flyers’ Joe Monahan. The hottest scorer in the Bantams is Matt Watts of the DePhillips Sports Red Wings, with 25 goals and 30 points in four games. Watts had the best individual performance in any division with an eight-goal, one-assist night against the Bruins, but the Wings dropped a 12-9 decision as McCarthy scored four times and Prizzi and Reda each had three. The only team to slow down Watts was the Maple Leafs, who limited him to three goals and rallied for a 4-3 victory. Morena matched Watts with three tallies, including the game-winner with 3:21 left in regulation. The Flyers got their victory
with a 7-4 triumph over the Maple Leafs. Monahan had four goals for the winners,
while Morena scored twice for the Leafs. Conor Doyle made 18 saves for the
victory. In the Pee Wee Division, the high-scoring trio of Matt Szala, Adam Cieslewicz, and Chris St. Clair has the Associated Foods Flyers off to a fast start, with five wins in their first six games. The three combined for all of their team’s offense in their last pre-holiday game, a 9-6 victory over the Oppenheimer Bruins. Each had three goals, helping the Flyers overcome three tallies from Jake Seide and two by Jimmy Lowe. The only team to beat the Flyers were the Ciro’s Pizzeria Maple Leafs, who scored three times in a 77-second span late in the third period to ice a 10-6 victory. Scott Naab had five goals and Jocelyn Penteck added three as the Leafs raced to an early 6-1 lead and then hung on. The Flyers got as close as 7-6 as Cieslewicz scored three times and Szala added two to lead the comeback. The best defensive contest was a 2-2 tie between the Maple Leafs and Bruins in which all four goals were scored in the final period. Kevin D’Amico’s goal with 5:32 remaining gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead, but Naab gave his side a point when he scored with 2:03 remaining. The North Fork Red Wings won
only two of their first five games despite a pair of five-goal efforts by Tim
Conway. He had five tallies in each of the Wings’ victories, 10-4 and 7-4
triumphs over the Bruins. Conway also had a pair against the Flyers, but
Cieslewicz scored three as the Flyers prevailed, 6-4. Chris St. Clair’s scoring has been a key to the early success of the Gebhardt’s Restaurant Red Wings, the early leaders in the Squirt Division. St. Clair had five goals in the season-opener as the Red Wings outscored the Allstate Insurance Maple Leafs, 8-5. Conor Vidasolo had all five goals for the Leafs in the wide-open game. Vidasolo had four goals for the Leafs in their meeting with the Con-Kel Landscaping Bruins, enough to carry his team to a 4-1 victory. Timothy Drake’s goal enabled the Bruins to avert a shutout. Drake’s two-goal performance helped the Bruins to their first victory, a 3-1 victory over The Equipment Room Flyers. In the division’s only tie, the Red Wings had to rally for a 3-3 deadlock with the Flyers. Conor Quail’s goal with 10:35 remaining in regulation gave the Flyers the lead, but Patrick Scott’s third goal of the night with 8:16 remaining gave the Wings a hard-earned point. Scott also took a turn in goal and earned a shutout in a 3-0 victory over the Bruins. The Leafs’ Kevin Troy posted the division’s other shutout, stopping 18 shots in a 1-0 triumph over the Flyers. Kreisers Korner
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