This year marked the 12th Annual Dan McGoff Memorial Christmas Classic Hockey Tournament held is honor of a very special man whom dedicated many years of his life to the youth of Charlestown and especially the Charlestown Youth Hockey Association. The tournament was held on December 7th through the 9th at the Emmons, O’Neill, Horrigan Rink the home of Charlestown Youth Hockey. This tournament is held annually in memory of Dan McGoff whom spent many years mentoring young hockey players, coaches and parents about the finer points of youth hockey and he exemplified how one person can make a big difference by giving back to such an important youth program. Dan not only worked tirelessly during his many years as a board member, coach and hockey parent while involved with CYHA but he also recruited the entire McGoff family and many friends over the years to become a crucial part of the continued success that Charlestown Youth Hockey has seen since its inception.
The Mite A team had an excellent McGoff tournament, winning the first two games against Wellesley and long time rivals South Boston, led by goal scorers Owen DelValle and Michael Lynch. The last two games saw a heated match up against a talented mite team from Quincy. Charlestown tied the first game 2-2, led by superb goaltending from Dylan Zukowski to get them into the final championship round. In the final matchup the up and coming Charlestown team had a hard fought battle with a very tenacious Quincy team who was hungry for the cup. With the support of a hometown crowd that filled the rink, the Charlestown Townies donned their white home team jerseys set out to do battle for the “ship” and the Dan McGoff Cup in the final game. Everything came down to the wire and the final buzzer but a fierce and hard working Charlestown team succumbed to the formidable Quincy opponent and had to settle for the runner-up honors.
Thank you to all of the McGoff family members whom visited throughout the tournament and a special thanks Lisa McGoff Collins for the McGoff family donations of Bruins items for the raffle. Thanks also goes out to the following for their generous donations to our successful raffle, coach David Higginbottom and Reebok for the skates, Bill Cantin from the Ironside Grill for the gift certificates, John Conforti for the Red Sox Tickets, J’s skate shack among others whom donated items to the raffle. Thank you to Edie and Nicole and Edie’s little helpers whom kept the snack shack fully staffed and open all weekend long. Thank you to Pro Music Productions and DJ Smokey Cain for his excellent DJ services and a special thank you to all of the board members, coaches, parents as well as all the other volunteers whom dedicated their time to help make this year’s tournament another great success