SHSHL Update 1-31-24

National Division W L T OW OL Pts

@ Pennridge (15-0-1) 14 0 1 1 0 0 29

@ Council Rock South (15-1-0) 14 1 0 0 0 28

@ Cent. Bucks South (10-5-1) 10 4 1 0 2 23

@ Central Bucks East (9-4-1) 9 4 2 0 0 19

North Penn (8-6-0) 8 6 0 0 0 16

Souderton (6-9-0) 6 9 0 4 1 13

Pennsbury (3-11-0) 3 11 0 0 2 8

Cent. Bucks West (3-11-1) 3 11 1 0 1 8

Council Rock North (2-13-0) 2 13 0 0 1 5

Neshaminy (1-11-2) 1 11 2 0 0 4

American Division W L T OW OL Pts

@ Plymouth White. (10-3) 9 1 0 0 1 19

@ Bensalem (9-3) 7 3 0 1 1 15

@ Abington (6-5-1) 5 3 0 0 0 10

Wissahickon (2-11) 2 9 0 1 4

Springfield (1-12) 1 8 0 0 0 2

@ Clinched playoff spots

National Division Scoring G A Pts

Kevin Pico (Pr) 25 36 61

Andrew Savona (Pr) 31 27 58

Maxwell Ryon (Soud) 33 18 51

Shane Dachowski (Pr) 23 27 50

Kevin Koles (CRS) 22 22 44

Jake Weiner (CRS) 23 18 41

Seth Grossman (Soud) 20 20 40

Blaize Pepe (CRS) 15 21 36

Nolan Shingle (NP) 6 22 28

Illia Mukhin (CRS) 11 16 27

American Division Scoring G A Pts

Alex Hood (Bens) 44 14 58

Alex Bazylevich (Bens) 11 19 30

David Branigan (PW) 17 12 29

Seamus Donofry (Ab) 6 22 28

Dylan Novitski (PW) 17 10 27

Tim Murphy (PW) 9 17 26

Daniel Guller (PW) 7 18 25

Owen Quinn (Sp) 13 9 22

Jason Segal (PW) 11 11 22

Michael Romano (Ab) 10 9 19

Cole Salayda (Bens) 6 13 19

APAC Update for 1-30-24

W L OTW OTL Pts GF GA

La Salle (15-2) 6 0 0 0 18 24 5

Malvern Prep (7-6) 3 3 1 1 9 13 15

Holy Ghost Prep (7-10) 3 3 0 0 9 12 14

St. Joseph’s Prep (11-4) 2 3 1 0 5 15 15

Hun School (3-8) 0 3 0 1 1 6 21

Scoring (Conference Games) GP G A Pts. PPG

Jeremy Jacobs (MP) 6 4 6 10 1.67

Dan Carvalho (L) 6 3 4 7 1.17

Jake McCaw (HGP) 6 3 3 6 1.00

William Carpenter (L) 6 1 5 6 1.00

Declan Kelly (L) 6 1 5 6 1.00

Ryan Levesque (HS) 5 1 4 5 1.00

Tristan Winata (SJP) 5 5 0 5 1.00

Patrick Brace (L) 6 3 2 5 0.83

Scoring (All Games) GP G A Pts. PPG

Jeremy Jacobs (MP) 13 16 15 31 2.38

Dan Carvalho (L) 17 9 8 17 1.00

Cole Gargon (SJP) 14 9 5 14 1.00

Caiden Canle (MP) 13 6 6 12 0.92

Brayden Collins (SJP) 15 4 9 13 0.87

Tristan Winata (SJP) 14 8 4 12 0.86

Patrick Brace (L) 17 6 8 14 0.82

Jake McCaw (HGP) 16 9 4 13 0.81

Malvern Prep Seniors Committed to Giving Back

Ideally, A hockey team will evolve and mature as the season progresses, on and off the ice. So, it has been at Malvern Prep.

After a 3-4 start that included a three-game losing streak the Friars have rebounded to take four of their last six starts. They’ll take a 7-6 record into an APAC matchup with Holy Ghost Prep on Thursday.

With the Friars fielding a young lineup in spots, the role of the veterans on the roster has been important, not only for their on-ice performance but also for how they have embraced their roles as mentors to their younger teammates.

