Atlantic Youth Hockey League

Comcast with Midget Minor Sweep to Open

Release Date : 8/25/2014

EAST MEADOW, NY – Forward Evan Barratt (’99 birth year/Bristol, PA) had five goals and a pair of assists and forward Matthew Cassidy (’99 birth year/Medford, NJ) had four goals and four assists as Team Comcast Midget Minor (National) swept a pair of games from the Long Island Gulls, 8-3 and 7-5 at the Twin Rinks Ice Center at Eisenhower Park this past weekend. The two games unofficially kicked off the Atlantic Youth Hockey League’s 2014-15 season.

Barratt opened the scoring with his first goal of the weekend at 4:23 of the first period. After scoring 32 goals at the Bantam Major level in ’13-’14, Barratt would add a pair of goals in the second period to complete the natural hat trick.

After the Gulls cut into the Comcast lead with a late first period goal by Christopher Garbe (’99 birth year/Miller Place, NY), Comcast rattled off six straight goals to put the game out of reach.

Jonathan Bendorf (’99 birth year/Yardville, NJ) contributed two goals and four assists in the rout.

Vincenzo Capezza (’99 birth year/Bayside, NY) made 29 saves in a losing effort.

In game two, Garbe opened up the scoring for the Gulls and Johnny Barbieri (’99 birth year/East Setauket, NY) added a first period goal to stake the Gulls to a 2-0 lead, but Barratt and Cassidy teamed up for four goals over the final two periods to rally Team Comcast to take the second game of the two-game series.

Kyle Weller (’98 birth year/Langhorne, PA), Caelan Briere (’98 birth year/Haddonfield, NJ) and Demetrios Stefanou (’98 birth year/Tabernacle, NJ) had goals in the victory.

Garbe added a second goal for the Gulls to push the game to a 3-1 margin. The game would reach a 4-2 score when Comcast made the decision to change goaltenders and the Gulls promptly added a fifth goal before Comcast ran off five straight goals, two coming from Cassidy.

The two teams battled for the AYHL Midget Minor crown last year and are again expected to be among the teams at the top this year.

“A pair of good games coming from one of our best divisions,” AMHL President Gene Palecco said. “We can expect games of this quality all season long.”