Grey Sabres finish 2-1-1 against Canadian neighbors

Amherst Youth Hockey once again hosted the annual Friendship Tournament with teams from Canada. The Mite Grey Sabres ended play with a record of 2-1-1.

The Grey Sabres opened with a 3-2 win over Burlington. They started with a quick 3-0 lead with goals by Noah Rienhart, Racheal DePerio and Tommy Ruggiero, his first career goal. Burlington battled back with goals by Ben Varga and Danielle Bachnein.

In the final seconds, Burlington pressured the Grey Sabres but Chris Baker made three saves as time expired to preserve the win.

Later, the Grey Sabres and Lorne Park 31 played to a 3-3 tie. Both teams played hard. The lead was never more than one goal.

Zach Perelstein, Zach Hurrell and Baker had the Grey Sabres' tallies. Samuel Smith had two goals and Jack Austerberry scored with less than two minutes to play to dead lock the contest.

On Sunday morning, the Grey Sabres busted out with an 8-1 win over Burlington. Perelstein led the Grey Sabres offensively and defensively. He scored twice, as did David Balk, his first career goal, DePerio, Baker and Scott Daigler. Adam Higgins played great in net but Matt Jeyonte broke the shutout with a late tally.

The Grey Sabres then dropped a thriller to Lorne Park 32. Amit Gulati made many great saves to keep the Grey Sabres in it. Hurrell opened the scoring and Perelstein made it 2-0. Shane Blinco quickly scored twice and followed by Ryan Davies to make it 3-2 by the end of two.

Perelstein added his second to tie it at 3-3 but Kevin Booth and Blinco, who had a hat trick, scored in the third.

A furious effort with the goalie pulled gave the Grey Sabres some chances but Marco Pavicic was able to keep the Grey Sabres off the board.

The Grey Sabres' success was a team effort. Alexandra Burch, Isaac Nueman and Brendan Limburg all stepped up their games to help the team.