NCDC This Week: Hitmen Looking Hungrier For Founders Cup By The Day

By Joshua Boyd / USPHL.com 

For the second time in four showcases this season, the Hitmen swept a showcase schedule going 3-0 to further their lead in the South Division. This also increases their lead in the race for what would be their fifth straight Founders Cup if they bring, er, keep, it home in March. 

A few other teams also shone pretty brightly at the event, including the host Kings who went 2-0-1, sharing that showcase record with the Connecticut Jr. Rangers and the Twin City Thunder, two teams hungry to get into playoff position in their respective divisions. The Kings used their success to push towards a potential share of first in the North Division. 

We’ll take a deep dive into all the teams that put together at least a .500 record between Feb. 16-28.

Jersey Hitmen (6-0-0-0) 

The Hitmen are living life the way they like to live it in mid-late winter – by winning a lot and getting all their systems ready for the second season set to begin in mid-March with the arrival of the Dineen Cup Playoffs. They’ve won seven in a row. They are nine points in front of the P.A.L. Jr. Islanders with three games remaining. The Hitmen right now – at this moment on an NCDC -game-free Tuesday – would need just four more points to clinch first overall in the NCDC. 

P.A.L. has three games in hand on the Hitmen, but it’s a long nine-point bridge to get over just to even up with the Hitmen, assuming they get a lot of help along the way. The two teams won’t see each other again this regular season.

If, on Friday, Utica were to beat P.A.L. in regulation and Jersey were to win their game against Mercer, the Founders Cup would stay in Wayne another year.

At the Showcase, the Hitmen defeated the Northern Cyclones, 4-1, and evened up season series with both the Islanders Hockey Club (6-4 Hitmen win) and the Boston Advantage (4-3 regulation victory for Jersey). Four days after the Saturday finale, they took on the Utica Jr. Comets and won 7-3 at the Ice Vault, a game which ended the Jr. Comets’ own playoff hopes. 

On Feb. 25, the Hitmen defeated the Jr. Rangers, 8-0, and then won 3-2 over the Rockets on Feb. 26. 

• Clean play has gone a long way for Jersey, who are second in fewest penalty minutes at 9.53, joining the Boston Junior Bruins as the only two teams averaging less than 10 minutes per game. 
• The Hitmen lead the league with road wins with 16. 
• No team has more wins when scoring the first goal, as the Hitmen stand with a 25-1-1-0 record when striking first. 
• Special teams remain just so, as the Hitmen have the best penalty kill at 91.2 and second best power play at 21.2 (behind only P.A.L.’s 21.7). 
• Best offense and best defense? Check on both. The Hitmen score 4.04 goals per game and give up just 2.38 goals per game. 
• Brandon Sacchetti, a new acquisition in January, has been the hottest Hitman in February, putting up an 8-8-16 line, including four points in their Wednesday win against the Utica Jr. Comets. This also includes an 8-7-15 scoring streak over his last eight games. 
• Also with 15 points in his last eight games is third-year defenseman Sean Melso, who has posted a 5-10-15 line since the Hitmen’s 3-0 loss to the P.A.L. Jr. Islanders on Feb. 4. 
• Melso has recently passed former teammate Liam McLinskey (Holy Cross) and Mickey Burns (Mercyhurst) to stand at first all-time for the Hitmen and sixth in all-time NCDC scoring with 123 points. He is second among active players in career numbers, behind only the Rockets Hockey Club center and Army commit Barron Woodring (127 points in 124 games). 
• Captain Michael DiPietra has a 4-6-10 line in his last seven games. DiPietra recently became the fifth Hitman to crack the NCDC’s all-time top 10, with 118 points in 180 games. DiPietra is also three games away from setting a record for most NCDC games played. Former P.A.L. star Spencer Korona is first all-time at 182, and DiPietra is at 180 with three more on the schedule.  
• Tyler McNeil, the former Fresno Monster and #USPHLAdvancement walking advertisement, has 12 points (4-8-12) in his last eight games. McNeil is fourth in NCDC scoring this season with 56 points. 
• J.J. Cataldo, the leader in nearly every major goaltending category, got back to winning ways in February. He played in just two games between Dec. 14 and Feb. 11, falling in both, but has gone 4-0 with a 2.50 GAA and .931 save percentage in the second month of 2023. Cataldo still leads in goals against average (1.72), save percentage (.952) and a record eight shutouts.

