Last year’s Belchertown hockey squad was one of the top in the area, but when it came to the postseason, it wanted to do better.
The Orioles qualified for the Western Mass Class B tourney, but fell to Greenfield in the first round, and that loss gave them an 8-9-1 record – just shy of the .500 marker they needed to make the MIAA postseason.
It was a heartbreaker for the Orioles, but this year they’re off to a fast start. Belchertown has a 4-0 record this year, including a satisfying 2-1 win over Greenfield to excise some demons from last year’s Western Mass game. The urgency is very present for the senior-heavy team.
“I think that motivation kind of started two years ago, before I had gotten there, when their sophomore year for the senior group was cut because of COVID and they didn’t have a team,” head coach Derek Chandonnet said. “So these seniors, I they they get it and they know they have to play with that sense of urgency throughout the year.”
Though the team’s lead point-getter Andrew Fijal graduated last year, the Orioles have a bevy of returners that have shown they’re more than capable of filling in for him.
Over four games, the Orioles have notched 22 goals, averaging five and a half goals per contest. Their scoring contingency this year will likely be led by a mix of seniors and sophomores. So far, seniors James Delaney and Ryan Fernandes are showing their talent and experience with seven and six points, respectively, Francis Henderson is also back after leading the team in goals last season.
Sophomore Charlie Fijal will be one of the team’s secondary scorers, putting up five points (2G, 3A) already this season, as has Brady Moreau; last year, Moreau had the second most assists on the team. This year, he’s been more of a goal-scorer, posting four goals and one helper.
Belchertown doesn’t have a clear number one goaltender this year – their go-to guy in net, Tim Mitus, graduated last year. This season they have a pair of freshman, Curtis Wojnas and Donald Rogers, and sophomore Brian Carlin, who’s returning to the position after taking a few years away from it. Right now, it looks like Wojnas and Rogers will split most of the time in net, but head coach Derek Chandonnet intends to share the net this year.
“I’m just going to manage them game by game,” Chandonnet said. “I think they have good attitude and good work ethic right now, which is huge. They’re all buddies and they’re pushing each other to work hard.”
Getting their first win at home this season meant something extra special this season for the Hurricanes.
Amherst won a dramatic 5-4 game in overtime when Jack Dyjach scored the game-winner on a breakaway, which would have been exciting enough. But the ’Canes got to celebrate in Orr Arena at Amherst College, their true home rink that they haven’t been able to play at for the last two seasons because of COVID-19 restrictions.
“For kids to come out and have a home rink, and to come out with a decent crowd for a late Thursday night during the holiday season, it’s wonderful stuff for the boys,” Amherst head coach Michael Rousseau said.
The Hurricanes have historically been an amalgamation of Amherst and Hopkins Academy – this year’s leadership group is made up of Amherst senior Charlie May and Hopkins juniors Liam Flynn and Cooper Beckwith. But this year, there’s a third school that the Hurricanes are adding into the mix.
“We brought in Pathfinder this year as a part of our co-op,” Rousseau said. “Everybody’s bought into what we’re doing as far as systemically, and they’re supporting each other and I couldn’t be prouder of a group of kids.”
The goal this year for the Hurricanes is 10 wins – that will give them a berth in the playoffs, a goal they fell short of last season. They currently have a .500 record with two wins and two losses, and besides their leadership core, will depend on players like Yuuki Ishida, Skyler Ferro and Dyjach, among others.
Easthampton is currently riding a three-game winning streak after dropping their first two games, scoring 18 goals over that three-game span. But besides the goal-scoring, what Eagles head coach Tim Pfau is happy about most is the team’s penalty kill, which has been clicking early this season – and it helps having returning goalie Paige Galpin in net as the team’s last line of defense.
“Penalty kill, the kids have bought into the system. We’re different than most, I would say,” Pfau said. “Pretty aggressive on it and we like to stay that way. We don’t just sit back and let them pass, we’ll attack it and that’s working out really well.”
Easthampton’s goal this year is to win the Wright Division, and Pfau thinks the team has a shot in the Class B Western Mass tournament too. But it might take the group a while to get their legs under them with the second-year coach because of limitations on practice time. The squad generally gets two sheets of ice to practice on, so Pfau works to supplement that with other kinds of practices to help.
“It’s tough. We don’t necessarily have the most ice time that other programs, it’s tough to get practices in. We tried to get off-ice done, film study sessions,” Pfau said.
This year’s South Hadley team has a larger number of sophomores and juniors, and the team graduated six seniors last year, including their two top point-getters Joe Meon and Joe Cigal. They’re big skates to fill, for sure, but there are a number of returners looking to step up for the Tigers.
Back in net is junior Devin Carleton, the Tigers’ go-to guy in the crease. Also stepping up are players including juniors Caleb Lundgren and Connor McDonnell and seniors Nate Loughman and Austin Deren.
For now, the Tigers are working on fine-tuning their games, building chemistry back up. It may take time for the Tigers, but head coach Kevin Stefanik is already seeing their hard work pay off.
“I’m seeing guys get better week by week,” Stefanik said. “We can compete, but we can’t all do things our own ways. We have to do that one way as a group. We need a lot more of team-emphasized systems, guys playing position correctly, players knowing their roles and responsibilities. But this is the most we’ve ever, as a team, have focused on detail in our game, and how it can help us and how it will hurt us if we don’t do things seemingly in the correct way.”
South Hadley has a small group this year – when everyone’s healthy, they have 14 players on the team, one goalie and 13 skaters. It’s been both a blessing and a curse for the Tigers – it’s tough to play that many minutes, especially as the games drag on, but second-year head coach Kevin Stefanik has been able to coach players much more closely this year, getting more one-on-one time with players to help fine-tune their games.
“With the small group we have, it definitely makes it easier to kind of work (on) skill, work on things that we see in game that you normally can’t do with a big group,” Stefanik said. “We’re trying to work on and focus on the details of the game and the small areas of the game where we need to be better, and not better than the other team, but just better than we are now.”