SHSHL Ice Hockey Notebook (2-5-20)

By Rick Woelfel

Three weeks remain the Suburban High School Hockey League’s regular season and the battle for supremacy has ratcheted up a notch.

Class AA Snapshot—Four teams are within four points of one another at the top of the standings. Central Bucks South (9-0 0 for 18 points in divisional play) and North Penn (8-0-0 for 16) lead the way followed by Neshaminy (7-2-0, 14 points) and Central Bucks East (6-2-1-1, 14 points).

Neshaminy picked up a big win last Thursday night, 5-2 over Pennsbury. The Redskins have won five of their last seven games, and coach Matt DeMatteo sees bright days ahead.

“We’re still a bit of a younger team,” he said. “We only have three seniors, and part of learning how to win is learning how to play mature and how to play the way the game dictates. We talk a lot in the locker room about settling down and just playing hockey.”

Neshaminy is off this week before closing its schedule against Central Bucks West, Abington, and Council Rock South. They started the week ranked sixth in the latest Class AA Flyers Cup power rankings. Central Bucks South remains in the number one position with North Penn listed fourth, Council Rock South seventh and Central Bucks East eighth.

There will be no further public updates of the rankings until the tournament field is announced on February 23^rd.

Pennsbury and Truman will meet at Grundy Arena on Friday in the annual Lois Daley Memorial Cup Game. Also known as the Pink Out Game, it has become an annual fixture. A middle-school game will start things off 6 p.m. followed by the varsity game at 7:30. Proceeds from the event will assist cancer victims and their families with paying for services not covered by insurance, such has having someone shop for them or mow their lawn.

Lois Daley was a longtime supporter of and board member for the Pennsbury Ice Hockey Club before losing her battle with cancer in July of 2015 at age 54.  Her son Ryan Daley is Pennsbury’s coach.

“It’s always a highlight on the calendar,” he said. “It started back when I played and I’m a third-year head coach at this point. It’s always been great. It’s near and dear to my heart.
“It bares my mom’s name which is real special to me. I love that Truman is all in on it as well as us. It’s a big community event rather than a competitive event, which is really cool.”

Daley gets satisfaction out of being able to help area families that have been touched by cancer. “Obviously, I’ve been through it,” he said. “Some kids on our team have been through it. Some kids on their team have been through it. It affects everybody. If you’d ask anyone, they know someone who has cancer.

“It means a lot to give back and help people in those situations. I know from my own experience, all the help that we got was pretty amazing.”

Daley points out that much of the assistance the Daley family received came from the hockey community.

Class A Snapshot—Plymouth Whitemarsh has officially laid claim to the SHSHL American Division regular-season title. The Colonials are a perfect 9-0 in divisional play after besting Hatboro-Horsham 6-4 last Friday night. They’ve now won eight straight games; their only blemish in 13 starts was a 5-2 loss to Class AA Pennridge on November 13.

Aidan Keogh has ascended to the top of the SHSHL scoring list (Combined Class AA and Class A). He has now collected 20 goals and 27 assists for 47 points. But he’s had an abundance of help from his teammates. Jake Weikel has 25 goals and 16 assists for 42 points. Luke Weikel has provided 16 goals and 16 assists for 32 points while Dean Keller has provided 17 goals and 14 assists for 3 points. Three other players have contributed at least 11 points.

That kind of scoring balance is rare in the American Division, where depth is a rare commodity and one line per team tends to dominate in terms of both ice time and point production.

The Colonials have also been impressive defensively - they’ve allowed just 27 goals in their nine league games, the best in their division by far.

Plymouth Whitemarsh was scheduled to face Lower Merion Wednesday afternoon in a rare regular-season matchup of teams from the SHSHL and the Intercounty League. The Colonials have a total of five games remaining (three within the division) before Flyers Cup Selection Sunday on Feb. 23. They started the week ranked seventh in Class A, the only SHSHL team listed in the top 10.

Meanwhile, Truman got its first win of the season last Thursday night, 12-6 over Lower Moreland. The Tigers were 0-12 prior to that game. Between them, the Tigers and the Lions have won just twice this season. But they’re on the ice and playing hockey. There is much to be said for that.

 SHSHL Standings as of 1-29-2020 

Standings are calculated as follows

2 points for a win whether in regulation or OT

1 point for a tie or overtime loss

If a game is tied at the end of regulation there will be five minutes of three-on-three overtime. If the game is still tied it will be recorded as a tie game.

The shootout will not be used

Scoring

Save Percentage