NORTH HAVEN (Last season- 9-11-0, lost to Fairfield Prep in
first round)
The Indians may have lost the most out of any team in the
state losing four of their top five scorers and their senior netminder. North Haven was knocked out of states
last year by Prep in a game that North Haven could’ve had. Tom Roche’s club has a soft schedule to
start the year before getting into the big boys. This should help the young club gain their footing. Mike Amarone is gone from between the
Indians’ pipes after splitting with freshman Andrew Graziano. Graziano received more than enough exposure to
the state’s talent and should be primed and ready to help lead this young
Indians squad. North Haven also
lost the services of graduates Mike Andreucci, Ken Broccoli, Andrew Babbidge
and Tyler DeMartin as well as the grit of defenseman Johnny Johnson. Returning to pick up the slack will be
forwards Karl Anderson, Chris Lion and Vin Fasulo. Not exactly the same kind of offensive clout as the
aforementioned group, but with the year of experience hopefully, for North
Haven’s sake, they can adjust on the fly.
If Graziano performs and North Haven can grab their first four games
(which they should), the Indians could be in good shape moving forward. If not, it could be a long year for
North Haven.
NOTRE DAME-FAIRFIELD (Last season- 8-12-0, lost in
qualifying round to North Haven)
The Lancers had an interesting year. Legendary coach Marty Roos stepped down
in the middle of the season leaving the Lancers to assistant coach Steve
Hetherman. The Lancers, a once
proud program, have fallen on some hard times going 6-13-1 two years ago and
sneaking into states with a 8-12-0 mark last year. With some new bodies in place, Hetherman is looking to lead
the Lancers back to dominance. He
will start with a goalie battle.
Returning starter (for the most part), senior Scott Kline will look to
reclaim his position between the pipes but newcomer Stone Denbok will be looking
to take the crease from him.
Offensively, ND Fairfield will have to replace the loss of leading
scorer Dave Canfarotta (Trinity Pawling) and defenseman Frank Sullivan
(Westminster) who both left early.
The Lancers will look to captain Christian La Croix for most of their
scoring as well as junior Matt Khorasani and newcomer Jon Suporn. The Lancers are an interesting team to watch. They are deep but very young. They could climb to the top and
surprise many or they can plummet.
NOTRE DAME-WEST HAVEN (Last season- 16-3-1, won Division I
state championship)
The defending state champions are back at it this year with
many familiar faces returning for more glory. NDWH ran through Cheshire in the first round, was pushed to
the brink by South Windsor in the quarters, beat up fellow townie West Haven
and demolished a tired Glastonbury team in the final. Their run was quite impressive and was led for the most part
by captain forward Colby Cretella who now plays at Phillips Exeter
Academy. The Green Knights also
lost the services of great locker room guys like defenseman Anthony Astorino
and forward Eddie Sherman.
Sophomore Alex Esposito, a player who really turned it on toward the end
of the season, also left early for Loomis Chaffee. But the Green Knights return a wealth of talent, arguably
the most in the state. All-world
forwards junior Billy Vizzo (25 G, 22 A) and senior Greg Zullo (14 G, 34 A) are
back. NDWH also returns a deep
defensive core led by senior goalie Luc Amatruda, seniors Darren Capobianco,
Cameron Hotchkiss and juniors Louis Iannotti and Anthony Iovene, To add on the offensive end the Green
Knights welcome back sophomores Ryan and Kyle Lynch, junior Eric Austin, and
senior Kyle Thibault. If that’s
not enough, a year of experience goes a long way, especially when some of the
teams the Knights will be facing are as raw as they are. With the amount of talent still pouring
over the boards at Bennett, the Knights have to be one of the early season
favorites.
RIDGEFIELD (Last season- 18-2, lost to West Haven in
quarters)
Arguably the state’s best regular season team last year has
lost a decent amount but returns
plenty to still be a legitimate title contender. Let’s talk about what the Tigers lost because it’s a
lot. Sean Wilkinson, our MVP from
last season, has graduated and gone on to Holy Cross to play lacrosse. Forward Jack Christensen has opted out
of his senior year to go play at the South Kent School and defenseman Danny
McMullen is now playing for the CT Oilers, so no high school hockey for
him. Grinder Johnny Richards and
netminder Nate Gliedman also went on to graduate. The Tigers dismantled the opposition last year in large part
to Wilkinson’s 68 points in 22 games.
It was a shock when the Westies upended the Tigers in the state quarters
4-1 at Webster Bank Arena and certainly a let down for the Tigers faithful
after such a promising and impressive regular season. The rough part for the Tiger’s Lair is in order for this
team to be successful, they’ll have to win a bunch of games dirty. This team won’t be demolishing their
opponents but rather will rely on solid goaltending from senior Dusty Rausa and
contributions from the likes of last year’s role players like seniors Vin
Rella, Chris Morrow and junior Callan McCormick. On the defensive end senior Ian Ball will be looked to, to
lock down the opposition’s best.
The Tigers are deep but the talent pool has been depleted. It’ll take a village this season.
SIMSBURY (Last season- 11-8-1, lost to Glastonbury in first
round)
After a tough (0-5) start, Simsbury put together a decent
little year for themselves last year going 11-8-1 and avoiding the dreaded
qualifying round of the tournament.
