Hat trick from Grimm and goal from Humphrey spark Newington co-op

The Newington High co-op hockey team beat Enfield co-op on Saturday night, 5-1, for their seventh straight win. (Photo courtesy Newington HIgh Hockey)

Josh Grimm had three goals and an assist while defenseman Braeden Humphrey from Canton scored for the second straight game as the Newington co-op hockey team won their seven straight game on Saturday night at Enfield Twin Rinks with a 5-1 victory over the Enfield co-op squad.

Evan Howard, another Canton defenseman, scored his fifth goal of the season while Andrew Stribling added three assists for the Nor’Easters (9-1) in a CCC South contest.

A slow start to the game was suddenly accelerated at the nine-minute mark when the Stribling tipped an errant Enfield pass to Grimm, who broke away and beat Eagles’ goalie Tommy Terhune to the glove side for a 1-0 lead.

Six minutes later, Grimm scored again on a breakaway during a power play advantage to increase Newington’s lead to 2-0. Humphrey ended the first period scoring with a short-handed goal on assists from Mike Deegan and Evan Howard for a 3-0 lead.

Early in the second period, Newington continued to blast shots at a beleaguered Terhune who managed to keep the visitors from increasing their lead until Howard wristed home a bullet from the high slot to increase the Nor’Easters’ lead to 4-0.

Enfield’s Josh Tyler managed to get behind the Newington defense a minute later and slide a backhand shot through the pads of Nor’Easter goalie Jeremy Wagner to get the Eagles on the scoreboard. Enfield is a co-op program with skaters from East Granby and Stafford.

The Nor’Easters’ last tally would come off the stick of Grimm to complete his hat-trick as he took a great cross-ice pass from Humphrey and hit the top corner of the net with 12:28 remaining in the contest for the final 5-1 score.

Terhune stopped 32 shots for Enfield (3-6) while Wagner made 11 saves, for the Nor’Easters, who have players from Canton, Manchester, Cromwell and Berlin on the squad.

Newington returns to action on Wednesday night against Conard in a 7:20 p.m. contest at the Veterans Memorial Rink in West Hartford.

Newington 5, Enfield 0
At Enfield
Newington co-op (9-1)   3  1  1  — 5
Enfield co-op (3-6)          0  1  0  — 1
Goals: Josh Tyler (E), Josh Grimm (N) 3, Braeden Humphrey (N), Evan Howard (N); Assists: Luke Arsenault (E), Grimm (N), Humphrey (N), Andrew Stribling (N) 3, Mike Deegan (N) 2; Saves: Jeremy Wagner (N) 11, Tommy Terhune (E) 32; Shots: Newington, 37-12