Jeremy Jacobs leads the APAC in scoring but he embraces his role as his team’s captain as much as he does his on-ice accomplishments. Jacobs, a senior says he’s following the path that was forged by those who came before him.

“I’ve got to be there for my underclassmen and teach them,” he said,” “and teach them the way, because I had great senior leadership when I was younger. “I’m just trying to give it all to my underclassmen so they can learn and get better every day. That’s definitely the mentality here, we’ve got to keep that up.”

Jonathan Holt, who, like Jacobs, is a senior, points out that providing support to younger teammates is in keeping with the philosophy of the school.

“When we were younger, we had seniors that taught us the way and brought us under their wing,” he said.

“So I think just learning from them and seeing how they do it and remembering how we felt is our primary focus. Being able to take guys under our wing and just develop a brotherhood. Honestly, our school staple is ‘Develop a brotherhood with Everybody.’ I think within a team setting, it’s even easier to develop that aspect.”

Jacobs points out there are other factors that have contributed to Malvern Prep’s recent success on the ice.

“At the start of the season we didn’t start too hot,” he said, “and we kind of had to change our mindset a little bit, and ever since we changed our mindset and focused on energy, the simple stuff.

“We’ve had guys hurt all year and how, there’s guys starting to come back we’re starting to develop true lines. Our lineup was always mixing and matching, it was and now it’s starting to become more solidified, and the more we have that chemistry, the more we can go out on the ice and produce.”

St. Augustine 4 St. Joseph’s Prep 0

St. Augustine scored three first-period goals in a span of just over three-and-a-half minutes and went on to shut out the Hawks 4-0 Monday evening at the University of Pennsylvania’s Class of 1923 Rink.

Anthony Yeager, Ty Simonet, and Rob Romarino scored in a span of 3:46 to put the Hermits in control.

George Buzby added a goal with 1:37 left in the third period.

Bobby Kennedy earned the shutout in goal.

The loss dropped the Hawks to 11-4.

Abington 10 Wissahickon 2

Call it Mission Accomplished

Abington took the ice against Wissahickon Friday night knowing a win, a tie, or an overtime loss would assure it of a slot in the SHSHL American Division playoffs.

The Galloping Ghosts went out and took care of business, posting a 10-2 win at the Bucks County Ice Sports Center.

The win lifted Abington to 5-3 in American Division play and 6-5 overall. More importantly. The Galloping Ghosts will join Plymouth Whitemarsh in the divisional playoffs on February 21 or 22 with the championship game set for February 28. The seeds of the three teams are still to be determined.

Wissahickon dropped to 2-11 overall and 2-9 in the division.

Leading 2-1 after the first frame, the Galloping Ghost broke the game open with six goals in the middle period against a young Wissahickon team that had just nine players in uniform.

Sam Abramson led the way for the victors with a four-goal effort. Shane Meltzer and Devin Bates added two goals each; Jude Large and Ben Biko also scored goals.

Abington coach Ken Brzozowski took advantage of the score line to give his younger skaters some extra ice time.

“It gave us the opportunity to play our third and fourth lines a little bit more,” he said. “It’s great to see them get some ice time. They’re working hard in practice. So, getting some real game opportunity experience is important.”

Officially earning a spot in the postseason with four regular-season games remaining will give Brzozowski’s troops a chance to refocus.

“We’re looking forward to it,” Brzoowski said. “Being able to make the playoffs again and have the opportunity to get some experience. Once you get there, you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Dryden Jaisle and Nolan Pounds scored goals for Wissahickon. Jaisle’s effort gave the Trojans a 1-0 lead 4:19 into the first period but Wissahickon was undermined by its youth and lack of manpower.

Trojan coach James Rumsey says his young team has had to grow up quickly.

“We have no seniors,” he said, “nobody graduating, so all these kids are going to be playing with us for the next two years at minimum.

“It’s definitely a young team, definitely a good group. We lost one of our guys to juniors this year and just another for the same reason. We have a little less players but a lot of heart.”

Wissahickon 1 1 0—2

Abington 2 6 2—10

Holy Ghost Prep 2 Hun School 0

Joe Spadaccino and Jake McCaw scored third-period goals as Holy Ghost Prep bested The Hun School 2-0 Friday night in an APAC matchup at Grundy Arena.

