Rochester Claims Youth Tier 1 18U National Championship
ROCHESTER 4, NJ AVALANCHE 2
“Everything throughout this year is dedicated to the boys and their hard work,” said Kyle Quick, head coach of the 18U Rochester Coalition. “Between the COVID, the traveling and their school work, they have sacrificed so much this year and this is all dedicated to the kids and staff. We appreciate them so much and all-in-all this was the perfect way to end it.”
Shots on goal were 13-4, in favor of the Avalanche after the first period as North Jersey and Rochester were both held scoreless through the first 20 minutes of play.
The Avalanche had a flurry of opportunities on the power play with less than five minutes to go in the first period, but were unable to capitalize.
North Jersey struck first 1:10 into the second period. Ethan Ullrick found the back of the net after Vitaly Levyy passed it back to him right off of the faceoff, giving the Avalanche a 1-0 lead.
Rochester went on to score three-straight goals to take a 3-1 lead. The first goal came from Jared Mangan who buried the puck off of a long pass up the ice from Dane Westen to tie it up 1-1 with 16:21 to play in the second.
Both teams were held scoreless for the remainder of the second period and the score was event at 1-1 going into the third.
Coming out of the intermission, Rochester’s Ryan Walsh scored just over one minute into the period to give the Coalition a 2-1 lead at the beginning of the third. Walsh hammered home a one-timer in the slot right off the faceoff. Westen and Dean Bauchiero picked up assists on the play.
Just over four minutes later, Samuel Deckhut added another to Rochester’s tally. Deckhut intercepted the puck as the Avalanche tried to clear it out of the zone, skated it in and went bar down to make it 3-1 with 14:35 to play in the third.
North Jersey cut Rochester’s lead in half with 8:52 to go in the game, as the recently crowned 16U North Jersey Avalanche team entered the rink to cheer on their Avs counterparts. Connor Sedlak tapped in a rebound in front off of an initial shot from Levyy from below the goal line that kicked out in front.
As time was ticking down with a one-goal game, Ty Broad scored an empty net goal with 24 seconds to play to secure the win, 4-2, for Rochester.
Rochester goaltender Samuel Livecchi registered 22 saves for the Coalition, while North Jersey net minder Daniel Antal made 29 stops for the Avalanche.