SALEM — A new round of hockey for the Salem Saints began over the weekend. Many teams faced new opponents as the Valley League again changed up the divisions.
The Salem Mites beat Waltham, 3-2, Saturday afternoon. Waltham opened the scoring and it was immediately answered with a breakaway goal from Mason Drouin.
The third period started with the Mites down a goal, 2-1. Brendan Banks scored to tie the game. Another goal from Joey Carney sealed the win for the Saints.
Patrick Last stayed strong in net, making sure no other goals were scored by the opposition.
The Squirt 1 team also beat Waltham, 3-2. Paddy Capsalis had an outstanding game in net.
On defense, Charlie Beneze, Steve Birch, Kevin Bolio, Nathaniel Cohen and Justin Lamb cleared the puck and held the offensive blue line well.
Landon Krekorian scored two goals and Mason Varcoe picked up his first goal of the season, with assists credited to Aidan Breen, Jon Last and Nick Storniolo.
The Squirts lost their second game of the weekend. Melrose won that game, 3-1.
The first-place Squirt 2s beat second-place Medford, 5-2, on Saturday. They scored goals in all three periods,
Mason Healey scored twice. Thomas DeFelice, Patrick Hare and Jared Tuccolo had one apiece. Assists were credited to Ian Krikorian and Thomas DeFelice.
The team played Burlington Sunday and had to be happy with a tie, 3-3.
PeeWee 1 Saints recorded a shutout against Andover, 3-0, in their only game of the weekend.
Great defense by Connor McCurley, Jake Yennaco, Jimmy Tokanel, Nick Donnelly and goal-tending by Tommy Gillespie preserved the shutout.
Goals were made by Chad Desautels, with two, and Brad Brock. Assists came from Danny Donovan, Nick Brooks and Dom Bruzzese.
The PeeWee 2 team went 0-1-1 on the weekend. First was a tie against Winchester, 1-1. Down 1-0 with only a little more than a minute left in the game, Joey Goudey scored the lone goal, with assistance from Chris Giddings. The team lost to Woburn Sunday, 2-0.
The Bantam 1 boys lost their only game of the weekend to Burlington, 4-1.
The Bantam 2 team tied Lowell, 2-2.
Mike Bellmore set the tone for the Bantam 2s with a nice goal early in the game. Matt Survilas scored the second goal.
The Bantam 3 team went 0-2 last weekend. Their first game against Wakefield was close ending in a loss, 3-2. Their Sunday game turned into a shutout for Wilmington, 5-0.
The Bantam 1 and 3 teams have next weekend off while all the other teams have one game each.
