Month: December 2023

Hawks Defend Purple Puck Title

St. Joseph’s Prep successfully defended its championship at the Purple Puck Tournament in Springfield Virginia Friday night.

The Hawks bested Gonzaga’s second team 7-1 in the semifinal round before defeating the host’s number-one team 2-1 in the championship game.

St. Joseph’s Prep, now 10-4 on the season, went a perfect 5-0 during the tournament.

Preliminary Round

Wednesday, 12-27 def. Gonzaga 2 4-1

Thursday, 12-28     def. Archbishop Spalding 5-2

                                  Def. Gonzaga 1 5-2

Friday, 12-29

Semifinal               def. Gonzaga 2 7-1

Final                       def. Gonzaga 1 2-1

The Hawks stand at 9-4 on the season. Their next outing will come next Friday against Haverford School at the Skatium. 

La Salle 4 St. John’s College 2

Ryan Wiley scored two goals and assisted on a third as the Explorers claimed the non-league victory on Wednesday at the Wissahickon Skating Club. Ben Falicki and Charlie Kennedy also scored for La Salle (11-1).

St. John’s 0 1 1—2

La Salle 2 2 0—4

First-period goals: Ryan Wiley (L) from Charlie Kennedy and Patrick Brace, 10:13; Wiley (L) from Brace and Kennedy, 10:54

Second-period goals: Colin Doherty (StJ) from Thomas Lynott, 5:10; Ben Falicki (L) from Michael Esmond and Will Gregorio, 12:49; Kennedy (L) from Wiley, 13:18

Third-period goal: Carter Johnson (StJ) from Adam Urbancic, 1:17

Shots: St. John’s 31, La Salle 41; Saves: Chase Blackburn (StJ) 37, Jake Rossi (L) 29

St. Joseph’s Prep 4 Gonzaga (2) 1

Four different players scored goals as St. Joseph’s Prep opened defense of its Purple Puck tournament title with a 4-1 win over Gonzaga College High’s second team Wednesday afternoon in Washington, D.C.

Brayden Collins and Michael Castelli scored for the Hawks in the first of two 25-minute periods before Jackson Marlais answered for the hosts.

John Lynch and Tristan Winata added second-period goals.

Declan Geary and Jacob Aranda split time in goal.

The Hawks (6-2) will complete round-robin play on Thursday with games against Archbishop Spalding and Gonzaga’s number-one team.

St. Joseph’s Prep 2 2 —4

Gonzaga 1 0 —1

First-period goals: Brayden Collins (SJP) from Shane O’Neill, 2:27; Michael Castelli (SJP) from Collins, 20:13; Jackson Marlais (G) from Brendan Beane and Brendan Rosello, 23:42

Second-period goals: John Lynch (SJP) from Castelli, 2:07 (pp); Tristan Winata (SP) from Lynch, 6:34 (pp)

Shots: St. Joseph’s Prep 42, Gonzaga 19; Saves: Declan Geary (SJP) 9 and Jacob Aranda 10, Claude Engle-Kis, (G) 38

APAC Update 12-26-23

                                               W     L    OTW  OTL Pts  GF     GA

La Salle (10-1)                       4     0       0        0    12    16     3  

Malvern Prep (6-4)              2      2      1       1      6     9       11

St. Joseph’s Prep (5-2)        2      2      1        0     5     14     11

Holy Ghost Prep (3-9)         1      2      0       0     3      5        7

Hun School (2-4)                  0     3      0        1     1      4       16

Scoring (All Games)                      GP        G     A     Pts.   PPG

Jeremy Jacobs (MP)                      10        13   12    25     2.50

Alistair St. Hilaire (L)                     5          6    2      8       1.60 

Dan Carvalho (L)                            11         7     6     13     1.18

Caiden Canale (MP)                      10         6     5     11     1.11

Tristan Winata (SJP)                    7         6     1         7       1.00

Julian Tarsi (L)                                11         2     8     10    0.90

Patrick Brace (L)                            11         4     5      9     0.82

William Carpenter (L)                  11         1     8      9    0.82

Aidan Kelly (L)                               10        3     5      8    0.80

Anthony Prete  (HGP)                  12        5    3      8    0.75

Will Gregorio (L)                          10         3    4      7  0.70

Declan Kelly (L)                            10        1      6     7  0.70

Scoring (Conference Games)       GP        G     A     Pts.   PPG

Dan Carvalho (L)                            4         3       3     6       1.50

Jeremy Jacobs (MP)                      4          2        4    6     1.50

Declan Kelly (L)                              4          1      4      5     1.25

Tristan Winata (SJP)                     4          5       0      5     1.25

Will Carpenter (L)                         4          1       3      4     1.00

Will Gregorio (L)                          4          1       3      4       1.00

Jake Schultz (SJP)                        3         2       1      3       1.00

Justin Laplante (HS)                   3         1       2      3      1.00

Ryan Levesque (HS)                   3        1       2      3       1.00

Patrick Brace (L)                          4         2       1      3      0.75

Julian Tarsi (L)                             4         2       1      3      0.75

Aidan Kelly (MP)                         4         2       1      3.  0.75

Inaugural Flyers Cup Rankings

Hi  Folks,

Hockey Happenings has been on an unscheduled hiatus the past week. We’re glad to mark our return with a belated set of Flyers Cup rankings.  Kudos to the members of the Flyers Cup Committee for their efforts.

