Photo courtesy of Tracy Valko: https://solsports.zenfolio.com/f710114994
By GORDON GLANTZ
There is no turning back now in the SHSHL playoffs, as Plymouth Whitemarsh will take on Bensalem for the American Conference title while the National Conference semifinals will pit Council Rock South against Central Bucks South and Pennridge against Central Bucks East on Wednesday.
However, and with Flyers Cup invites now stamped and addressed, there is still a bit of a dark cloud hanging over the circuit.
A pair of end-game brawls in the last round of the playoffs have left two of the teams – Bensalem and CB East – shorthanded on personnel, as each squad will be playing with key skaters out due to mandatory suspensions.
League First Vice President Dave Baun issued the following statement: “This is high school hockey. Our coaches, fans and high schools deserve the best behavior from our teams. As a league, we expect our players to be a credit to their schools on the ice and in the community. And, while we understand that young players can get emotional and, at times, fall below our expectations, misbehavior isn’t tolerated by the league. Some teams will be without players as they move on, which is unfortunate, but we’re confident that the incidents that occurred last week were the exception and we look forward to our remaining teams playing hard and fair, like we know they can.”
With that, let’s take a closer look at this week’s games:
American Conference Final
Plymouth Whitemarsh vs. Bensalem, Hatfield Ice Gray, 6:50, Wednesday (2/28)
Plymouth Whitemarsh
--11-1
--Scored 88 goals and allowed 29
--The Colonials had a first-round bye
--Lost to Bensalem, 4-3, on Dec. 7 before topping the Owls, 3-2, on Jan. 18 and again, 5-2, on Jan. 25.
“Once we’re on the ice, it all goes out the window,” said PW coach Dave Cox. “The boys are ready to play.”
As for the fact that Bensalem will be without three skaters while already having a shorter bench than most teams, Cox can’t afford to have his team let its guard down.
“I truly think the work we have put in and the work that we’ve done have shown up – especially the last two times that we played them,” said Cox.
--The Colonials strength is a lack of weaknesses. The forward group is led by David Branigan (18 goals, 16 assists), Dylan Novitski (15 goals, 11 assists), Jason Segal (10 goals, 14 assists in 10 games) and Timothy Murphy (6 goals, 14 assists) while Danny Guller (9 goals, 14 assists) anchors a defense that also includes Jayson Yoder (4 goals, 7 assists) and Charlie Spause (4 assists).
“We will look to continue to play to our strengths,” said Cox. “We play good team defense, and defense wins you championships.”
--Tending the twine is Julian Lucks (2.45 goals against average, .907 save percentage).
Bensalem
--10-3-0
--Scored 81 goals and allowed just 31
--Advanced with a 3-0 win over Abington
--Alex Hood has netted an astounding 39 goals and dished out 16 assists in 13 games. The supporting cast is led by Alex Bazlevich, who has notched 31 points (10 goals, 21 assists) in 12 games.
--Others with at least 20 points on the season are Lucas Gonzalez (9 goals, 15 assists) and Cole Salayda (8 goals, 13 assists).
--Bazlevich, Salyda and Danny Klein are all suspended as a result of the brawl at the end of the contest with Abington.
“We are going to have to approached this with a next-man-up mentality,” said coach Bill Hood. “Kids who are lower down in the lineup are going to have the opportunity to step it up and, hopefully, they do so.
“I’m worried about Plymouth Whitemarsh and how we are going to beat them now with an even more shortened bench than we normally have.”
--In just 8 games, junior Brandon Stahl has 12 points (3 goals, 9 assists), and he will be expected to help fill the void of the players lost.
“Hopefully, he can come up big for us,” said Hood. “He has come up big for us earlier in the season, and we’re going to need him to lighten the burden with having two of my top four scorers out of this game.”
--As the only goalie on the small team, Ricky Gonzalez, who stopped all 30 shots he faced against Abington, has played every minute and has posted a 2.87 goals against average and a .907 save percentage.
A hot goalie is always a playoff wildcard in hockey, and Hood will be leaning heavily on his son’s lifetime neighbor and friend.
“He has been playing really well,” said Hood. “He shut out Abington two games in a row, and he is going to have to come up huge for us to have chance. He has done that for most of the season, and I have no doubt he is going to continue doing that for us.”
National Conference Semis
Council Rock South vs. C.B. South, Grundy, 7:20, Wednesday (2/28)
CB South
--13-5-1
--Scored 111 goals and allowed 55
--Advanced with a 6-2 win over Souderton
Titans coach Sean McGinty felt that keeping Souderton’s potent attack in check was positive sign.
“They have good offensive power,” said McGinty, of Souderton. “Obviously, holding them to two goals was a key. We had a strong defensive showing. For a couple of weeks before that, we were giving up some goals that we shouldn’t have. It was good to have that defensive structure back.”
--The Titans have a balanced attack that features DJ Lindenmuth (22 goals, 15 assists), Sean Cutter (9 goals, 19 assists), Ryan Frey (20 goals, 6 assists), Jeffrey Kvecher (10 goals, 15 assists) and defenseman Aidan Linso (7 goals, 16 assists).
“It’s the final four here,” said McGinty, proclaiming his team healthy and ready to go for the first time in a while. “Everybody just has to come out ready to go. We haven’t won a league title in a long time. Hopefully, we can come out ready to go.”
--The team rosters four goalies, with freshman Nathan Napolitano (2.75, .883, 7-3) emerging as the No. 1.
