Paltauf Shines In Net

Newtown’s Markus Paltauf, a 9 year old goaltender, helped backstop Team Doritos to the Weekend In The Doghouse Tournament championship at Brewster Ice Arena last weekend. This AAA Squirt (ages 9 and 10) youth hockey tournament featured the Aviators from Brooklyn, the Bulldogs from Brewster, and Bridgeport-based Team Doritos.

Paltauf was part of a two-goalie tandem that split the playing time with each goalie playing half of every game. The Newtown netminder played the second half of each game. 

Team Doritos finished the tournament with a 3-0 record, outscoring opponents 19-5. The team opened up with a Friday afternoon game against the hometown Bulldogs and went on to a hard fought 6-3 victory. Paltauf entered the game with Team Doritos holding a slim 4-3 lead and saved all 19 shots he faced to shutout the Bulldogs during the rest of the game.

The Doritos’ next game was a 7 am Saturday contest with the Brooklyn Aviators, and the Doritos prevailed 8-0. Paltauf saved all nine shots that he faced. This set up a finals rematch with the hometown Bulldogs, after they beat the Aviators, on Sunday. Paltauf came out to finish the game with Team Doritos holding onto a slim 2-1 lead. He went on to stop 17 of 18 shots, leading to a 5-2 championship win.

During a goal-mouth scrum in which four of the Bulldogs players were feverishly fighting to get the puck into the net, the Newtown goalie made a combination of saves including a goal line stick paddle stop.

Paltauf finished the tournament with 45 saves and gave up only one goal. He led the way among  tournament goalies with a 1.33 goals against average and a stellar .981 save percentage.