Flyers Cup Rankings  as of 12-18-23

Class AAA

  1. La Salle
  2. St. Joseph’s Prep
  3. Malvern Prep
  4. Salesianum
  5. Father Judge

Class AA

  1. Pennridge
  2. Council Rock South
  3. Downingtown West
  4. Boyertown
  5. Central Bucks South

Class A

  1. West Chester East
  2. Penncrest
  3. Garnet Valley
  4. Marple Newrown
  5. Lower Dauphin

Girls

  1. Avon Grove
  2. Downingtown West
  3. West Chester Henderson
  4. Kingsway
  5. Conestoga

Rankings determined by the Flyers Cup Committee based on game results and observations by committee members. The Flyers Cup is an invitational tournament; there are no automatic bids.

C.B. East 2 North Penn 1

Even in December, points are precious. Which is Friday’s matchup between North Penn and Central Bucks East, which closed out the pre-Christmas portion of the SHSHL schedule, was so significant.

It was the Patriots who prevailed on this occasion. Charlie Keiser and Alex Wilson scored goals 51 seconds apart midway through the second period to give East a 2-1 win at Hatfield Ice.

Despite being outshot 34-15 the Patriots improved to 6-3 as the SHSHL National Division schedule hit the halfway point. North Penn (6-3) got a goal from Cole Pluck with 1:53 left in the middle period but couldn’t solve Cole Breen the rest of the way.

Breen finished with 33 saves, 15 of them in the third period.

East’s goalie played outstanding,” said North Penn coach Kevon Vaitis. “Hats off to him. We didn’t play well enough in the second period and we didn’t do enough to generate quality scoring chances.”

C.B. East 0 2 0—2

North Penn 0 1 0

Second-period goals: Charlie Keiser (CBE) from Ethan Cenci, 9:29 (pp); Alex Wilson (CBE) unassisted, 10:20; Cole Pluck (NP), 15:07

Shots: C.B. East 15, North Penn 34; Saves: Cole Breen (CBE) 33, Maks-Joseph Harkins (NP) 13)

Souderton 10 C.R. North 9

Souderton and Council Rock North had quite a shootout Friday night. The two teams combined for 19 goals before the Big Red emerged a 10-9 winner at the Bucks County Ice Sports Center.

The Big Red (3-6 in the National Division) built a 5-2 first-period lead and never trailed but had to hang on down the stretch to withstand a four-goal third-period surge from the Indians (0-10).

Souderton used a pair of goals from Nick Smith and another from Max Ryon to build a 3-0 lead just 9:45 into the first period.

By the end of the second frame the Big Red had a 9-5 advantage but the Indians came storming back

“We popped in a couple [early goals] and had a little bit of a lead, said Souderton coach Ryan Uchniat, “but there were a couple really good players on their team. They took it to us a little bit.”

Drew Borden and Nick Hahn scored for goals for North three-and-a-half minutes apart to make it a two-goal game with12:18 still to play in regulation.

Matt Malanga scored what would prove to be Souderton’s winning goal with 6:42 left but North kept coming. A goal from Michael Booth made it a 10-8 game with 4:12 left before Ryan Keil scored his second goal of the game, a power-play effort with 40 seconds remaining, leaving the outcome in doubt.

“It was a back-and-forth game ,” Uchniat said. “We would get a couple, they would get a couple, and it was like that until the very end.

“They scored the power-play goal and get the score to 10-9 and they put a lot of pressure on us the last 40 seconds. I’m very happy that our team was able to lock it down at the very end.”

Smith topped his team in the scoring column with four goals and an assist. Ryon finished with a hat trick of hos own,  contributing three goals and an assist. Matt Malanga  authored two goals and Carmon Fairweather also scored.

Hahn paced North with three goals and an assist. Kiel had two assists to go with his two goals while Jackson Accardi added two goals and an assist.

“A couple of the players on their teams were really standouts,” Uchniat said. 
Uchniat credited his young team for being able to prevail in a close game. “It’s good to see games like that and be able to get that positive outcome,” he said. It’s a strong building block. It’s a long season. We’ve hit the halfway point. We’ll use this break to regroup and hopefully have a  stronger second half.”

Souderton 5 4 1—10

C.R. North 2 3 4—9

First-period goals: Nick Smith (S) unassisted, 2:33; Smith (S) from Jackson Kelly, 4:04; Maxwell Ryon (S) from Cameron Fairweather, 9:45; Nick Hahn (CRN) from Jackson Accardi, 10:06; Smith (S) from Matthew Cross, 12:38 (pp); Smith (S) unassisted,15:41; Accardi (CRN) from Ivan Bondra

Second-period goals: Hahn (CRN) from Ryan Keil, :55; Accardi  (CRN) from Michael Booth and Keil, 3:52; Keil (CRN) from Hahn, 7:23 (pp) Ryon (S) from Caden O’Neill, 9:47; Ryon (S) from O’Neill, 10:15; Matt Malanga (S) from Smith and Ryon, 16:07 (pp); Fairweather (S) unassisted, 16:42 (pp)

Third-period goals: Drew Borden (CRN), 1:13; Hahn (CRN) unassisted, 4:42; Malanga (S) from Drew Savarese, 10:18; Booth (CRN) unassisted, 12:48; Keil (CRN) from Bondra, 16:20 (pp)

Shots: Souderton 34, C.R. North 29; Saves: Connor Paulus (S) 20; Michael Jacoby (CRN) 24