With the win, the Firebirds improved to 3-3 in APAC play and 7-10 overall; they’ve won three of their last four starts. Hun School slipped to 0-5 in conference play and 4-7 overall.

The two goals were the difference in a battle between the goaltenders. The Firebirds’ Jack Unger turned aside 19 shots while the Raiders’ Julian Arsenault finished with 29 saves.

Spadaccino’s goal came with 4:57 left in regulation off a feed from McCaw, who added an insurance goal during a power play with 41 seconds left.

“Today was a total team effort,” said Holy Ghost Prep coach John Ritchie, “with a lot of guys stepping up. I think again we did a really good job of controlling possession, getting shots to the net and ultimately we were able to wear them down, but their goaltender again, played really really strong.

“It’s very difficult to beat a team twice in one week period. So I’m proud that my guys are starting to figure out ways to get some wins. As always we need to get better in a couple other areas, but for tonight I’m very happy with the effort and I’m very proud of the win.”

Hun School 0 0 0—0

Holy Ghost Prep 0 0 0—2

Third-period goals: Joe Spadaccino (HGP) from Jake McCaw, 12:03; McCaw (HGP) unassisted, 16:19 (pp)

Shots: Hun School 19, Holy Ghost Prep 31; Saves: Julian Arsenault (HS) 29, Jack Unger (HGP) 19

Souderton 9 C.B. South 8 OT

HATFIELD TOWNSHIP—Souderton and Central Bucks South had quite a shootout Thursday night. With SHSHL playoff positioning and possible Flyers Cup seedings in the mix, the Big Red and the Titans, both of whom were coming off losses 24 hours earlier, took the ice at Hatfield Ice with guns blazing.

What followed was a collection of 17 goals, 16 penalties and a result that posed some interesting questions about what the stretch run if the regular season will look like.

It was Souderton who prevailed in the end. Ben Fadden’s power-play goal 68 seconds into overtime gave the Big Red a 9-8 win in a game that reconfigured the SHSHL National Division’s landscape.

The win lifted Souderton to 6-8 on the season and strengthened its hold on the division’s sixth and final playoff spot.

Souderton coach Ryan Uchniat spoke to the significance of the result.

“It’s huge,” he said. “We lost a tough one {Wednesday to Central Bucks West]. We needed this.”

Fadden’s game winner, his second goal of the game, came while the Titans’ Sean Cutter was in the box serving a holding penalty.

“It was a big win,” Fadden said. “We had to have it, we needed it for the team.”

On only one occasion did either team hold more than a one goal lead. That moment came with 5:32 left in the second period when Seth Grossman completed a hat trick and in so doing gave Souderton a 5-3 advantage.

At that point, South coach Shaun McGinty made a goaltender change, lifting Nathan Napolitano in place of starter Dominic Varacallo.

Aidan Linso and D.J. Lindenmuth scored goals for South to tie the game with 2:35 left in the period and neither team led by more than a goal the rest of the way.

At evening’s end the scoresheet listed some impressive totals. Grossman paced Souderton with four goals and two assists while Maxwell Ryon scored two goals and contributed six assists.

D.J. Lindenmuth had a six-point night for the Titans (10-5-1, 10-4-1 in divisional play) on the strength of three goals and three assists. Aidan Linso added two goals and two assists while Jake Stepp contributed a goal and two assists.

The ramifications of Thursday’s result will likely reverberate for some time.

“This is big for us,” Uchniat said. ”It gives our guys some confidence that we can play with the upper-echelon teams. South is one of the top programs in the league and they have been for years.

“The team rallied tonight. We ran into some penalty trouble but our kill was on. Out goalie [Connor Paulus] played strong and gave us an opportunity to stay in it.”

McGinty said his team was impacted by having to spend much of the night in special-teams situations.

“Lots of penalties is just not our game on both sides,” he said. I don’t want to kill penalties. I want to be five on five; we’re a five-on-five team.

“But kudos to then, you’ve got to tip your hat. It’s a loss for us to take and learn from.”

Fadden believes Thursday’s win will help he and teammates set a tone for the balance of the season.