The Road Ahead: The Hitmen get the chance to clinch the Founders Cup if they earn four points against the Mercer Chiefs and the Rockets Hockey Club. Their fellow Garden State rivals don’t plan to do them any favors. 

• The Chiefs hold a 3-2-0-0 season (and all-time) series lead over the Hitmen, including their most recent victory, a 2-1 shootout win on Feb. 3. 
• On Saturday at 5:25 p.m., the Rockets Hockey Club host Jersey Hitmen in Bridgewater. The Hitmen are 3-2 against the Rockets this year, and the Rockets hold a 6-7-4-0 record against the Hitmen since 2020. The Hitmen however hold a 27-4-1-1 record against the Rockets since the NCDC’s inception in 2017. 

Boston Advantage (4-1-0-0) 

The Advantage have been enjoying a fine February, especially picking up four wins towards the end of the month. Their great run actually began with a win over the Islanders Hockey Club on Valentine’s Day, followed by a 2-1 stand at the South Shore Kings Presidents Day Showcase. There, they beat the Connecticut Jr. Rangers, 4-3, the WBS Knights by the same score, and then they fell by the same score to the Jersey Hitmen on Feb. 18. Then, still a big fan of the 4-3 score, they defeated the Junior Bruins on Feb. 23. 

Their final game of February saw them put together a 4-1 victory against the Northern Cyclones. 

• The Advantage are in a three-way tie for best winning percentage beyond regulation, at .667 off a 5-3 OT record and 3-1 shootout record. 
• The Advantage have the best shootout performance on the offensive and defensive sides for any team in more than one shootout. They scored on 40 percent (4-for-10) of their shot attempts and gave up just one goal on 11 opponent attempts (9.1 percent). 
• Boston has the most wins when tied after one period with 11 (11-2-2-0) and also they’re tied for most W’s with the Hitmen when being outshot (14, 14-14-1-1).
• Ethan Beaumont is on a five-game hot streak with 3-4-7, including goals in each of his last three games. He is now second in goals on the team with 12. 
• Luke Panchisin has scored seven goals in February’s nine games and stands second in league goal-scoring with 26. He also had a couple G’s within 16 seconds of each other in the NCDC Best of the Best All-Star team, earning one of the victorious Team American’s two GMU Sport Star of the Game nods. 
• Panchisin is also a co-leader in NCDC power play points with 22. 
• Nick Bevilacqua has 20 wins, tying for second in the NCDC, with the Hitmen’s J.J. Cataldo. 
• Conor Lally is second in NCDC assists by a defenseman with 28, and fourth in the league with 35 points. 

The Road Ahead: The Advantage play host twice this weekend, first bringing in the South Shore Kings on Friday at 7:30 p.m., and then the Islanders Hockey Club at the same time Saturday evening.

• The Kings hold a 3-1-1-0 record this season and 11-4-1-0 all-time mark against the Advantage. 
• The Advantage hold their name against the Islanders this year, going 3-1-1-0 against the IHC. The Islanders, however, take the all-time lead of 10-6-1-0. 

P.A.L. Jr. Islanders (3-0-0-1) 

The Jr. Islanders are certainly doing everything they can to try to keep a rope on the Hitmen in their quest for first overall. The Hitmen, of course, have been playing out of their minds since P.A.L. put a 3-0 shutout win against the Jersey squad on Feb. 4. The morning after that win, the Jr. Islanders were just four points back. Ancient history now, and the Jr. Islanders – all set and clinched for playoffs, including first round home ice – are hoping for help from the Hitmen’s opponents and needing to basically win their last six to unseat the Hitmen. The Jr. Isles are idle until Saturday, when the Hitmen may be just two points out of clinching the Founders Cup.

At least one thing the Islanders don’t have to worry about is leaving their home arena for the first round of playoffs. They are too far ahead of Mercer for the Chiefs to catch up, and even if P.A.L. lost the rest of the way and the Rockets won their final five games, P.A.L. holds the head-to-head tiebreaker by one point (3-1-0-2 vs. the Rockets’ 3-2-0-1). 

Since the P.A.L.’s last regulation loss – 6-4 to the Hitmen on Feb. 11, the Jr. Isles have swept the New Hampshire Jr. Monarchs in what was (and still would be) a No. 2 against No. 3, 5-1 and 4-3. On Feb. 26, the Rockets won their second of two shootouts, 5-4, but their hopes of catching the P.A.L. vanished the next day when the Jr. Islanders beat the Connecticut Jr. Rangers, 5-3.  

