Photo courtesy of Tracy Valko. To view photo galleries of SHSHL action: https://solsports.zenfolio.com/f710114994
By GORDON GLANTZ
Heading into the 2023-24 season, back when the frost was barely on the pumpkins, the goals for the North Penn ice hockey team were clearly defined.
-Make the SHSHL playoffs.
-Earn an invite to the Flyers Cup tournament.
Now, in the dead of winter, those goals are very much alive and well.
Head coach Kevin Vaitis couldn’t be more satisfied.
“Those were definitely the goals for us coming in,” he said. “We have seniors on this team, and the last two seasons have been a struggle for us. Hopefully, we can do that for them this year, in their senior year and go on a little bit of a run.”
While the league playoffs -- with six teams making it in the National -- seem to be a lock, a Flyers Cup nod is not guaranteed.
“The Flyers Cup is invitational, so we will have to wait and see,” said Vaitis. “We just have to demonstrate that we belong in the Flyers Cup. We haven’t been there the last two years. We’re hopeful we can get in this year.”
And, once in, who knows?
“Hey, hockey is a weird game,” he said. “Anything can happen. Your goalie gets on a hot streak and good things can happen for you. We will just have to wait and see.”
Rollercoaster Ride
While North Penn skated into the current week at 7-5, the season has been one of ups and downs.
There was, for example, a four-game streak of wins followed by a stretch of losses in four out of five tilts.
“We haven’t really been able to play consistently all season,” Vaitis said. “There are nights where we play really well, and others where we don’t really play so well.”
The root cause?
“We have somewhat of a young team,” said Vaitis. “We have a lot of freshmen and sophomores, but we a number of seniors as well.
“The big thing is that we have five or six games left before playoffs, and we have that time to get everything ironed out before the playoffs begin.”
To that end, he has seen signs of it coming back around.
“Some of it was just building that chemistry between the younger guys and the returning players,” he said. “We are building that chemistry between our lines. We have some lines that seem to be really playing well now. I had to make some changes earlier in the year, just some minor tweaks, to get them going.
“It’s a good group of kids. They all seem to get along well, whether you are a freshman or a senior. They all seem to come together well. We just needed to try to translate that to on the ice.”
Going Deep
When it comes to depth, that is not an issue. Vaitis can roll four lines and three defense pairings.
He even has three goalies at his disposal.
“We have confidence in all of them,” he said. “That’s why we have three goalies up on varsity.
“It’s been working out OK. There is no set goalie rotation. They kind of push each other at practice. The coaches evaluate how practice went, how they played in recent games, and who we are playing, and that’s how we make the decision.”
Senior Maks-Joseph Harkins, a transfer from La Salle who didn’t play high school hockey at all last year, has generally drawn the starting nod against some of the National’s potentates.
In five starts, Harkins is 2-4 but boasts a gaudy .918 save percentage and a 2.41 goals-against average.
Said Vaitis: “He has been stepping up his game lately. He has played against CB South twice. We have games coming up against Pennridge and CR South. He played against CB East, and we are battling it out with them for that fourth spot.”
Lining It Up
In the last 5-6 games, Vaitis has found a combination for a top line.
Nolan Shingle, a sophomore, leads the team with 22 points (5 goals, 17 assists).
“He’s been a nice surprise for us,” said Vaitis. “He gets a lot of assists.”
He is joined on that top unit by junior Cole Pluck (team-high 13 goals) and freshman Sam Norton (9 goals, 8 assists, 17 points).
Vaitis also singled out Joey Silvotti (5 goals, 5 assists in 10 games) and John Stinson (3 goals, 3 assists) for their leadership.
He also mentioned converted defenseman Chris Seward, who has had developed a knack for scoring timely goals.
Said Vaitis: “He has been relentless on the forecheck, and he has had some big goals for us, where we were down two, late in a game, and he has chipped in with a goal. He has been a nice surprise for us up front.”
Part of the reason Vaitis could move Seward to forward was a deep defensive unit that boasts one junior, four sophomores and one freshman.
Those rear guards include the likes of Landon Hofstetter, James Boyle and Chase Kelly Del Ricci.
The Good Fight
There won’t be any playoffs or Flyers Cup for Central Bucks West this season, but that doesn’t mean coach Dave Baun is disappointed with his team.
While the final scores may not show it – they have been outscored 112-36 through 12 games, the effort is there.
“The kids are learning things, and they are playing hard,” said Baun. “Not playing hard is not an issue. Our kids do work pretty hard. You see glimpses of it. Our kids, they really try hard.”
An example was a recent game against powerful Pennridge that was scoreless for much of the first period, and it forced opposing coach Jeff Montagna to call a timeout.
“I know why he did it,” said Baun. “It was still a nothing-nothing game. I’m sure he said something like, ‘What is going on with you guys?’ I attributed it to the fact that our team was playing a smart and coordinated and structured game. It’s just really hard to keep that up against a good team like Pennridge, and we couldn’t.”
While CB West is eighth out of 10 teams in the National at 2-11-1 entering the week, the squad did just end a stretch of nine straight losses (and 10 games without a win) by topping Neshaminy, 9-1, on Jan. 17.
