With another season come and gone, thought I’d reflect back on some issues we discussed at the end of last season and the beginning of this year. At the end of last season Cherokee was thinking of replacing head coach Mike Sullivan, but at the last minute decided not to make a change. And not only was it the right move, Cherokee went on to win the league championship and made the semi-finals of the Flyers Cup. As Mike would tell you, he’s got a good staff with Scott McKay and Steve Monaghan, and the kids bought into the system. There can’t be any grumblings from the board on this season, good job coaches!!

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Cherokee fresh off winning the SJHSIHL Championship continued their streak into the Flyers Cup reaching the semi-finals where they faced top ranked Council Rock South. That’s where the run ended as Council Rock South won 3-1 and advances to the finals against CB East.

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Macklin Kaiser broke a 5-5 tie scoring the game winner with forty seconds left as Shawnee defeated Cherokee 6-5 to win the JVA Championship in the SJHSIHL. Cherokee entered as the favorite having lost only 2 games all season, but tonight proved to be Shawnee’s night as five different players scored to lead a balanced attack. The teams traded goals in the first period with Mike Peccini giving Shawnee a 1-0 lead but David Mazilli would tie the score in the last 3 minutes of the period.

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Jason Spieker scored with fifteen seconds left in overtime as Cherokee rallied to defeat Washington Township 6-5 and win the SJHSIHL Championship before a jammed packed crowd at the Skate Zone in Voorhees in one of the best playoff games in a long time. Cole Zucker once again came up huge for the Chiefs with his third hat trick of the playoffs. Jonathan Smith had a big night for Township scoring four goals. But once again the night was about the resiliency of Cherokee, the one characteristic that this team has shown all year, no matter the score, no matter the situation, they keep coming at you.

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Dan Navarra after surrendering a first period goal to Eddie Sarin, stopped 18 shots in the second period and Cherokee scored three times as they defeated Washington Township 3-1 before a packed house at Hollydell. The victory spoiled Townships anticipated celebration and they must now travel to Voorhees on Wednesday night for a deciding game in this double elimination format.

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Leading 4-1 going into the third period, Cherokee had to go to a shoot-out with Jason Spieker scoring the lone goal as the Chiefs beat Shawnee 5-4 and thus advance to the Championship game on Monday night against Washington Township at Hollydell. Face-off will be at 8:00. After Casey Forte scored the lone goal of the opening period to give the Chiefs a 1-0 lead, Shawnee had a chance to tie the game with a power play midway through the second period but Pat Mohnacs scored short-handed to make it 2-0. Spieker would then score on two consecutive shifts to give Cherokee a 4-0 advantage with just over three minutes left in the second period.

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Cole Zucker recorded his second varsity hat trick, both during this playoff run, as Cherokee defeated Clearview 6-3 at the Skate Zone on Monday night and ended the season for the Pioneers. Cherokee moves on and will face Moorestown next Monday night at 7:10 at Voorhees. Cherokee wasted little time as they scored two goals in the first two minutes of the game. Jason Spieker opened the scoring with a blast from the right circle just one minute into the game. Just about one minute later Zucker broke in and after his shot was kicked aside, Pat Mohnacs was there to put home the rebound and before you could settle into your seat it was 2-0.

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Once again SJIceHockey.com is pleased to announce our annual award recipients. This year there seemed to be more balance throughout the league and with the playoffs upon us we could be in for a few surprises. Listed below are the 2010-2011 winners:

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With the second season upon us the SJHSIHL begins it’s double elimination tournament on Monday so we thought we would break down to see exactly who is peaking and who is struggling. Let’s begin with the Eastern Vikings. Tough year for Mike Pontonio to come out of retirement having coached teams in the past to multiple championships, the Vikings did not win a game this season, but in speaking to Coach Pontonio it was not for lack of effort. Don’t see Eastern advancing.

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In the third annual Junior-Senior Showcase game in the SJHSIHL held at the Skate Zone in Voorhees the North came back from a 3-0 deficit and beat the South 9-5. Vincent Tascione led the North with a goal and four assists and Tyler Pedersen added two goals. Jonathan Ruiz and Jared Hand led the South with two goals each. Tascione was voted the MVP for the game.

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Cherokee failed to capitalize on five power plays as Shawnee defeated the Chiefs 4-0 in the final regular season game for both teams. Robby Churchill scored the lone goal of the opening period, his sixth of the season. This came moments after Cherokee failed on a two-man advantage. Macklin Kaiser deflected a pass from Steve Nagy at the six minute mark of the second period to make it 2-0 Shawnee. Gavin Hambrose, in nets for Shawnee, stopped all 23 shots, not many second chances for the Chiefs in collecting his first win of the season.

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The SJHSIHL has released the roster for the Junior-Senior Showcase game to be played on Friday, January 28th at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. Game time is 8:05PM. North Squad will be the home team and wear white and coached by Mike Sullivan of Cherokee. The South will be in the dark jerseys and coached by Mike Glick of Washington Township. We congratulate this year’s selection and look forward to another exciting contest. Here are the nominees for the North and South All-Stars...

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The SJHSIHL has released the nominees for the Junior-Senior Showcase game to be played on Friday, January 28th at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. Each team was asked to nominate 3-4 players with a minimum of 2 players selected from every team. Here are the nominees for the North and South All-Stars…

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Dan Navarra stopped 34 shots and five different players scored for the Chiefs as they defeated Williamstown 5-1 at Hollydell on Friday night. The key to the Williamstown offense runs through Jonathan Ruiz and he was held without a point. Ruiz leads the league in points with 56 and goals with 40. Blaise McCormick opened the scoring for Cherokee as he broke in with Pat Mohnacs 2-on1 and Mohnacs slid the puck to McCormick and his one-timer found the net and the Chiefs led 1-0. It was McCormick’s first goal of the season.