• The Jr. Islanders have the most wins as the home team, standing at 19-3-0-1 at the Northwell Health Ice Center (and as the home squad at showcases). 
• P.A.L. is the only team undefeated in regulation when scoring the first goal, at 23-0-1-2.
• P.A.L. leads the league in power play percentage at 21.7 (41 for 189 opportunities). The other way, the Jr. Islanders have given up the fewest shorthanded goals – just one all year. 
• The Jr. Islanders are top three in offense and defense, with 3.77 goals per game and 2.64 goals against per game. 
• P.A.L. has 20 wins when leading after one period and when leading after two, ranking first and tied for first, respectively, after each period. 
• Heikki Virtanen was red-hot in February, putting up multiple points in all seven games last month for a 5-10-15 mark, with a monthly high of 1-2-3 against Connecticut on Feb. 26. His overall scoring streak is eight games at 6-10-16 going back to Jan. 30. 
• Luca Leighton and the Rockets’ Caden Cranston are neck-and-neck for the longest scoring streak of the year. As of today, it’s Leighton’s current 15-game scoring streak with 12-14-26. Cranston is at 25 points in his last 14 contests. Leighton’s scoring streak included passing the 100-point mark with 102, good for third all-time in P.A.L. history. He may be able to pass Ryan Willett (109) but only a metahuman effort would pass Spencer Korona (142) this year. Leighton is an ‘03. 
• Carter Hanrahan has a 6-5-11 run going over his last eight games. Hanrahan, an ‘03, will finish this season with 194 all-time USPHL regular season games played if he plays all five remaining games. He still has a chance to pass 200 (including NCDC, 16U and short stints at 15U and Premier). 
• Donovan Powell, a regular contributor all year, is on a four-game scoring streak of 1-4-5. 
• The NCDC’s wins leader, St. Lawrence commit Cameron Smith, is undefeated in regulation in his last four games at 3-0-0-1 (playing all the Jr. Isles’ games since Feb. 16). He leads the league with 24 victories, second in save percentage at .940 and he is third in goals against average (2.20).

The Road Ahead: The Jr. Islanders bring in the Utica Jr. Comets for three straight on Saturday (7:15), Sunday (1:30) and Monday (2:45). 

• The Jr. Islanders lead the season series, 2-1-0-0. The All-time series sees a P.A.L. lead of one point (14-11-2-2 for 32 points), though Utica has more wins (15-13-1-0, 31 points).

South Shore Kings (3-1-1-0) 

The Kings’ 3-0 shutout loss to Twin City on Friday shut off what had been a 10-game point streak for the Kings. This loss also kept the Kings from tying the New Hampshire Jr. Monarchs for first. The Kings are two points out of the top spot in the division. That of course is not bad for a team that was in fourth place in the North when February began. 

At their own showcase, the Kings put together two wins – 4-2 against the Mercer Chiefs and 4-1 against the Utica Jr. Comets – and then fell in overtime to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights 2-1 in the Feb. 18 showcase closer. When they came back to action on Thursday, they split a series with the Thunder by winning 6-2 in Game 1 of the Maine team’s trip south, before falling in the aforementioned 3-0 defeat. 

• The Kings’ 8-0-2-0 point streak was their best points streak since a six-game winning streak during Hub City Tampa between Jan. 14-23. 
• The Kings are third in fewest shots allowed per game at 32.51. 
• South Shore has won more often than lost even when being outshot, standing with a 12-7-1-1 record in that situation. 
• Jack Hillier is in a four-way tie for most game-winning goals this year, with six. 
• Jack Barbro is tied for first in goals by a defenseman with 14, scoring his first three as a hat trick on Feb. 23 against Twin City. That was the first – and so far only – hat trick by an NCDC blueliner this year. 

The Road Ahead: The Kings have five games in March, beginning on Wednesday, March 1, against the Northern Cyclones. From there, it’s on to Lovell Arena to face the Advantage on Friday. 

• The Cyclones have one more single point all time over the Kings, thanks to a 14-11-1-1 record for 30 points, versus the Kings’ 13-11-1-2 all-time mark for 29 points. 

