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Articles From The 2009-10 Season
I just returned from a family vacation and had a voice mail from Coach Macchione of Washington Township that he and his son Chris had resigned. This comes on the heels of 2 days prior to my vacation, I was the guest speaker at the banquet for Washington Township hockey club, where my speech was centered around the job Coach Macchione and Chris had done over the last four years, 64-11-6, one championship. I spoke about the courage it took by Coach Macchione to suspend the second leading scorer for conduct detrimental to his team and thus hurting his clubs chances in the playoffs. I don’t pretend to know the intricacies of running a youth hockey club, but I would think that besides wins and losses, also important is the development of the players as young men.
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Well another season has come and gone, Moorestown repeated as champs, and could three-peat. Sean Fleming set the points record in a season, six players with forty or more goals. Daisy Mase saves the season for Eastern. These are just a few of the stories from this past year. While some people knock Fleming that he hangs at center ice, you still have to have some skills to score 110 points. Eastern would not have had a team if at the eleventh hour Daisy didn’t step up to play in nets. Sophomore forward Alec Nicolai breaks out and scores 40 goals, Eddie Sarin, who arguably is the best two-way player in the league, scores 50 goals. Junior Andrew Heinz went from 20 points last season to 70 points this year.
Ryan Marker scored with six minutes left in the third period to break a 3-3 tie and give Washington Township a 4-3 victory over Cherokee in the opening round of the Flyers Cup. Township will meet Pennsbury, a team they upset 2 years ago, Thursday night at Grundy. In front of a disappointing crowd, both teams seemed sluggish, not sure if the layoff between games hurt them as it’s been almost 2 weeks since the season ended for both teams.
Evan Smith stopped 28 shots and Galen Wood scored twice as Shawnee captured the JVB championship with a 5-0 win over Holy Cross. Michael Peccini scored the lone goal in the first period as Shawnee led 1-0. They blew the game open in the second period scoring three goals in a span of three minutes to take a commanding 4-0 lead. First Wood scored a power play goal to make it 2-0 and ninety seconds later Brett Yoncak scored unassisted to make it 3-0.
Athan Blaine scored twice and Michael Wilson added a goal as the Virtua Wings of Steel won the Atlantic District Championship with a 3-0 win over the Woodbridge Rangers. It’s the first title for the Wings in there 10 year history. The Wings defeated the Hammerheads on Saturday by the same 3-0 score, as Danny Wheeler and Glen Schulz shared the goaltending duties and did not allow a goal. The Wings finished the regular season undefeated at 18-0, and were led on offense by Mike Wilson who scored 21 goals.
In the NHL, the standard for forwards/centers that they had a good season was they scored 20 goals. That meant that you were productive, despite taking 80 games to accumulate the twenty goals. Michael Wilson is 13 years old and plays on the Virtua Wings of Steel sled hockey team, and in 18 games this season Michael scored 21 goals. What makes this more impressive is that he could have score so much more. This season the Wings were by far the most superior team in the Atlantic Sled Hockey League, going 18-0 and winning the championship.
Alec Nicolai scored twice as Moorestown defeated Holy Cross 5-3 in the Title game last night at the Igloo. In front of a standing room only crowd Holy Cross broke through first scoring short-handed as Ryan Badger scored a wrap around goal against Craig Rushmore. Nicolai tied the game about four minutes later as he banged home his shot just under the crossbar. Twenty-two seconds later Tyler Woyshner gave Moorestown the lead for good scoring from in close. Late in the period Rushmore stopped a breakaway to keep Moorestown ahead at 2-1 heading into the second period.
Nick Cyr scored a power play goal with two minutes left in the game as Holy Cross defeated Cherokee 2-1 and will meet Moorestown on Wednesday night at the Igloo. With Moorestown having gone through the tournament undefeated, they need to win just one game to repeat as champions. Holy Cross must win Wednesday night and then again on Friday in order to be crowned champions.
Washington Township had six different players score as they defeated Cherokee 7-4 in the JVA Championship game held at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. Doug Sanders led Township with two goals; Jake Toran led Cherokee with two goals. After a scoreless first period Chris Moore gave Cherokee a 1-0 early in the second period. That lead held up for two minutes, when Kevin Mello tied the score for Township at 1-1. Less than a minute later Pat Curiale gave Township the lead for good scoring an unassisted goal for a 2-1 advantage.
The SJHSIHL had four teams invited to participate in the 31st Flyers Cup tournament. Cherokee, Cinnaminson, Eastern and Washington Township were selected from the league. Cherokee and Township will actually play each other at Hollydell on Monday March 15th at 7:15. Township the #5 seed overall in the AA division will be the home team. Cherokee, which just knocked out Township in the playoffs, comes in as the 12th seed.