“Just through work ethic and going out and wanting to just take everything we can,” he said. “Every inch of ice. Every step we can possibly take to get past a team.”

Souderton 2 3 3 1—9

C.B. South 2 4 2 0—8

First-period goals: D.J. Lindenmuth (CBS) from Aidan Linso, :49 (pp); Seth Grossman (S) from Nick Smith, 5:51 (pp); Grossman (S) from Max Ryon and Drew Savarese, 15:09; Lindenmuth (CBS) from Peter Herring, 16:44

Second-period goals: Ryan Frey (CBS) from Jake Stepp and Lindenmuth, :20; Savarese (S) from Ryon, 4:38; Ben Fadden (S) from Grossman and Ryon, 5:16; Grossman (S) from Ryon, 11:28; Linso (CBS) from Lindenmuth, 12:05 (pp); Lindenmuth (CBS) from Linso, 14:25 (sh); Linso from Stepp and Lindenmuth, 16:18 (pp)

Third-period goals: Grossman (S) from Ryon, :41 (pp); Ryon (S) from Savarese and Grossman, 1:14; Keith Waldron (CBS) from Jeff Kvetcher and Logan Good, 2:21; Stepp from Sean Cutter, 13:44; Ryon (S) from Smith, 14:24.

Overtime goal: Fadden (S) from Smith and Ryon, 1:08

Shots: Souderton 40, C.B. South 48 Saves: Connor Paulus (S) 40, Dominic Varacallo (CBS) 16 and Nathan Napolitano (CBS) 15

Malvern Prep 4 St. Joseph’s Prep 1

PHILADELPHIA—Malvern Prep took a back-to-basics approach Wednesday evening, and got the result it wanted.

Power-play goals in each of the first-two periods fueled what became a 4-1 win over St. Josephs Prep at the University of Pennsylvania’s Class of 1923 Rink in a game that was originally slated to be part of the APAC Winter Classic on January 10.

The Friars, who were playing just their second game since the holiday break, improved to 7-5 overall and 3-3 in the APAC. St. Joseph’s Prep, which was playing its first game in 19 days, saw a seven-game winning streak snapped; the Hawks now stand at 11-3 overall and 2-3 in conference play.

The Friars took advantage of their power-play chances. Jonathan Holt scored the game’s first goal with 1:22 left in the opening period when he tipped in a shot from Jeremy Jacobs. The goal came while the Hawks’ Noah Stuhl was in the penalty box serving a tripping minor.

Teague Murray made it 2-0 on a similar play late in the second frame, he tipped Jacobs’ original shot past St. Joseph’s Prep goaltender Jacob Aranda with eight-tenths of a second showing on the clock. while the Hawks’ Patrick Sweeney was in the box.

Holt noted the Friars have had some additional practice time of late and says the extra work has paid off.

“We’ve been working structure-wise a lot in practice,” the senior said. “We’ve been moving the puck well. We’ve been shooting a lot of shots and getting traffic in front of the net. We’ve been grinding a lot.”

With a lighter game schedule since the Christmas break, the Friars have been able to do some fine tuning.

“We’ve been able to develop line chemistry with everybody,” Holt said. “It’s been a good experience.

“And, working on the power play, shots from the point. We struggled a little bit with that early in the season. We’ve been getting after that, which is good.”

St. Joseph’s Prep coach David Giacomin felt his team was impacted by its lengthy layoff.

“We shot our self in the foot with our penalties and penalty kills,” he said. “I think our layoff really hurt us today.”

Jacobs extended Malvern Prep’s lead when he scored on a shorthanded breakaway 8:19 into the third period.

Ben Kerson for the Hawks on a power-play effort with 7:26 left in regulation before Jacobs scored his second goal of the game with 51 seconds remaining.

Jacobs has scored four goals and collected six assists for 10 points in six conference games which puts him atop the APAC scoring race. In all competitions, he’s accumulated 15 goals and 14 assists for 29 points.

Jacobs spoke to how the Friars’ chemistry has improved since the early going.

“At the start of the season, we didn’t start too hot,” he said. “We kind of had to change our mindset a little bit. And ever since we started changing our mindset, focusing our energy, the simple stuff, we started striving more. So, it’s been helping us.”