Twin City Thunder (3-1-1-0) 

The Thunder came off a 2-0-1 showing at the South Shore Kings Presidents Day Showcase with a win and a loss against the Kings themselves on Feb. 23 and 24, splitting with a 6-2 loss and a 3-0 win. That marked the end of five straight games at Foxboro Sports Center. 

They exited the month seven points behind the Kings, but still with plenty of confidence to be able to make the playoffs. 

• Only one player over those five games had averaged at least a point per game, and it’s the same name that’s generally been at the top of the Thunder leaderboard all year – Trace Norwell. He posted seven points in five games, continuing to build his lead as the team’s all-time leading scorer. He has 77 points in 93 contests, 16 more than his closest competitor. With those seven points in five games, he improved to 45 points in 45 games on the season. 
• Both of the team’s goalies were tremendous during the end of the month of February. Trey Miller put up a .962 mark in playing a game and a half, including a 36-save shutout of the Kings on Feb. 24. Christopher Jackson played every game at the  Kings Showcase, and went 2-0-1 there with a 30-save shutout. His save percentage was .932 for the end of the month, so both goalies combined for a .947 mark. 

The Road Ahead: The team takes on the New Hampshire Jr. Monarchs on both Wednesday and Thursday in a home-and-home series. 

• It’s been a very close series between the two northernmost teams. The Thunder are 2-2, while the Monarchs are 2-1-0-1. The Monarchs are 14-5-1-1 overall in the three-year series. 

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights 

The Knights bounced back from a 1-2 record at the South Shore Kings Presidents Day Showcase to take two out of three against the Mercer Chiefs on the road. Having reached the point, in Foxboro, of being unable to qualify for the playoffs, the Knights are apparently relishing the spoiler role. They certainly halted the Chiefs in their hopes of trying to catch up to the second place P.A.L. Jr. Islanders. 

Their run at the showcase saw three straight one-goal games, a 1-0 loss to the Thunder, while the Boston Advantage won 4-3. They ended with a 2-1 OT victory against the host Kings, and then put together straight wins against the Chiefs – 5-4 and 8-2. Mercer snapped back on Sunday, Feb. 26, with a 3-0 victory. 

• They haven’t had the most one-goal games in the league, but the WBS Knights have generally done well with the tightest games, at 10-7-3-2 overall. 
• No Knights player registered at least a point per game in their last six February games, but the team saw 14 players register points – and 11 different players scored goals in those six contests, as well. 
• The Knights goaltenders have been very strong recently, with Marks Slavenskis-Repe putting up a .932 save percentage over five games. Andrew Palena’s game that he played saw a performance of 37 saves on 39 shots for a .949 save percentage. 

The Road Ahead: The Knights are off in this second-to-last weekend, and they will close their inaugural NCDC season over the March 10-12 weekend against the P.A.L. Jr. Islanders. 

Connecticut Jr. Rangers (2-2-1-0) 

The Jr. Rangers would’ve felt pretty good – not walking on clouds, but pretty good – coming out of the SSK Showcase. Unfortunately for Coach Jim Henkel’s crew, they weren’t able to build on that 2-0-1 stand, falling in a pair of games to the Jersey Hitmen (Feb. 25) and P.A.L. (Feb. 26). 

During the showcase, they opened with a 4-3 overtime loss to the Boston Advantage, and then took wins against the Northern Cyclones (6-2) and the Islanders Hockey Club (4-3). 

The Jr. Rangers are currently tied for fourth place in the South Division, tied with the Rockets. Both teams have 51 points, but the Rockets have two games in hand on the Jr. Rangers. That just underscores how important Friday’s final game against RHC is to the Jr. Rangers. If the two teams were to finish tied in points, the Jr. Rangers hold the head-to-head tiebreaker, at 4-1-0-0 already. 

• The Rangers put the second most shots on goal per game in the NCDC, at 39.83. 
• Goaltender Mason Joseph shows up in the top five of most every goaltending category available, including the major ones such as save percentage (.932, fourth) and wins (17, fourth). He has also made more shootout saves than any other NCDC goalie, stopping 8 of 10 attempts. 
• Three players clicked at a point per game average or better in the last five games of February – Robert Barrasso and Tamas Toth each led with seven, while Schuyler Flansburg put up five points in five games. 
• Flansburg, a Jr. Ranger since 2019-20, currently has 88 points as the organization’s leading active scoring leader. He is just five points off from tying the all-time lead of 93 attained by Takato Cox (2017-19). It’s going to take a long time, however, for anyone to match the games played by Schuyler (166) and his brother Spencer (160) at the top of that category’s leaderboard. 