However, they ran into a bandsaw in the form of the Glastonbury
Tomahawks who buried Simsbury 7-0 in the first round. In the process however, they were able to top West Haven,
South Windsor and tie Hamden. Head
Coach Thomas Cross returns a veteran squad that includes eight contributing
forwards, four defensemen and both of last season’s goalies. Four Trojan defensemen come in at 6’2”
or taller. Senior forward Ryan Carpenter
will be relied upon to lead the Trojans this year on the scoresheet and in the
locker room. Cross will also rely
on seniors David Olechna and Connor Rice to round out his top line. On the blue line senior Jeff Lowndes
will be anchoring a strong group aided by juniors Brian Gellman and Curt
Eustis. With this much veteran
leadership Simsbury could surprise some this year. With 11 of their 20 games against DII or lower opponents,
they should be able to, again, punch their ticket to states.
SOUTH WINDSOR (Last season- 11-9-0, lost to NDWH in
quarters)
The Bobcats were one period away from making it to the state
semifinals when they had Notre Dame-West Haven on the ropes at Ingalls during
the quarters, only to let the mighty Green Knights pull away with a 4-2
victory. Now, the Bobcats return
only 2 of their top 10 scorers from last season. David Ouellette and Joey Bonazelli have graduated, sophomore Zecheriah Nicome has gone on to play for the Hartford Jr.
Wolfpack and junior Nolan O'Connor transferred to Cushing Academy. The Bobcats were
embroiled in controversy last season with key players being suspended towards
the end of the year due to an off ice incident. So, maybe a fresh start is what the Bobcats need. Heading the charge of a new look
Bobcats team will be the senior group lead by Josh O’Neal, Chris Gionfrido and
Connor Hibbs. There will be
some new faces in the fold with senior Aiden Cain in net replacing the
graduated Chris Marchi and Ryan Serksnas.
On the defensive end the Bobcats will look to Matt Bracci and Rick
Landino to lead a very inexperienced blue line group. The Bobcats will be pesky but have a lot of question marks
heading into the season. Time will
tell with South Windsor, but I wouldn’t bank on the Bobcats running away with
anything.
ST. JOSEPH (Last season- 14-6-0, lost to Hamden in first
round)
The Cadets had a disappointing finish to a quality season
last year getting trounced by Hamden 9-1 in the first round of states. The Cadets played a predominant
DII-DIII schedule but won the games they were supposed to so you can’t fault
them for that. This year the
Cadets return a lot of talent including all-stater senior CK Keator who popped
in 44 points in 19 games last year including four hat tricks. Keator could break out this season in a
big way. They also bring back junior
Ryan Corcoran who impressed as a sophomore. In net, the Cadets lose senior backstop Ron Johnson but will
look to junior Mark Van Etten to step in.
Van Etten saw over 200 minutes for the Cadets last season so this
shouldn’t be a stretch for them.
Sophomores Christian Furst and Wade Conlon will look to battle for the
spot as well. Losing second
leading scorer John Ferguson will hurt but he is only one of six graduated
seniors that the Cadets lose. 11
of the Cadets’ first 12 games are against Division I opponents. If they could weather that storm only 1
of their final 9 is against Division I opposition. St. Joseph may surprise some this year.
WEST HAVEN (Last season- 13-7-0, lost to NDWH in semis)
The Westies lost a lot in the off season and will be looking
to rebuild around some remaining quality pieces. Mike Troaino is gone after a stellar 42 point senior
year. They also lost some serious
size and strength on the blue line as one of the state’s best offensive
defenseman in Kyle Leyerzapf graduated and one of the state’s best dominators
also moved on. Of course I’m
talking about Dan Granfield. In
net both Justin Shepard and Forest Schell have graduated as well. On the offensive end role players
like Josh Robichaud and Adam Mink have moved on too. But all is not lost in Westie World. They return one of the state’s most
entertaining players in senior Austin Hansen who played a great Robin to
Troaino’s Batman last year. They
also return key cog junior Jimmy Morrissey and will rely on many players who
saw sparing, checking line minutes last season. In net, they will rely on sophomore Mike Savino who notched
five minutes last season but has looked promising this preseason. West Haven looked downright dominant in
the biggest upset of the season last year when they knocked out Ridgefield at
Webster Bank Arena in the state quarters 4-1. But ran out of gas against NDWH in the semis losing 6-2. They had an up and down season and are
as unpredictable as they get heading into this one. But in true Westie form, I’m sure they’ll be around towards
the end.
XAVIER (Last season- 11-8-1, lost to South Windsor in first
round)
Xavier was unceremoniously bounced in the first round by the
South Windsor Bobcats last season 3-1 which put a damper on a solid year by a
Falcons team who took advantage of a relatively weak schedule. This year the Falcons come back
loaded. They really only lost
senior David Brennan and junior Nick Turner. Back are junior Jack Gethings and senior Ryan McLellan with
a year of experience and the mission to put the Falcons on the map as a bona
fide championship contender and why not?
The X returns senior captain Dan Dupont and a cast of characters on the
blue line including juniors John Burkinshaw and Kade McMartin and promising
junior forwards Andrew Meoli and Bryan Stanton who had promising sophomore
campaigns. Shane Baldwin is back
for his senior year in net and is as solid as they come. Their schedule has also been kicked up
a notch to match the quality of the product they plan to put on the ice
including some seriously scary out of state matchups with LaSalle (RI), Bishop
Hendricken (RI), St. John’s-Shrewsbury (MA) and Moses Brown (RI). Xavier is going to have a good year and
you heard it here first. They’ve
paid their dues and finally have a roster with experience, talent and
confidence.
Stay tuned to CTHSHockey! On Wednesday our Preseason Top 10 will be released as well as our First Team All State and our "Filthy 15"- 15 more players to watch! #cthk
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