The 10-and-under Peconic Wildcat ice hockey team, coached by Jason Craig, played Saturday and Sunday at the Buckskill Winter Club here and won both games, improving to 9-0 in league play. Although, “because we can’t play as many games as the teams up the Island do, we’ll need to win most of our remaining league games to make the playoffs,” Chris Minardi, the scorekeeper, said in an email Monday.
He added that “the top four teams make the playoffs, and at present we are about 8 points behind the third and fourth-place teams. If we run the table, we can get 16 more points, which I think we can do, but it’s going to be close.”
The 10-and-unders, “with everyone scoring at least one goal,” defeated the Great Neck Bruins 19-2 at Buckskill on Saturday, outshooting the UpIsland opponents 28-7. Grady Craig led the way with four goals. Hunter Harrington and James Petrocelli each had three, and Cam Minardi had two.
Sunday’s game was almost as lopsided, with the Wildcats outscoring the Freeport Enforcers 9-1. In that one, the Wildcats outshot the opponents 26-6. Harrington and Craig each found the nets twice; Minardi had one goal and three assists; Luca Pisano had a goal, and Evan Goldstein had three assists.
The next scheduled home game, as of this writing, is with the Long Beach Lightning on Feb. 5, “though there might be more games scheduled” in the meantime, Minardi said.
Other home games are scheduled for Feb. 11 with the Freeport Arrows and the Long Island Kings, a nonleague opponent, and on Feb. 12 with the New York City Skyliners, who play in Flushing and Long Island City, and with the Long Island Whalers of Syosset.
The playoffs are to be contested over the Feb. 18-19 weekend at the Aviator Sports and Events Center in Brooklyn.