The West Have Blue Devils faced the New Canaan Rams last night for the 2021/22 hockey season opener, the Devils played at New Canaan (Darien Ice House) to mark their first road game of the season. Blue Devil fans came out strong last night, taking the hour long bus ride to the rink in support of the team as they start their brand new campaign.
The Rams came in as back-to-back champions, it was gunna be a tough game for the Blue Devils who were only winners of five last season. Folks, if you just looked at the final score of a New Canaan 4-0 shutout win then you wouldn't think West Haven played well and that they have defensive problems, but that's not the case. All four of the Rams goals came within the first three minutes of play as mainly cheap shots in my opinion, West Haven was caught off guard off the get-go and the Rams struck big. Each Period is 15 minutes to equal up to 45 minutes total, West haven played shutout hockey with outstanding defense for about 42 of those minutes.
Javed Ullah made his first career start and it happened to be against one of the best teams in Connecticut high school hockey, Ullah ended up with 23 saves on the night and frankly was commanding in the later half of the 1st and beginning of the 2nd. Fans were chanting Ullah’s name along with others throughout the game, sadly the rallies fell short as West Haven receives their first lost of the season as they look to get at .500% on Wednesday against Xavier. I want to add that West Haven clearly had the best defense out there after those first several minutes of the game and the offense shined bright at times but several early shooting attempts resulting in opposition saves could have been avoided if the players got closer before letting the puck go, having those shots turn into goals.
New York Sports Show-West Haven Player of The Game: Anthony Peschell