This week’s ice hockey notebook highlight Council Rock North, Souderton and Wissahickon.
INDIANS READY TO MAKE A MOVE … Looks can be deceiving.
Any opponent that takes a peek at Council Rock North's 4-5-1 (5-6-1) record and figures the Indians for an easy W will likely be in for a rude awakening.
Because while the longtime National Division power may currently be in the middle of the pack, the Indians' fate has been tied not to any lack of talent, but to a lack of available talent during the early games this season.
"When we played Central Bucks West (on Dec. 9), that was the first time I had my full team play a game this season," said North coach Eric Tye. " I had a guy on the football team, a guy on the soccer team, so they couldn't play until their seasons were over. We've had a couple of injuries, two cases of mono already. If it's not one thing it's something else.
"It's going to take time for everyone to jell and play together. But we've been playing good hockey for two or three weeks now."
Indeed, the Indians have only lost two games by more than two goals. Three of their losses have come by a single goal.
And while Tye admits that Friday's game against league rival Pennsbury (8:30 p.m. at Warwick Ice Arena) is as close to a "must-win" game as a team can face midway through a season, he's not worried that his squad will be able to turn its fortunes around in the second half of the season.
"We've been to six straight Flyers Cups and we're looking to make it seven," Tye said. "We've made the Suburban League playoffs seven years in a row.
"Five or six years ago, we started 0-11, but we had a good team, and around Thanksgiving, we turned it around and we ran the table. Can we run the table here? I'm not going to say we can, but we have the ability to do it."
Leading the way offensively will be Michael Shander, whom Tye calls one of the "top three scorers" he's ever coached. Shander has 10 goals and four assists through 12 games, with a league-high five tallies coming on the power play.
"He's a natural goal-scorer," Tye said. "He's sneaky. He sneaks into open ice and he puts it in. Some guys have that knack to score goals, he has that knack."
Defenseman Harrison Pitts has 10 assists among his 11 points and Josh Gregov, a former defenseman who was moved to offense this season, has 10 points. But the offensive threats certainly don't end there. Alec Greenhalgh has eight points in six games and AJ Garboski has seven points in five games.
"We're a deep team," Tye said. "We're four lines and six defenseman deep. When they all play, it’s just a matter of finding time for them all."
Pitts and junior Mike Heverly, in his first year playing for North, lead the defense.
The Indians head into this week's games tied with Pennsbury for third place in the league with nine points. Archbishop Wood has 11 points and Council Rock South leads the pack with 19. There's ground to be made up, but plenty of time to do so.
"If you had asked me a couple weeks ago, I would have said we needed a little bit of (confidence) and chemistry," Tye said. "The last two or three weeks, now I know we have the confidence, it's just a mater of getting everyone to play, everyone used to playing with their linemates and defensive partners.
"I expect us to make a good run at this thing. I said to the kids the other night, 'I don't think there's another team in the league that's played the schedule we've played already.' We played all the top teams from the other side, and we've gone toe-to-toe with them. All the teams on our side we seem to fare well against, and we'll have them all again on the back stretch. I think we're in a good shape to make a good run. We need to separate ourselves from the rest of the guys in our division so we can make a run at this thing, because we are good enough."
SOUDERTON READY TO TAKE NEXT STEP … The Souderton ice hockey team finished the 2010-11 season with three wins.
It took the Big Red all of three games this season to match that.
The team heads into the final week of 2011 at .500 on the season (4-4 in the Continental Division, 5-5- overall). The next step for the Big Red is … taking the next step.
"We're definitely happy where we're at," said Souderton coach Matt Montagna. "But they still have a lot to do. They still have trouble against those top teams. They still have trouble playing complete games. But I'm very happy - from where we were at this time last year to where we are now, I'm very pleased with the progress we've made.
"But now we have to get over the hump with the top teams. And we're right there. We're definitely close."
The team is close because of a perfect mixture of experience, new additions and young talent.
