EJEPL Midget Divisions Playoff Recap

What an amazing weekend of playoff action for the Midget Divisions. Huge congratulations to all the 2024-2025 Midget Champions! A big thank you to all the teams and venues for making this EJEPL season such a success. Be sure to check out the recap to see which teams took home the championship titles in the 15U - 18U Diamond and Futures Divisions. What a way to cap off the season!

15U Diamond

The Nassau County Lions came out strong and beat the Long Beach Lightning in the first two games of the best of three game mini-series to earn themselves the championship. #71 Caleb Cohen scored two of the three goals unassisted in the second game for the Lions and although both games were close, the Lions came out on top to become the champions.

16U Diamond 1

The Long Beach Lightning and the Long Island Gulls earned a first-round bye and sat back to watch the quarterfinals to see who they would meet in the semis. The Mid-Hudson Polar Bears took on Capitals Academy in an exciting quarters match up. Both teams scored twice in the first period and required overtime to decide the winner of this one. The Polar Bears scored the game winning overtime goal and were set to face the Long Beach Lightning in the semis. Snider Hockey faced off with Genesis Hockey Club in the other quarterfinal matchup and beat them by a score of 7 to 2 moving themselves on to the semis to meet the Long Island Gulls. On to the semis! The Long Beach Lightning really came out strong, setting the tone early against the Mid-Hudson Polar Bears and keeping control the whole game. Scoring from five different players showed the depth of their team and a true team win. And then, the Long Island Gulls showed some serious grit, rallying with three unanswered goals against Snider Hockey to earn their shot at the title. The finals really lived up to the hype with the top two seeds facing off! The Long Beach Lightning took a 5-1 victory over the Gulls, with #11Jack Petrone contributing two goals for the Lightning to become the champions.

16U Diamond 2

The 16U Diamond 2 semifinals matchups featured the Delco Phantoms - Charbonneau versus the Long Island Edge and the Delco Phantoms - Reid versus the Loudoun Knights. The Edge took an early two goal lead in the first period and even though Delco Phantoms - Charbonneau fought back scoring two of their own in the second, the Edge added two more to get the win and move on. The Loudoun Knights came out strong against the Delco Phantoms - Reid with #7 Max Vohralik scoring a hat-trick as his team was moving on. The finals were set and the Long Island Edge showed their strength, securing the win with two unanswered goals against the Knights. #33 Jake Sylvia stepped up scoring the only two goals and helped his team bring home the championship.

16U Futures 1

The quarterfinals kicked off with the Baltimore Stars against the Long Island Kings. After a tied up first period, it was the Kings who found the back of the net in the second, pulling ahead and securing the win to earn a shot at the top-seeded Nassau County Lions in the semifinals.

The next quarter matchup was a game that went down to the wire with the Great Neck Bruins against the Central Penn Panthers. A hard fought battle back and forth led to overtime where the Bruins earned the win, with the help of a hat-trick from #34 Jake Simeon. The Bruins would go on to the semis to face the top-seeded Triad Storm. This division was strong, with the first semifinal game also needing overtime to determine the winner. The Long Island Kings and the Nassau County Lions found themselves tied at two a piece at the end of regulation. The Lions showed their top-seeded strength by pulling through with the game-winning goal in overtime, keeping their title hopes alive. And for the other semis, the Great Neck Bruins battled the Triad Storm and although tied at one after the first, the Storm kept scoring and came out on top to move on to the finals. The championship of the two top-seeds was a thrilling one in a high scoring matchup of both the Nassau County Lions - special shoutout to #29 Michael Forker and #16 Jaden Garcia both scoring two goals a piece - and Triad Storm - special shoutout to #55 Anthony Marasco scoring two goals and #80 Braxton Camacho scoring a hat-trick. Both teams competed hard and were tied at the end of regulation, but ultimately overtime crowned the Nassau County Lions the winner becoming the division Champions.

16U Futures 2

The New York Stars beat the Pelham Pelicans in a play-in game to claim their spot in a semifinal matchup against the Delaware Jr. Blue Hens. The first semifinal game had the Peconic Wildcats coming out hot scoring six goals, including two by #97 Luke Raeihle and a hat-trick by #14 Luke Buck, getting the win against the Long Island Sharks. Next up, the New York Stars took on the Delaware Jr. Blue Hens. The Blue Hens scored three unanswered in the first and although the Stars battled back in the second, they were one short and the Blue Hens moved on to compete for the title. Continuing their scoring momentum into the finals, the Blue Hens outscored the Peconic Wildcats 5 to 2, with two of those goals scored by #11 Evan Finnicum and crowned themselves the champions of the 16U Futures 2 division.

18U Diamond 1

Snider Hockey and the Long Beach Lightning faced off in the first semifinal with a close game ultimately decided by a one goal lead by Snider who got the win and the chance to fight for the title. The other semifinal matchup had the Nassau County Lions defeat the New York Stars - the first period saw no goals but the Lions got two in the second that went unanswered and had them moving on. Snider Hockey came in scoring in the finals against the Nassau County Lions, with #16 Owen Myers scoring two goals in the second period. Although the Lions tried to answer back, Snider outscored them 5-2 to win the championship game.

18U Diamond 2

Top-seeded Genesis Hockey Club and the Long Island Kings, who earned a bye to the semis, watched closely as the quarterfinal matchups unfolded. The New York City Cyclones played a close game decided by one goal against the Long Island Edge as the Cyclones came out on top. And the Mid-Hudson Polar Bears shutout the Richmond Generals Selects, shoutout to #10 Ryan Wicker of the Polar Bears for scoring two of the four goals, to move on to the semis. Both semifinal games were decided by a one goal lead. First up, top-seed Genesis Hockey Club beat the Polar Bears 4 to 3 and were on their way to the finals, while the New York City Cyclones (with two of the four goals being scored by #68 Max Miller), upset the top-seeded Long Island Kings with a 4 to 3 victory. Although they fought hard to get there, the New York City Cyclones ultimately fell to the top-seeded Genesis Hockey Club in the finals as #78 Nolan Shingle contributed two of the four goals that got them the 4-1 win to become the champions.