SOL SHSHL Ice Hockey Notebook (2-9-17)

This week’s notebook features Truman, North Penn & Abington and includes Brian Good’s three stars as well as the point leaders.

By Brian Good

SHSHL NATIONAL – TRUMAN:

Depth has hurt Truman for the better part of this year. A defensive front that lacks the numbers to truly take the next step has kept this team towards the middle of the pack in the SHSHL National.

However, when you take a look at how they’ve been able to compete with some of the bigger schools, one name shoots off the page and that’s Michael Roarty.

Roarty has been sensational all season long for the Tigers. The Truman forward has a league leading 42 points in just 15 games and has tallied a point in all but two contests. While Truman has been a middle of the road team this season, Roarty has really shown what makes him special on the ice.

“Mikey (Roarty) just sees the ice so well and that is what separates him,” said Truman head coach Bill Keyser. “He knows how to read what is happening in front of him and can predict where the puck is going before it gets there. He brings a certain amount of finesse to the game, finds his open spots, and takes advantage of what the other team is giving him and does that at a high level and is always competing.”

That high level of competition has always been there for Roarty, or at least since he was about 9 or 10 years old. That’s when coach Keyser met his future team captain and, after seeing him play, decided to let him compete with kids on his middle school team.

“His mother and father came to me when he was about 9 or 10 and said, ‘Hey coach, he wants to play with you at the middle school,’” said Keyser. “My first thought was - no way, he’s too young. Once I saw him out there though I just recognized the drive he had. The drive to always want to be better and to play with the better competition and it’s made him a tremendous hockey player.”

The season isn’t over for the Tigers, but it hasn’t been as successful as they had hoped. After winning the SHSHL American division last season as an “A” class team, they were moved up to “AA” and have struggled some.

Roarty, a senior, will play his final game in a Truman uniform in the upcoming weeks and will leave a huge void on the roster that will need to be filled next year.

While it will be hard for any one player to immediately step in and have the impact that Roarty has had, Keyser said that he will pass the torch to Steven Avellino, a sophomore who is second on the team with 26 points.

You don’t just replace a player like Roarty, but if Avellino and the rest of the team can learn from his competitive mindset and his talent on the ice, they can take leaps and bounds towards improving as a unit.

SHSHL CONTINENTAL – NORTH PENN:

Earlier this season we featured Tennent. A team that had started the season by not living up to the expectations they had set for themselves but have since rebounded and turned into one of the stronger teams in the league.

Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case with North Penn. On Dec. 7, the Knights were 4-1-0 overall and sitting just below undefeated CB West in the division standings. Since then, they’ve lost seven of 10 games, and the team that looked to be a real threat for the division title is just fighting to stay in the top half of the league standings.

“We played a couple of teams early on in the season and I think we were able to catch them by surprise,” said North Penn head coach Kevin Vaitis. “There were teams that were just getting together at the beginning of the year, and we had already played eight or nine preseason games and had some experience under our belt. That allowed us to really start the season strong, but teams have sort of caught up and we’ve definitely seen that.”

In comparison to how they started the year, some might see this season as a disappointment, but that’s not how the Knights’ coaching staff sees it at all. Coming into the 2016-2017 season, they expected a middle of the pack finish after losing key players to graduation from last year’s squad. So, while winning only three of their last 10 games isn’t ideal, they aren’t discouraged.

“We have a young team and have a number of players stepping into new roles with us,” said Vaitis. “Even with that start, we’re still really pleased with the progress we’ve made through the season so far and hope that we can fine tune these pieces as we get into the playoffs because once you’re in the postseason everyone starts back at square one.”

Andrew Galetta will be a crucial part to that fine tuning if the Knights hope to make a run in the playoffs. He leads the team with 32 points so far, and while they will need everyone to pitch in, he has been the piece that has made them tick.

