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* * 🏒  HOLIDAY TOURNAMENT GUIDE  🏒 * *

Sun. 11/19/17

Farinacci OT Goal Leads Dexter Past Delbarton

Brookline, Mass. -- Dexter, now officially Dexter Southfield, scrimmaged Delbarton here Sunday morning, coming out on top, 3-2, on an OT goal by John Farinacci.

Before getting to the game itself, a few words about the school's newly-renovated rink, which is part of a multi-million dollar project helped significantly by Dexter Southfield parents like Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Baseball, football, and soccer fields have been moved and improved, and a new training facility is being built as well. There's plenty of construction going on in the area. This typist would have done some pre-game poking around, but it was windy and rainy, just the kind of weather to put a Caterpillar forklift in mind to take off in a murderous rage after a trespasser.

The rink itself has been renovated nicely. The benches have been moved to the far side of the ice, and the sheet has been narrowed from its previous incarnation as an Olympic sheet. On what was formerly a standing deck area, four rows of comfortable, individual seats have been installed. Interestingly, most people still stand. At the north end of the rink a heated reception room has been addded. What impressed this viewer was the lighting. It's excellent -- very even, absolutely no glare, easy on the eyes. Photographers and videographers will be happy. 

The game itself was a pretty good one for a scrimmage, with Dexter sophomore John McElaney scoring the only goal of the the first period as both teams were feeling each other out.

Things picked up in the second, as Delbarton came out hard. Senior defenseman Jalen Kaplan, trailing the play, drove home a rebound at 1:02 to tie it at 1-1. At 4:48, junior Ryan Siffringer put Delbarton up, 2-1, tucking a rebound glove-side past Dexter Southfield junior goaltender Derek Mullahy, one the Harvard recruit would love to have back. The second was Delbarton's strongest period, by a wide margin.

In the third, Dexter came out hard. In the first minute of play, senior center Jack Nisbet, whose game has improved, was foiled by Delbarton senior goalie Kenny Burgess. But, about 30 seconds later, Nisbet tied the game at 2-2 with a top-shelf, close-range wrister. Dexter had several more good chances. Sophomore RD John Fusco hit a crossbar midway through the period. Senior D Jack Rathbone had a great opportunity with about four minues left. Farinacci set up Ian Murphy for a scoring chance. But they couldn't find the range and that go-ahead goal remained elusive.

With 3:07 left in the third, Dexter defenseman Ben Meehan was assessed a major/game misconduct for a hit from behind, which left his team down a man for the remainder of regulation and, should they survive that, the first couple minutes of OT.

Dexter did survive the third and, in OT, didn't even wait for the penalty to expire, as Farinacci, who had an unusually quiet game to that point, got the puck from Rathbone and, from the edge of the crease, poked it five-hole for a short-handed goal just 49 seconds into the period. (Farinacci, it's worth noting, played for Delbarton as a freshman two years ago before transferring to Shattuck-St.Mary's, where he played on the U16 team last season.)

The Delbarton players who caught our eye were 6'0" sophomore RD Bayard Hall, an '02; and sophomore center Brendan Clark, also an '02. Both look like Div. I prospects. Two seniors we liked were defenseman Jalen Kaplan and Hunter Macy. Both will play college hockey, though more likely at the DIII level. Delbarton has a freshman goalie, Brett Cleaves, an '03 who is highly regarded by evaluators in the Atlantic District.

Delbarton, which lost a scrimmage to Berkshire yesterday, will be back in Boston on Dec. 16th and 17th, playing BC High and then Malden Catholic.

Delbarton will have a hard time scoring goals this season, as last year's two top sophomores, Jack Malone, a Cornell recruit, is now in the USHL with Youngstown; and Danny Colon is at Exeter. In addition, four-year goaltender Troy Kobryn has graduated and is now with the Connecticut Jr. Rangers.

Dexter is fast and skilled, and though they lost Matt Boldy to the NTDP, and seniors John Femia (St. A's) and Sean Keohan (Junior Bruins) to graduation, the addition of the two Shattuck kids -- Mullahy and Farinacci -- will keep them in the hunt again this season.

Notes:

Dexter sophomore F Chase McInnis broke his hand a few weeks ago, and isn't quite ready yet. When he does return, and barring any other injuries, Dexter's top three lines will look like this:

McInnis-Farinacci-Murphy
Nisbet-Aidan Connolly-Nolan Donato
AJ Caprio-Ben Raymond-John McElaney

Mark Fusco's youngest son and John Fusco's younger brother, Matt, an '03, is in the 8th grade at Dexter and got some shifts. Didn't look out of place, either.

Thurs. 11/30/17

Taking the Next Step

Thank you to the handful of coaches who took the time to submit their box scores to Wednesday's games. We know who you are and we appreciate it greatly.

We believe the players will appreciate it too, both today and years from now, when they are able to look back to their prep school days and actually see a record of all their games along with rosters and schedules showing everyone they played against. Over the years, I have heard from many former players wishing they had something like this to remember their days in prep school.

Others who enjoy it would be the parents who make financial sacrifices to send their kids to prep school. College coaches have told us they find our site extremely useful, but wish there was more in the way of stats. So we're reaching out to the prep coaches for help.

USHR is the only independently-run girls prep hockey site that focuses on one league. We feel prep hockey deserves coverage that is the equal of the level of play.

We were looking at the Shattuck-St. Mary's Girls Hockey site today. It's pretty impressive, and no doubt cost the school a good deal of money. But hockey is important to them -- they're 27-1-2 -- so they do it.