“We are going to go with our freshman goalie,” said McGinty. “He has earned that No. 1 spot. He has really competed throughout the second half of the season. He is a young player but has shown to have a very level head and is competitive. He’s getting the call, which is awesome.
“I think he has moved past the idea of feeling that pressure.”
Council Rock South
--17-1
--Scored 168 goals, allowed 36
--Had a first-round bye
--Defeated CB South, 6-3, on Nov. 16 and 2-1 on Jan. 24.
“CR South is a strong program,” said McGinty. “They are good team that is well-coached. We had a 6-3 loss to them earlier in the season, but we outshot them. In game 2, to be frank, they outplayed us. They took it to us, but our goalie stood on his head and kept us in the game. They were all over us. It’s a cliché, but we are going to have to come ready to go and make small mistakes, not big mistakes.”
--Defenseman Kevin Koles (24 goals, 26 assists) is the leading scorer while forwards such as Jake Weiner (28 goals, 20 assists), Blaize Pepe (16 goals, 20 assists), Illia Mukhin (13 goals, 18 assists), Gavin Nisenzon (16 goals, 13 assists) and Chase Tovsky (10 goals, 17 assists) have all chipped in for the high-powered attack.
--In just 9 games, power forward Nikita Volobuiev has 11 goals and 12 assists.
“We’ve seen him,” said McGinty. “They are a good team, though, top-down. It’s still a team game. One kid can be special, but they have (Pepe) and Weiner and a good defensive line. They are a well-balanced team.”
--The primary goalkeeper is Trevor Rakszawski (2.34, .876).
“We are going to have generate offense and get shots on their goalie early,” said McGinty. “For lack of a better term, we want to get him uncomfortable and not allow him to gain confidence.”
CB East vs. Pennridge, Hatfield Ice Gray, 8:45, Wednesday (2/28)
CB East
--12-5-2
--Defeated North Penn, 3-2, in the first round.
--Lost to Pennridge, 7-3, on Nov. 15 and tied the Rams, 3-3, on Jan. 4.
--Corey Kosick has been the main man for the Patriots, posting 39 points (27 goals, 12 assists) in 18 games.
--He is supported by a cast that includes seven teammates with 10 or more points: Jaden Young (10 goals, 6 assists), Charlie Keiser (6 goals, 7 assists), David Brown (3 goals, 10 assists), Gavin Widmer (4 goals, 8 assists), Ethan Cenci (6 goals, 5 assists), Alex Wilson (4 goals, 6 assists) and Drew Trask (4 goals, 6 assists).
--Charlie and Carter Keiser (4 assists), Brown and Cenci are all suspended for the next game.
“We are not going to be facing a full-strength team but, obviously, we tied the last game,” said Pennridge coach Jeff Montagna. “We can’t take them lightly, regardless. We have a goal in front of us. In the three years that we have been together, we have never looked ahead in any of these games. They know what they have to do.”
--Patriot Goalie Cole Breen has been sound, posting a 3.43 goals against average and an .895 save percentage.
Pennridge
--16-1-1
--Scored 148 goals and allowed 50
--Had a first-round bye
--The Rams are led by the potent trio of Kevin Pico (28 goals, 47 assists), Andrew Savona (40 goals, 31 assists) and Shane Dachowski (27 goals, 33 assists), while the blue line is anchored by Colin Dachowski (10 goals, 19 assists).
--Other forwards to watch are James Rush (13 goals, 9 assists) and Nolan Shaw (6 goals, 10 assists) while Tyler Manto (4 goals, 10 assists) and Nick Young are also key defensemen.
--Goalie Jacob Winton (2.64, .897) has gone the distance between the pipes all season.
Added Montagna: “We’ve got everyone ready to go. It worked out pretty well because most of their club teams had premature endings to their seasons, so we are pretty much all focused on high school hockey.”
Flyers Cup
The brackets for the Flyers Cup were announced Sunday night, and the SHSHL will be well-represented.
In the AA bracket (puck drops on March 7), Pennridge received the top seed and Council Rock South the second. CB South will go in as the No. 6 seed and CB East at No. 18. North Penn (12) and Souderton (13) also made the 16-team bracket.
Defending Flyers Cup champion Pennsbury, despite a rough regular season not making the National Division playoffs, earned the 14th seed and will be facing Boyertown in the first round.
“We’re really excited just to have gotten a bid into the tournament this year,” said Pennsbury coach Ryan Daley. “Obviously, it wasn’t the year we were expecting but we’ve been playing some good hockey down the stretch, despite dealing with some injuries. We’re looking forward to the next week off to get everyone healthy, so we can go into the tournament firing on all cylinders.”
Daley added that he wasn’t sure on what note to end the regular season on with his team, other than to stay ready.
“Pretty much,” he said. “It’s tough to not know for sure if you are going to continue the season, but we knew there was a shot for us, so we continued ‘business as usual’ and prepared for the next game.
“Now that we know we have that ‘next game,’ we’re motivated to make sure it’s not our last. I think we can surprise a few people in this tournament.”
Bensalem, which was bumped down from the National to the American Division this year while retaining AA status, is in as the 16th and final seed.
In the Single A field, which begins on March 4th, PW will be the No. 8 seed.
With a strong ending to its second ever season, Springfield coach Don Quinn was hopeful for a slot in the A bracket.
He said: “We definitely thought we had a shot, just based on the number of teams, but it looks like they took only 12 teams instead of 16 or 18.”
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