“He (Galetta) is the type of kid that you just love to coach,” said Vaitis. “The good news is he’s just a junior so we get him next year too. He’s one of the leaders on the team and he can have a game where - we played CB East the other week and won 6-3 and he had five of the six goals. He’s just that kind of player that can make a difference.”

It’s been a tough stretch for the Knights, but the season isn’t over. If they can pick up some of the pieces and start to play good hockey as the season winds down, they may be able to return to their winning form from November and December.

SHSHL AMERICAN – ABINGTON:

The American division has been somewhat of a conundrum this season. At the top, you have the two elite teams, in Plymouth Whitemarsh and Archbishop Wood. At the bottom, you have the teams trying to build their program in Upper Dublin, Lower Moreland, and Upper Moreland. And in the middle you have three teams that haven’t really dropped any games to the lower tier teams but can’t seem to find success against the PW’s and Wood’s of the world.

Abington is a team that has found itself in that middle tier for the entire season, and while the Ghosts take pride in having competed throughout the season, they are somewhat disappointed they haven’t been able to break through against the top teams.

“This has been just an okay season for us, a little frustrating at times,” said Abington head coach Rob Gerlach. “We didn’t get upset by any of those teams we expect to beat, but we also weren’t able to beat any of those teams we may not have been expected to beat. We’ve shown flashes but haven’t been able to excel in any area that would push us through to the next level.”

Some of those frustrations from not being able to push through against the top teams may have shown themselves this past week. In their game against Upper Moreland, tempers boiled over leading to a skirmish, leaving Abington without a few players in their next game.

At 5-6-1, the Ghosts are realistic in their expectations this year, and while they expect to compete in the post season, they see some promise in their future as they look toward next season.

“We are losing a few kids next year but also getting a few kids up from middle school to help us out,” said Gerlach. “We see what it’s like this year to be a middle of the road ‘A’ league team, and I think it makes the team want to strive for that next step to become a top level ‘A’ league team every year.”

An instrumental part of making that transition to the next tier of teams will be the fact that they return their two leading scorers from this year in Perry Carpenter and Spencer Heuges. Heuges leads the team with 31 points and has shown real skill not only scoring the puck but also distributing it.

Carpenter, who is just finishing up his sophomore season for the Ghosts, does everything for Gerlach’s squad and has become a leader on the ice with his play and his attitude.

“Perry (Carpenter) just has his head on right, loves the game of hockey, and I’ve seen him become more vocal with the team since his freshman year last year,” said Gerlach. “He just has a great head on his shoulders and is a great hockey player as well.”

It’s not an easy step to take, transforming a team from middle-of-the-road to the top of the division, but the foundation is there for Abington. If they can build on some of the success they’ve found this year, they should find themselves working their way up the standings in the years to come and joining PW and Wood in that upper echelon of “A” teams.

SHSHL 3 STARS OF THE WEEK

1.     Ari Nordlinger, F, Upper Dublin– 8 Goals 0 Assists
After a scorching hot start to the season that saw him tally 20 goals in the first two months, Nordlinger had slowed a bit of late. The Upper Dublin forward managed just three goals in the month of January, but bounced back in a big way with his eight-goal performance against Lower Moreland. Nordlinger now has 31 goals on the year, good for first place in the league, and has been a bright spot for a struggling Upper Dublin team.

2.     Jack McKeever, F, William Tennent – 3 Goals 3 Assist
Tennent didn’t get the start to the season that they were hoping for, but the Panthers are playing just about as well as any team in the league now, and it’s thanks in large part to McKeever. He’s notched 12 points in his last four games, including a six-point effort this past week in a 7-0 win over Pennsbury.

3.     Michael Roarty, F, Truman – 4 Goals 1 Assist
Roarty’s five-point showing in his teams 7-3 win over Neshaminy would be a dream performance for most players, but lately that’s just par for the course for him. The Truman forward is averaging five points per game in his teams last three matchups and is the hottest scorer in the SHSHL. He leads “AA” hockey in goals with 27 and points with 42.

SHSHL LEAGUE WEEK 10 LEADERS