“It’s been a little bit of a tester of a season, but you have to look for the positives and look for the things you can build on and set reasonable goals,” said Baun. “If you do that and you reach them, you feel a measure of success. That’s the way we’re looking at it at this point. We are looking to meet those milestones along the way.”
West’s roster includes some older players with more mature bodies who don’t have a lot of hockey experience and younger players who are more experienced playing the sport but who are still maturing.
“That’s sort of where we are,” said Baun, who has been successfully battling cancer but says he generally feels well.
His team is paced by Anthony Dowd (14 goals, 8 assists), Nicholas Bruno (7 goals, 7 assists), Adam Ricci and Zane Sanders (6 goals, 3 assists).
The season got bit sidetracked when senior goaltender Liam Rogers (.860 save percentage) was shelved with an injury.
“I have been saying for a couple of years that he is probably the best goaltender in the league, but he suffered a serious injury this year,” said Baun. “He just came back two games ago, so he didn’t play much of the season.”
The situation put freshman goalie Isaac Mays (.774), who has battled hard in a difficult spot, in the line of fire.
“He falls into that category where he is a freshman,” said Baun. “It’s tough for 14-year-olds to compete with 18-year-olds, but Isaac does a good job.
“That’s all going to turn around, beginning next year, with him.”
Baun also singled out defensemen Brandon March (1 goal, 4 assists) and mentioned that defenseman Blake Hager is a standout baseball player and outstanding overall athlete still learning hockey.
Another freshman of note is forward Alexander Korolev (1 goal, 2 assists).
“He’s a really good kid,” said Baun. “He’s tall. He looks like a hockey player, and it’s a hockey-player name. He is going to be really good. He’s going to be a stud.”
Girl Power
Another player worth noting on the CB West roster is Isabella Carter.
One of a handful of girls in the league – along with the likes of Sabrina Honeycutt (7 games, 1 assist) and Brielle Rumsey (8 games) of Wissahickon and goalie Gianna Raggio of Neshaminy – Baun says she is not out of place.
“She is really something,” he said. “I never coached girls before. There is a big difference that I see. She is one of the most coachable players that I have ever had. She is probably about 100 pounds. But, boy, let me tell you, in terms of learning and listening and executing things that she learns, she is pretty amazing.
“If you watch a game, you wouldn’t say, ‘Oh, man, you have a girl out there.’ You wouldn’t notice her at first, other than that she has a ponytail sticking out the back of her helmet. She can play. She has some strength limitations, going up against 18-year-old boys, but she can compete. She’s smart. She evens the playing field with her intelligence. She’s good. I like her.”
In addition to an assist on the season, Carter has been whistled for 8 penalty minutes.
“She doesn’t take any stuff from the boys,” said Baun. “She picks up some penalties. Sometimes, you know, she gives them the business once in a while.
“I hope she gets to play in college, I really do.”
Baun has another female player, junior Abigail Rogers, on the taxi squad.
That means she doesn’t play in games but practices with the team.
“It wasn’t because of lack of talent,” said Baun. “She could not commit to the team, full-time, so she was a taxi squad player. Then, she suffered a broken wrist. She can play. Hopefully, she will be on the team next year.”
Baun got an up close and personal look at Neshaminy’s Raggio and came away impressed.
He said: “Being a goalie? Come on. She got very competitive toward the end of the game. I give her a lot of credit.”
It all goes to a larger issue for Baun, who serves as the first vice president of the SHSHL.
He said: “If there is one thing, as a league, that we need to get going, it is a girls’ division. I mean a pure division. I don’t mean girls from five different schools playing as one school. I mean, girls from one high school playing on a team. That’s what we need to do. It would be excellent if we could get a girls’ division. We have two excellent girls on our team.”
He lamented that West was close to having a team in the recent past, but it fell through.
“Several years ago, we had something like nine girls at CB West and I tried to get a CB West girls team together,” he recalled. “I said, ‘Listen, we just need to find six or seven more girls and we can put a team on the ice.’ Their response was, ‘None of these girls can play hockey.’ I said, ‘I get it, but you have young girls and girls that are new and that’s how you grow the game.’ There was a resistance to that.
“If you go to CB West and don’t have a quarterback, you don’t go to Pennridge and say, ‘Hey, can I have your backup quarterback?’ You can’t do that for other sports. For hockey, people somehow thing that’s acceptable.”
Baun added that he knows, for a fact, that there are enough girls walking the halls of most of the schools in the SHSHL who play ice hockey.
“I get all the stuff from USA Hockey about the girls that are registered,” he said. “I know they are there. Many of them don’t want to play for the boys’ teams, and I totally get that. The ones that are playing for us? They are competitive. They are for real. They would make the team, even if we were cutting players. They are good. They are legit.”
Afterschool Specials
Another long-term goal for Baun is play more matinee games.
“I’m so disappointed that the private school league kind of stole my idea with the 4:30 games,” he said. “We are trying and we are working on that.”
The idea would be for the three Central Bucks schools -- along with Pennridge and North Penn and Souderton – to pair off at Hatfield, with the puck dropping in the 3:45-4 range, every now and then.
Schools do it in other sports, so why not?
“We would all play a series of afternoon games,” he said. “I think it would be fabulous. I think we would get a lot of kids coming out to the games after school. We are still working on that. It is just a matter of getting the ice slot.”
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