August 5, 2013 - The four day Empire State Cup tournament concluded Sunday with the New York City team winning their second gold medal after beating Long Island 4-2 in the finals. City goaltenders, Dylan Moser(6s) and Daniel Katzman (7s) were helped by close defensemen John Carrigan and Dom Calistro to keep Long Island scoreless for more than twenty-four minutes.
This was the second running of the tournament which was created as a replacement for the loss of the annual Empire State Games. Organizer, Tony Ventiquattro, announced last week that he intends to continue with the tournament next year irrespective of efforts to revive the ESG in Rochester.
The Western team fell to Central in the bronze medal game after the Syracuse are team took a 7-2 lead at the half. Central dominated at the face off with Andrew Potter winning 19 of 24 and Henry Mann winning 9 of 10. Ryan Cook scored 1g-2a and led the tournament scoring with 12g-7a.
Davis Prince (10g-10a) from Amherst was the high tournament scorer for the Western team who finished with 3 wins and 5 losses. Two of their losses with by one goal (7-6 vs NYC in OT an d10-9 vs Central). Jonathan Perotto (Aquinas) added 7g and Bryan Collister (Greece Lightning) added 4a. Liam Guiton (Penfield) recorded 33 saves for the Western team.
In the consolation round, Hudson Valley beat Adirondack 14-2.
An All-Tournament Team was selected this year.
MVP Joe Licciardi, Midfield, New York City
Attack Ryan Cook, Central Kevin McDermott, Hudson Valley Davis Prince, Western Matt Raffa, Long Island Jason Debenedictis, Long Island Matthew Bennett, Central
Midfield Joe Licciardi, New York City Henry Mann, Central Brian Gaffney, Long Island Bryan Smyth, New York City Andrew Potter, Central Mike Perkins, New York City
Face-Off Michael Calvagna, Long Island
LSM Lazarus Chavez, Hudson Valley Michael Ruane, Long Island
Defense Michael Aronow, Long Island John Carrigan, New York City Dominick Calisto, New York City Nick Nye, Central Forrest Hunt, Long Island
Goalie Riley Smith, Adirondack Liam Guiton, Western
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