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The 98Vipers have been sporting pink laces and pink tape this month in support of Cancer Awareness month.  The boys took this cause upon themselves showing a great deal of responsibilty and maturity. 

The Vipers looking to simply put forth a better effort than the day before did just that, unfortunately it was only for a period, lack of effort and poor decision making all over the ice led to the undefeated Falcons cruising to the 6-1 victory. The Vipers would jump out to the 1-0 lead just  4 minutes in but that is all they could muster up in this one. Braden Haley finished off a nice forecheck by the red line for the goal and Evan Daddario picked up the helper. Nick Fiorentino got the nod in net and played well despite not much support from his teammates.

Deciding that they weren't going to win any 1 on 1 battles, win any races and completely forget how to play disciplined 3 zone hockey was a bad way to start the weekend as a hungrier Nashua team upended the the visitors 6-2. Kyle Hentosh was 1-1-2, Kyle Lynch added a goal, and Dante Maribito and Steven Tettoni picked up helpers. The lone bright spot for the Vipers was the play of Nick Fiorientino and Brendan White. Nick came in  for relief and played with a lot of energy and confidence between the pipes coming up with many saves and a couple of the spectacular fashion. Whitey was everywhere and was clearly the best player on the ice for both teams

The Vipers looking to rebound from a questionable effort on Saturday did in a big way as they rolled on the road. The Vipers had to overcome some questionable play by the Cyclones as it was very obvious as to what their game plan would be on this day, and as the Cyclones were tagged with a 5:00 minute major game penalty late in the second period the Vipers made them pay as they went on to score 5 power play goals on the 5 minute major and put the cyclones away. The green line would lead the way offensively as they posted some big numbers lead by Dante Maribito's 4 goals and 3 assists, Kyle Hentosh (2-3-5) and Kyle Lynch (2-3-5) rounded out the scoring, The white line was lead by Noah Maercklein's 2-3-5 while JT Chamberlain ( 2-0-2) and Brendan White(0-2-2) would hit the scoresheet, and the red line who played a solid game, filled with nice energy and solid forechecking also checked in with Evan Daddario picking up a goal and Ross Wahl and Braden Haley adding the helpers. Ryan Connearney would also add 2 assists and the Vipers would also get strong performances out of Aaron Dollin, Christian Kukas, Steven Tettoni, Alex Delvento, and Patrick McCarthy. Nick Fiorentino would go the distance in the nets.

The 98s put forth half an effort on Saturday afternoon in Malden and a very talented Seacoast team made them pay as they took down the home team 3-1. The Vipers certainly had their chances but could not finish on this day, and they did not take care of business in their own end as they were anything but difficult to play against in the D-Zone as they handed the Spartans 2 of the 3 goals. The Vipers lone goal came off a 2 on 1 that was started by Alex Delvento and set up by Dante Maribito winning a race then sliding a pretty pass to Kyle Hentosh who finished it off with a nice deke to cut the lead to 3-1. The Vipers would keep on the pressure with the goalie pulled but could not get any closer as the Spartans finished off a solid effort. The Vipers would come up short on a penalty shot in the second that would have made the score 2-1, but the Seacoast goalie made a nice save. Alex Delvento chipped in with some solid play from the Vipers.

After scoring a remarkable 4 goals in 1:16 on Saturday the Vipers came back and scored 5 goals in the last 8 minutes of the third period to win going away against the NECDL Classics 6-1 in a game that saw NECDL pick up 14 penalties. In a spirited affair in Revere the Vipers would get on the board in the first on a Kyle Lynch (1-2-3) penalty shot as he was hauled down on a breakaway. The Classics would tie it at 1 in the second and the game would go into the third that way. The Vipers rolled over the Classics in the third taking advantage of some undisciplined play by the visitors. Kyle Hentosh (2-1-3) would score the eventual game winner on a breakaway to get things started, Lynchie with a nice helper along the wall to spring him free. Dante Maribito (1-1-2) would finish off a picture perfect 2 on 1 with Hentosh to up the lead to 3-1, and then Noah Maercklein (2-0-2) would tally the power play goal, as he notched his second 2 goal game of the weekend, Brendan White (0-2-2) and Aaron Dollin would pick up the helper from the point. The Green line would connect on some nice work down low as Henny would bang in the rebound for a 5-1 lead. Noah would add his second from Whitey and JT Chamberlain to push the final to 6-1. Aaron McDonnell would stand tall between the pipes, and give the Vipers back to back solid games in the nets. Christian Kukas would lead the charges from the blueline with a solid effort while Alex Delvento and Patrick McCarthy would also chip in with fine efforts. The Vipers look to get back into league action next weekend as they host the Seacoast Spartans and travel to the Cyclones.

