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ChadderÂ’s U16 and New Zealand U18 National Team Play Two Exhibition Games

The ChadderÂ’s U16 team squared off with the New Zealand National Team for two exhibition games this past week. The games were played as preparation games for New Zealand, as they head to the World Championships in Mexico City.

The first game was played Monday night at West Valley Accord in front of a solid home town crowd. Chadder’s jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. Henri Laurilla started out the scoring on the first shift of the game. Chase McDonald added two goals, and Dom Lancaster added another to round out the first period scoring for Chadder’s . New Zealand came out in the second and scored right away to cut the lead to 4 – 1. However, Chadder’s was not about to let this game slip away. The second period was all about scoring for the defensemen. Zack Taylor and Tory Cigana both had second period goals, and after two periods Chadder’s had mounted a 6 – 1 lead. The third period was much of the same as Chadder’s added two more goals. Doug Newell scored early in the third on a pretty little move in front, and Tory Cigana added his second goal on the night as he beat the New Zealand goaltender with a laser wrist shot high glove. Cooper O’Bryan and Laurilla led the passing attack with two assists each, while Cigana, Johansson, Berard, Crandall, Ziegler, McDonald, and Howard each had one. Chadder’s goaltender Daniel Nelson also played a solid game stopping 23 of 24 shots.

Game two on Wednesday was a hard fought game, played at the Olympic Oval in Kearns, UT. Again on this night Chadder’s jumped out to an early lead on a goal from Ian Crandall. Later in the first JJ Ziegler added a goal to make it a 2 – 0 game. New Zealand added a goal late in the first to cut Chadder’s lead in half, and the score was 2 -1 in favor of Chadder’s after one period. The second period was an up and down battle with great goaltending from both teams. Chadder’s goalie Hayden Capouzzo played a good second period in order to preserve the one goal lead. In the third period Chadder’s forward Tom Johansson added two nice one timer goals. New Zealand tied its best to mount a comeback, but fell short. Chadder’s defenseman Ian Anderson added a late third period power play goal, and that sealed the game as a 5 – 2 victory for Chadder’s. Again in this game Henri Laurilla led the passing attack with two assists, while Brown, Ziegler, Newell, O’Bryan, and McDoanld each had one.

The games turned out to be great preparation for both teams. New Zealand is taking this momentum down to Mexico City, and ChadderÂ’s is going to take this success and help build towards Southern California and ultimately Regionals.

-Adam Kostichka