Malvern Prep 1 1 2—4

St. Joseph’s Prep 0 0 1—1

First-period goal: Jonathan Holt (MP) from Jeremy Jacobs and Brady Doyle, 15:38 (pp)

Second-period goal: Teague Murray (MP) from Jacobs and Doyle, 16:59 (pp)

Third-period goals: Jacobs (MP) from Caiden Canale, 8:41; Ben Kersun (SJP) from Thomas Ely, 9:34 (pp); Jacobs (MP) from Doyle, 16:09

Shots: Malvern Prep 33, St. Joseph’s Prep 26; Saves: Matt Crawford (MP) 25, Jacob Aranda (SJP) 29

SHSHL Sets Playoff Dates

The start the SHSHL playoffs is just four weeks away.

Six teams will qualify in the National Division. A pair of first-round games is set for Wednesday. February 21 with seeds three and six paired against each other in one matchup and seeds four and five in the other.

The winners will face the top two seeds in semifinal games on Wednesday, February 28 with the championship game set for the following night, Thursday, February 29.

Three teams will qualify for the American Division playoffs, with seeds two and three meeting on Wednesday or Thursday, February 21 or 22 with the winner to face the top seed in the championship game on February 28.

Game dates are subject to revision based on weather and ice-availability issues.

SHSHL Playoffs

National 2/21 Wed: 3 vs 6 and 4 vs 5 (rink TBD)

2/28 Wed: 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3 (rink TBD)

2/29 Thu: 1 vs 2 (rink TBD)

American 2/21 Wed or 2/22 Thu: 2 vs 3 (rink TBD)

2/28 Wed: 1 vs 2 (rink TBD)

JV Final 2/21 Wed or 2/22 Thu: 1 vs 2 (rink TBD)

MS AAA – 2/21 or 2/22: 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3 (rink TBD)

AA – 2/21 or 2/22: 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3 (rink TBD)

A – 2/21 or 2/22: 1 vs 2 (rink TBD)

AAA & AA Finals: 2/28 or 2/29

SHSHL Update for 1-22-14

National Division W L T OW OL Pts

x Pennridge (14-0-1) 13 0 1 0 0 0 27

x Council Rock South (14-1-0) 13 1 0 0 0 26

x Cent. Bucks South (10-3-1) 10 2 1 0 1 22

Central Bucks East (8-4-1) 8 4 2 0 0 17

North Penn (7-5-0) 7 5 0 0 0 14

Souderton (5-8-0) 5 8 0 3 1 11

Pennsbury (3-10-0) 3 10 0 0 2 8

Cent. Bucks West (2-11-1) 2 11 1 0 1 6

Neshaminy (1-10-2) 1 10 2 0 0 4

Council Rock North (1-12-0) 1 12 0 0 1 3

American Division W L T OW OL Pts

x Plymouth White. (9-3) 8 1 0 1 1 17

x Bensalem (9-2) 7 2 0 1 1 15

Abington (4-5-1) 4 3 0 0 0 8

Wissahickon (2-10) 2 8 0 0 1 4

Springfield (1-10) 1 8 0 0 1 1

x clinched playoff spot

National Division Scoring G A Pts

Kevin Pico (Pr) 23 36 59

Andrew Savona (Pr) 28 26 54

Shane Dachowski (Pr) 22 25 47

Kevin Koles (CRS) 22 22 44

Maxwell Ryon (Soud) 29 12 41

Jake Weiner (CRS) 22 18 40

Blaize Pepe (CRS) 15 21 36

Seth Grossman (Soud) 16 17 33

Corey Kosick (CBE) 18 8 26

Illia Mukhin (CRS) 11 15 26

American Division Scoring G A Pts

Alex Hood (Bens) 43 14 57

Alex Bazylevich (Bens) 10 19 29

Seamus Donofry (Ab) 6 21 27

Dylan Novitski (PW) 16 10 26

David Branigan (PW) 15 11 26

Tim Murphy (PW) 9 15 24

Daniel Guller (PW) 7 16 23

Owen Quinn (Sp) 13 9 22

Jason Segal (PW) 11 11 22

Michael Romano (Ab) 10 9 19