The 98 Vipers used 4 goals in the last 1:16 of the seocnd period, the last coming to beat the buzzer as they went on to a 7-2 win over the Cyclones in their home opener. The last 2 goals of the surge by Noah Maercklein (2-0-2) and Evan Daddario, assisted by Ross Wahl and Braden Haley came just 12 seconds apart. The Vipers were trailing 2-1 at this point in the game as the Cyclones did a good job of slowing down the Vipers. Nick Fiorentino came up huge for the Vipers in the nets as about halfway through the seocnd trailing 2-1 he made a breakaway save on the Cyclones to keep the defecit at 1. The offense was lead by Dante Maribito (1-2-3) and Kyle Hentosh (1-2-3) as Maribito's goal came with 1:16 left in the second and ignited the charge. The most amazing part of the 4 goal flurry was that all but 1 of the Vipers 9 forwards hit the scoresheet in that time span. JT Chamberlain (1-1-2) from Christian Kukas got the eventual game winner and put the Vipers up 3-2, Then Maercklein banged his home after some fine forechecking by JT Chamberlain, Brendan White (0-2-2) also picked up an assist, then just 12 seconds later Daddario after again some intense forechcking by Ross Wahl would end the barrage. Maercklein and Kyle Lynch would add goals in the third to finish this one up. Defenseman Steven Tettoni (0-1-1), Patrick McCarthy and Christian Kukas would chip in with fine games, and Nick the Brick would shine betweeen the pipes, chipping in with the breakaway save, and adding a nice glove save in the third as well as a right pad save to finish his solid effort.

Holding a decisive edge in territorial play and shots on goal the Vipers would run into a hot goaler and suffer a couple of defensive breakdowns in a 4-2 loss that would snap their unbeaten streak at 9 games. In front of a raucous CT crowd in Revere this was a very exciting and well played hockey game between two evenly matched teams. Evan Daddario would tie the game at 1 after 1 as he poked in a loose puck in front, linemates Braden Haley and Ross Wahl would garner assists on the play. The Wolfpack would go ahead early in the second and then with 5 minutes left in the game Kyle Hentosh would feed Dante Maribito in the neutral zone and Dante would streak down the right side and fire a laser low to the far side to beat the hot Wolfpack goalie and knot the game at 2. Unfortunately it would only take the Vipers 9 seconds to suffer its worse defensive breakdown of the game as all 6 Vipers on the ice would get caught standing around flatfooted watching a goal mouth scramble and the visitors would bang in the winner, they would add a PP goal with a minute left as well to escape with the 4-2 victory. The Home team certainly played well enough to win in this one but costly mistakes at costly times and a very hot goaltender would prove to much

The Vipers kicked off a non-league weekend with a trip to the Edge to take on the Wizards, a scrappy team who gave them fits last year. The Vipers would never let this one get close as it used 3-1-4 from Kyle Lynch and 3 assists each from Patrick McCarthy and Christian Kukas in route to a 8-1 win. Ryan Connearney, Aaron Dollin and Steven Tettoni would also add assists from the blueline as the defense would total a 9 point afternoon. JT Chamberlain (2-0-2), Kyle Hentosh (1-1-2) and Dante Maribito (1-1-2) would be the other multiple point scorers.  Evan Daddario would round out the scoring and Brendan White and Noah Maercklein would tally helpers. Zach Larimee playing for the injured Nick Fiorientino would be solid between the pipes making the big saves early when the game was close.

All 9 forwards registered points as the 98 Vipers again used a balanced attack to take down the Crusaders 4-2. The Vipers played a flawless first period going up 2-0, the first coming off the stick of Evan Daddario with assists comeing from Ross Wahl and Braden Haley. With a minute left the Vipers did all the little things to set up the next goal, a good dump was followed by a nice energetic change which directly resulted in a forced turnover at the Worcester blueline the puck was worked down low where JT Chamberlain fed Noah Maercklein in the slot for the goal, Brendan White also picked up an assit on the play as he jumped on the turnover atthe blueline. The Vipers spent part of the second period killing penalties which allowed Wrocester to gain some momentun and cut the lead to 2-1, That is as close as they would come as the Vipers would strike twice at the beginning of the third to put this one away. The white line used some agressive forechecking again to set up the next one as this time Brendan White made a nice pass out to JT for the one time goal, Noah Maercklein pipcked up the helper as well, and about minute later Dante Maribito made a beautiful pass from behind the net that Kyle Hentosh knocked in, Kyle Lynch also picked up an assist on the play and that stretched the lead to 3. Worcester would score a late goal to cut it to two but the outcome was never in question. Aaron Dollin and Alex DelVento played a strong gameon the blueline in front of Aaron McDonnell who made some fine stops when called upon.