USHR costs the participating schools absolutely nothing. For the past 13 years, this typist has supported it primarily with proceeds shifted over from the boys site, some ads, and some donations from parents happy with what prep hockey brought to their daughters' lives. We've also had one terrific volunteer -- a true godsend -- who has labored for years, adding missing schedules, rosters, scores, stats, etc.

Within a week we will be charging for the USHR Girls site. It's not much. Our guide was simply charging half of what we charge for the boys' site. For the site to make that quantum leap this year, we need to charge, to pay writers, to pay travel expenses, to pay for the cost of running the site.

If any coaches, potential writers, advertisers, parents or anyone else has questions about the site please drop me a note at cwarner@ushr.com.

Thank you for your support. We aim to repay it in kind.

Chris Warner
U.S. Hockey Report
Cambridge, Mass.

Wed. 11/29/17

Nobles Edges Defending Champs New Hampton, 2-1

Dedham, Mass. -- In a game that lived up to the pre-season hype, senior Katie Tresca, a Harvard commit, scored both goals as Nobles held off defending champion New Hampton, 2-1, to kick off the girls prep season in a thrilling back-and-forth game.

Tresca put the Bulldogs up 1-0 in the first, with the goal coming off a scramble in front of the New Hampton net.

In the second period, New Hampton started to take over the play as their strong first line of Savannah Norcross and McKenzie Haberl both had quality chances with a lot of offensive zone time. Nobles Senior goaltender Kelly Pickreign, a BC recruit, was solid all night.

At the start of the third period, New Hampton defenseman Lauren DeBlois scored a goal from the point that Pickreign never saw, tying the game at 1-1. Both teams traded quality chances until Nobles star freshman Katie Pyne made a terrific play on a 2-on-1 with Tresca to give the Bulldogs the lead for good. New Hampton had chances in the third period, but Nobles’ strong defense was the difference down the stretch.

As for Nobles, many observers felt they would be down a bit this year after losing star forwards Becca Gilmore and Casey O’Brien. That, however, is clearly not the case. The Bulldogs have a lot of young players and impressive newcomers. We were very impressed with the dynamic Pyne as well as Ellie Bayard and Kaley MacDonald. Clearly the strength of Nobles this year will be their defense, which is led by Lily Farden, Rose O’Connor, Nicki Lutschaunig – all Harvard commits – and Steph Nomicos, an Amherst recruit. For now, Nobles is without star defenseman Jenna MacDonald, who is out with an injury. In net, Pickreign has been a trusted presence for the last several years. We expect her to have another strong season. And we expect Nobles will be in the hunt for another NEPSAC Championship.

New Hampton is also as good as advertised. Despite losing the dynamic Cayla Barnes to the Olympic Team, New Hampton is loaded with D-I talent. Lauren DuBlois and Maddie Crowley looked solid on the back end and freshman Courtney Colarullo was very impressive. New Hampton will rely on Norcross and Haberl for point production, but their second line of Anna Sheldon, Kelly Mathews and Lily Humphrey had some good offensive zone time against Nobles’ second line. New Hampton goalie Liv Sollows played very well all night. We expect New Hampton will also be there at the end of the season, defending their title.

This was a great start. Make sure you are plugged in to the USHR girls section all season. We have never seen so many quality teams and we expect the race to come right down to the wire.

Sun. 11/26/17

Girls' Prep Composite, Week of Nov. 27, 2017

Monday, Nov. 27, 2017
East Coast Wizards @ Southfield, 6:00 pm (S)
Lewiston HS @ Hebron, 7:30 pm (S)

Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2017
Mid-Fairfield @ Choate, 7:30 pm (S)

Mon. 11/20/17

Girls' Prep Composite, Week of Nov. 20, 2017

Friday, Nov. 24, 2017
Union College Jamboree (Day 1 of 3)
Schenectady, NY
All games at Union's Achilles Rink, except where noted
Note: SCRF is the Schenectady County Recreational Facility
It's 15 minutes north of the Union Campus at 5 Tower Rd.; Scotia, NY 12302

1:00 pm      Union      Brewster v Syracuse
2:30 pm      Union      CP Dynamo v Gunnery
5:15 pm      SCRF      Kents Hill v Hoosac

Saturday, Nov. 25, 2017
Union College Jamboree (Day 2 of 3)

Mon. 11/20/17

Welcome to 2017-18!

The 2017-18 Girls’ Prep Pages are now officially open.

All of last season’s news, rosters, schedules, and stats have been archived, and new material will start going into this season’s pages right shortly.

All schedules have been posted, and we’ll have the first composite schedule up tonight.

We’ve done a lot of work on the back end, mostly behind-the-scenes stuff that you probably won’t notice beyond the fact that the site will be running more smoothly than ever.

One major change this year is that we will have to charge for the service. For the past 13 years the USHR Girls Prep site has been free, and we’ve lost money each season as a result. The problem? We need writers, and writers need to be paid, especially those who know their way around the girls game. We have the writers, and coaches have shown increasing interest in uploading their box scores and rosters, something we're excited about. We believe there are enough fans of girls hockey for us to start building a first class website devoted solely to the girls prep game. As for price, we’re taking a conservative route and will be charging only half of what a USHR boys’ subscription would cost. The site will be free of charge through Sat. Dec. 2nd, in order that readers can get a feel for what we'll be doing this season.

We will also be posting jamboree and holiday tournament schedules. Look for those to start going up shortly. Note to coaches: send 'em along, please! The email address is: cwarner(at)ushr.com

Welcome to the new season. We're glad to be here. We’re glad you’re here. And we thank you for your support.

Chris Warner
Publisher/Editor
US Hockey Report
Cambridge, Mass.