Day 1 of the 2025-2026 NJYHL Playoffs is in the books!

16U-A American

The Montclair Blues White team came back from a 3-1 deficit to tie it up late in the 3^rd with a goal by Nicholas Petrino (Vincent Nguyen-Van-Duong), but the Hunterdon Bears came out ahead when Jackson Handler (Ryan Lindower, Aidan Smith) scored the overtime game winner.  Hunterdon’s Aidan Smith had two goals (Austin Antonoff and Luca Povilaitis), and their fourth goal was scored by Jackson Handler (Austin Antonoff).  Montclair’s other goals were scored by Taha Alnachawati (unassisted) and Donovan Davis (Dylan Peterson). 

Top seeded Flyers Youth notched a 3-0 victory with two goals from Luke Tomlinson (Thomas Loutzenhiser and Brody Levine) and one goal from Brady Sherman (Matthew Cole, Connor Falkenstein) and a shutout performance by Ryan Giannini. 

16U-A National

Union Thunder Blue goaltender Samuel Martin pitched a shutout against the Old Bridge Jr Knights, winning 5-0 with a natural hattrick by Daniel Lasco.  Also contributing to the Thunder win were Owen Pipher (1 G, 1 A), Jackson Hyman (1 G, 1 A), and Brett VanBuskirk (1 A).

Nutley Clifton Horse Pirates upset the top seeded Jersey Wolves 5-1, with offensive contributions from Jackson Berliner (1 A), Christian Bot (2 G, 1 A), Ryan Coon (1 A), Brody Follen (1 G), Lucas McGraw (1 G), Mike Sandels (1 G, 2 A) and an outstanding performance by goaltender Alexander Madsen.  The Wolves’ goal was scored by Jair Rodriguez (unassisted).

16U-AA American

Cutting Edge King Cobra Baron Dworzanski (Oliver Bussanich) scored a late goal against the Hunterdon Bears, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Bears’ three-goal lead.  The Bears’ Louis Ferraro led the team with two goals, with additional offensive contributions by Ethan Borkes (2 A), Maxwell Boyce (1 A), Alexander Sales (1 G), and Nicholas Silvestre (1 A).

One seed Princeton Youth Hockey eked out a 2-1 win over 4 seed Union Thunder with the game-winning goal being scored by Brandon Harrison (Tyler Butcher).  Princeton’s other goal was scored by Ryan Kalachik (unassisted), and Union’s goal was scored by Reyansh Khubani (unassisted).  Union goaltender Evan Ramos did his part to keep his team in the game with a 0.974 save percentage.

18U-A

In the most exciting game of the day, the Atlantic City Sharks bested the Hunterdon Bears in quadruple overtime on a goal by Hayden Sarno from Andrei Radkevich.  Atlantic City’s offense was led by Andrei Radkevich (2 G, 1 A), Hayden Sarno (1 G, 1 A), Cooper Olivieri (1 G), and Braydon Karrer (1 A), which Hunterdon’s goals were scored by Liam Orban (Alex Lasiuk, Dylan Kochenour), Joshua Kelco (Dylan Kochenour, Cameron Smekal), and Cameron Smekal (Dylan Kochenour). 

Top seeded Old Bridge Jr Knight Logan Schroeder pitched a shutout against the Montclair Blues.  Lots of Old Bridge players contributed to the win, including Casey Fugere (1 A), Gino Giovannucci (1 A), Christopher Lena (2 G), Dylan Pino (1 A), Dylan Vislocky (1 G, 1 A), Jason Wheeler (1 A), and Seamus Willson (1 A).

18U-AA

Brick Hockey Club 18U-AA took an early 1-0 lead over the Montclair Blues Blue, but Montclair scored 4 unanswered goals for a 4-1 win.  Eight players pitched in offensively for Montclair, including Nicholas Benson (1 A), Michael Capozzi (1 G), Robert Kievit (2 A), Andrew Lisnock (1 A), Keegan Melly (1 G), Shane Melly (1 G), Ryan Montana (1 A), and Jayden Rogers (1 G).

Devils Youth quickly found themselves down 3-0 against a shorthanded Princeton Youth Hockey team, but they came back to win 6-4 with an empty net goal by Shane Posner.  Two of Princeton’s goals were scored by Liam Campbell (Grayson McLaughlin and Anders VanRaalte), with their other two goals being scored by Ryan Garlock (Andrew Cline, Boxuan Wei) and Grayson McLaughlin (Shane Dauria).  Two of Devils Youth’s goals were scored by Charlie Dunn (unassisted and Colin Mullooly), and their other three goals were scored by Nathan Crowley (Michael Cozza), Adrian Canizares (Harry DiNorcia), and Luke Brendle (Peter Psaras).