The Road Ahead: As mentioned above, it’s possibly the most important game of the Jr. Rangers’ whole season. With three games left on the schedule, and one against a team that has two games in hand, a win over the Rockets Hockey Club is basically essential to Connecticut’s postseason hopes. 

• The Jr. Rangers hold a 19-11-2-0 all-time series lead on the Rockets. 

Boston Junior Bruins (2-2-0-0)  

The Junior Bruins are working for wins everywhere they come, just to go out on a high note from an otherwise tough 2022-23 season that will not see a postseason for the crew from Marlborough. That, of course, is a shock to the system of a top-flight organization that won the last non-Hitmen Dineen Cup in 2019, reached the 2021 semifinals, and also the 2022 championship series. 

Over the Feb. 17-18 weekend, the Junior Bruins went to Bridgewater, N.J., and battled the host Rockets Hockey Club to a split, falling 3-2 and then winning 6-4. 

Five days back in Massachusetts, they took a 4-3 loss to the Boston Advantage and then snapped back to defeat the Islanders Hockey Club, 6-2, on Feb. 25. 

• The Boston Junior Bruins may very well finish as the least-penalized team, standing at 9.13 penalty minutes per game, just ahead of the Hitmen’s 9.53 mark and standing as the only two teams under 10. 
• Dominic Murphy, a 2021 NCDC Entry Draft selection by the Junior Bruins, was a huge contributor to their cause to end February, posting a 2-6-8 mark in those last four games, a streak he’ll carry into March. The ‘03 Holy Cross recruit joined in late January and has 15 points in 10 games. 
• Easton Ryan’s four-point game against the IHC on Feb. 26 pushed him into the Junior Bruins’ all-time top five in their NCDC history – and only three points away from 100 for his career. With four games remaining, he has enough space to potentially climb as high as third, currently occupied by Quinnipiac’s Collin Graf (101 points). 

The Road Ahead: On Thursday at noon, the Islanders host the Junior Bruins, and then on Friday, it’s a 12:40 home game against the Northern Cyclones. 

• The Junior Bruins are 17-9-2-1 all-time against IHC, but it’s the Islanders who will win the 2022-23 season series at currently 4-1-0-0. 
• It’s a similar situation against the Cyclones, where the Junior Bruins lead all-time at 14-10-1-2, but the Cyclones will capture the 2022-23 series going into this second-to-last matchup at 3-1. The Cyclones also evened up their all-time record against the Junior Bruins on Jan. 28 with a 6-2 victory, to stand 13-13-1-0. 

Rockets Hockey Club (2-2-0-0) 

The Rockets are oh-so-close to clinching a playoff berth – but so are their current rivals pushing for a spot, the Connecticut Jr. Rangers. The two teams will face each other on Friday. The Rockets have two games in hand on the Jr. Rangers to make up any lost ground, even if they happen to fall to Connecticut on Friday. They’ll have four more games to make up ground and the Jr. Rangers would have just two to build on any lead they may possibly build. 

It may not even be as dramatic as that. Both teams making the playoffs at the expense of the Mercer Chiefs is also not out of the question, with the Chiefs standing three points above both the Rockets and Rangers, but with just two games left to play. 

The Rockets split against the Junior Bruins Feb. 17-18, with a 3-2 win and a 6-4 loss, before two more games in New Jersey. First, it was a 5-4 shootout win over the P.A.L. Jr. Islanders, and then a 3-2 loss to the Jersey Hitmen over the Feb. 25-26 weekend. 

• Rockets goaltenders have turned away all but three of 20 shootout attempts this year, giving them the second best defensive percentage in the league at 15 percent. 
• The Rockets have had a strong power play all year, and currently rank third at 19.4 percent. 
• Bridgewater’s team is also No. 3 in league offense, averaging 3.73 goals per game. 
• Caden Cranston, the league’s leading scorer, recently committed to NCAA Division I Bentley University. He currently stands with 16-48-64 totals, and is on the league’s second-longest point streak of the year. In 14 games, he has a league-high 21 assists – a completely separate league-leading streak – along with four goals for 25 points. 
• Cranston also leads the league in assists with 48, while Barron Woodring (Army) is third in goals with 25, and Cade Baker is tied for the league lead in power play goals with nine. The Rockets and Hitmen are the only two teams with three players in the top 10 of league scoring. 
• Matthew O’Donnell is the top shootout goaltender in terms of completely shutting out opponents. He’s stopped all four shots he’s faced in the 1v1 challenge this year. 