"We brought back 13 guys with varsity experience, six or seven seniors," Montagna said. "We added two guys with Tier One AA ability in Brian McMullin and Alex Politsky. We're getting nice contributions from younger kids, too. Overall, that whole package put together has helped us immensely."
McMullin leads the Big Red and is among the SHSHL leaders with 18 goals and 27 points.
"McMullin and Politsky were not on the team last year due to club commitments, but this year they're making things work," Montagna said. "McMullin makes them all better. He has that speed, and being able to draw attention to himself. Our biggest problem last year was that we didn't score enough goals. And when you have that one guy, you can put him in and he starts to complement the other guys. We have guys around him who have really picked it up.
"Guys like Rodney Anders (14 points) and Dylan Manto (9 points) have really picked it up. Last year I think we scored 34 total goals. You're not going to win like that."
Sophomore Tyler DiPietro is also off to a solid start with 14 points in nine games. Like many underclassmen on the team, though, DiPietro earned playing time last year and has a year's worth of experience under his belt.
"Last year was the wean-in period for the younger guys." Montagna said. "This year they're expected to perform and I do count on them in every situation of the game."
Souderton is currently tied for third with eight points in the Continental Division, tied with Central Bucks East and Pennridge, and trailing Central Bucks South (17 points) and North Penn (15). The Big Red have nine league games among the remaining 12 regular-season contests, and if the team is learning from past losses (Souderton, for example, led 2-1 and had a 14-11 edge in shots after one period of last week's 9-3 loss to Central Bucks South).
"If you look at the box scores, they're outshooting teams in the first period, they're outscoring teams in the first period," Montagna said. "They have not been able to play complete games against the top tier teams yet. And they're learning that, they really are. "I've said all year that this is a very dangerous hockey team if you lay them lying around. My assumption is that they've taken something from those losses. I know I have, and my expectation is that they have also. So in the second go-around, let's see what we do and see if we can improve on what we did the last time we went out there.
"This game to me is more than half mental. They've got to be able to come back when they find themselves down. That's where teams are made. They haven't had that fortune yet, they haven't been able to battle back. They have to learn to hate losing, or love winning, or a combination of that. They need to be better, and they're going to be better going forward. Our goal, absolutely, is the playoffs. I expect them to be a playoff team. But once again, it's that mental aspect of putting a whole game together, and it's a long season. I think they're up to it."
TROJANS' OFFENSE KEEPS ROLLING … Wisshahickon's Jeff Schaeffer probably wishes the Trojans could play Upper Moreland all the time.
In back-to-back games against the Golden Bears last week, Schaeffer totaled five goals and an assist, including a hat trick in the Trojans' 5-4 loss to Upper Moreland. Schaeffer now has seven goals and nine points in nine games this season. His emergence has helped solidify a Wissahickon offense that has numerous threats already.
The Trojans have three players with 14 points in a season in which the team is clinging to second place in the American Division with 5 points (2-3-1 in league play, 4-7-1 overall). Lansdale Catholic remains atop the league with 10 points, Upper Moreland is a point behind second-place Wissahickon and Upper Dublin is two points back.
With mere points separating second from fourth place, every goal and every win will be huge.
Luke Honorowski, who scored twice in one game against Upper Moreland last week and posted two assists in the other, has nine goals and five assists on the season. Dustin Rabinowitz (11 assists) and David Pataki (10 assists) join Honorowski with a team-leading 14 points. Joey Sutow leads the Trojans with 10 goals among his 13 points.
There are, however, no more matchups with Upper Moreland on the slate. But there are eight more chances to work toward a winning record and solidify a spot at or near the top of the division. The Trojans have three more league games remaining, one against division leader Lansdale Catholic (which narrowly won the first two meetings, 2-1 and 6-4) and two more against local rival Upper Dublin (the teams tied, 2-2, in the only matchup of the season). The Trojans will also have an opportunity to see where they stack up against some of the better teams in the rest of the Suburban High School Hockey League, with crossover games against Continental Division leader Central Bucks South (Feb. 1) and Thursday's meeting against Council Rock South (7 p.m., Bucks County Ice Sports Center).
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