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Jason Spieker had a hand in on all the goals as Cherokee defeated Cinnaminson 5-1 in action played at the Igloo in Mt. Laurel. Spieker, who has missed some games due to injury, led Cherokee with three goals and two assists. Kevin Rafferty scored the lone Cinnaminson goal. After Rafferty gave Cinnaminson a 1-0 lead just two minutes into the game, Spieker would tie the game at 1-1 at the five minute mark scoring unassisted.

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Ryan McCusker stopped 12 shots in the third period as Washington Township held on for a 3-2 win over Cherokee and took over sole possession of first place in the SJHSIHL. Through two period Cherokee had managed just a total of 11 shots as Township came out early and aggressively attacked the puck. After a scoreless first period that saw Cherokee goalie Dan Navarra make several big saves, Township capitalized on the power play in the first three minutes of the second period to lead 1-0. Jonathan Smith made the play as he circled around the net and found Eddie Sarin camped down low, a spot where he does his best work, and Sarin banged home his team high 14th goal.

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Cole Zucker scored with three minutes left in the game as Cherokee rallied to tie Clearview 4-4 in SJHSIHL action at Hollydell. Since starting the season with just one win in their first seven games, Clearview has gone 3-1-2 in their last six. Goaltending and defense has been the main turn around, after surrendering over 5 goals a game in the first seven, head coach Joe Walters has seen his team rebound in the last six games and just allow over 3 goals per game.

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The only disappointing fact after last night’s game between Cherokee and Moorestown, which ended at 2-2, is that we now have to wait till February before these two teams play again. The geniuses that put the schedule together did not take into consideration the intense rivalry these two teams have built over the years and not having them playing late in January with possibly having first place and the top seed on the line is borderline criminal.

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Austin Haslett’s second goal of the game with twelve seconds left gave Washington Township JVA a much earned tie with division leading Cherokee at 4-4. Cherokee entered the contest with just one loss in eight games and Township battled the Chiefs throughout and spent a lot of time killing penalties the last half of the game, including two in the final five minutes and it took a 3-on-1 break at the end to salvage a point.

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Clearview battled Cherokee most of the game but two third period goals allowed Cherokee to pull away to a 5-2 victory over the hard charging Pioneers. Kelly Farinella stopped 23 shots while improving her record to 5-0. Balanced scoring was once again the key for Cherokee as five different players scored goals. Mike Vulpio gave Clearview a 1-0 lead early in the game scoring on the power play with Eric Mitchell and David Hall assisting.

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Cherokee fired 41 shots at East goalie Ben Tice and managed to get four past him as the Chiefs defeated Cherry Hill East 4-2 at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. Leading just 1-0 after the first period on a goal by John Quinlan, his first of the season, the Chiefs made it 2-0 as Casey Forte scored at the nine minute mark. Tice kept the Chiefs off the board earlier in the period as they had consecutive power plays and failed to score.

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Dan Navarra stopped 32 shots as Cherokee defeated Cinnaminson 7-2 in a battle of two of the top teams in the SJHSIHL. Brandon Gidel led Cherokee with two goals and five different players also scored for the Chiefs. Sean Joyce and Justin Nugent scored the goals for Cinnaminson. Both teams entered the contest with each having just one loss and both teams wanted to get a quick start. Cinnaminson controlled much of the play for the first period, peppering Navarra with 13 shots while Cherokee would manage only six. Every time Navarra would rob Cinnaminson of a goal, Cherokee would come down and score.

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Eight different players scored for Cherokee as they ran away from Eastern 10-3 in action played in Voorhees. Casey Forte and Dylan Bradley led the Chiefs attack with two goals each. Nicky Bascou led the Vikings with two goals. Casey Graham got Cherokee on the board early as the result of some good work by Zach Tiernan along the boards as he kept the puck in and after his initial shot was stopped, Graham put home the rebound. Bascou would tie the game a few minutes later scoring on the power play.

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Matt Olbrich scored two goals and Tyler Griffis stopped 27 shots as Moorestown defeated Cherokee 6-4 at the Igloo in Mt Laurel on Monday night. The loss was the first one suffered by Cherokee. Pat Mohnacs led the Chiefs attack with two goals. The opening period was a seesaw battle as the teams combined for five goals. Cole Zucker gave Cherokee a 1-0 lead with the game less than two minutes old. Olbrich would tie the score at 1-1 just over two minutes later with Alec Nicolai getting the assist.

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Dan Navarra stopped 21 of 22 shots and Cole Zucker scored two goals to lead the Cherokee Chiefs over Washington Township 4-1 at Hollydell on Friday night. After a tight checking opening period, Eddie Sarin scored the only goal late in the period as his blast from the top of the right circle found the far top corner and Township led 1-0. That was all Navarra would give up as he controlled the rebounds and his defense kept the front clear so no rebounds were available for Township.

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Cherokee opened the 2010-2011 season easily defeating Williamstown 9-5 in Tier I action played at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. Pat Mohnacs led the attack with three goals. Getting the start in nets for Cherokee was freshman goalie Kelly Farinella, the first female to ever start the first game in nets for the Chiefs. Another interesting stat was last season the Chiefs struggled to score goals averaging less than 5 goals per game, and only scored nine goals in one game, and that occurred in game 16. This team is young and showed some speed and looks like they could be a contender.

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