The Road Ahead: The Rockets make the trip Friday morning for a 1 p.m. game at Chelsea Piers in Connecticut. Saturday, the Jersey Hitmen come to Bridgewater for a 5:25 p.m. showdown. The Jr. Rangers also face the league-leading Hitmen one more time, on March 10. 

• Connecticut has won the season series (for the first time since 2019-20), at 4-1-0-0, and holds the all-time edge at 19-11-2-0. The Rockets are even all-time at 13-13-4-2. 
• The Hitmen hold a slim 3-2-0-0 lead in the season series, while the Rockets are just one point behind at 2-2-1-0. All-time, the Hitmen hold a 27-4-1-1 lead. 

Utica Jr. Comets (2-2-0-0) 

The Jr. Comets might turn out to be the Rockets Hockey Club’s worst nightmare, if the stars don’t align right for the Bridgewater side. Utica, playing for pride with no postseason ahead, will relish the spoiler role every chance they get. The Jr. Comets performed well at the SSK Presidents Day Showcase, picking up a 2-1 record. Every player we talked to there knew that every game was pretty much must-win after falling 4-1 in the middle game to South Shore, after a 5-2 opening victory against the Islanders Hockey Club. 

They won, 3-2 in OT against Twin City. The juggernaut Hitmen ended their playoff hopes with a 7-2 win over Utica on Feb. 22. The Jr. Comets were idle from game action last weekend and are traveling to Long Island this weekend to face the P.A.L. Jr. Islanders, a team that has long-shot aims at this very moment of taking first. The Hitmen currently stand four points out of absolute clinching territory, but anything other than a perfect 6-0 run by P.A.L. the next two weekends would shrink those four necessary points quickly. Utica’s ready to play spoiler if it means some nice wins for the road trip back. 

• Michael Herrera has a chance to build on his goal lead and end the season as the NCDC goals leader. He has 28 currently. 
• Medrick Bolduc is fourth in assists with 33, and he is also the Jr. Comets leader among active players in career points with 71. That ranks him fourth in Jr. Comets NCDC history. 

The Road Ahead: The three-game series begins at 7:15 Saturday, continues at 1:30 Sunday and wraps with a 2:45 puck drop Monday. 

• The Jr. Islanders lead the season series, 2-1-0-0. The All-time series sees a P.A.L. lead of one point (14-11-2-2 for 32 points), though Utica has more wins (15-13-1-0, 31 points).

In Other Action

The Northern Cyclones came out of February just one game under .500 to end February. They left Foxboro after the SSK Showcase with a 1-2 record there. They fell 4-1 to the Boston Advantage on Feb. 25, but won their final February game on the 27th, 2-1 in a shootout over the Granite State rival New Hampshire Jr. Monarchs. 

The Cyclones have clinched a playoff berth and currently sit in second, but they have not yet clinched home ice. They could potentially still take the top spot from the Monarchs, especially with two games in hand. 

The New Hampshire Jr. Monarchs have gone 1-2-0-1 since mid-February, which has made for plenty of close drama in the North Division. Although they have clinched a playoff berth along with the Cyclones and South Shore Kings, no one can be sure yet of where they’re going or staying in two weeks. The Monarchs, at 56 points on Wednesday morning, hold the division lead, but the Cyclones, Kings and Twin City Thunder all have games in hand (the Thunder would have to win out their last five and have the Monarchs win no more to catch up for first, so Twin City out of all the division-contending teams is the true longshot and could lose their chance on Wednesday). 

The Mercer Chiefs have truly fallen on some hard times, standing at 1-5 since Feb. 16. Unable to pick up a win in Foxboro, they broke a seven-game skid on Feb. 26 with a 3-0 win over the WBS Knights. They can climb no higher than third in the South and are in danger of potentially slipping below fourth with just two games remaining and all other teams competing for the top four having games in hand on them. They face the Hitmen on Friday, and then close the Saturday after against Connecticut, which may potentially be must-win for the Chiefs. 

The Islanders Hockey Club are hoping for some rays of sunshine to close out their season. They have gone 0-5, including a tough run at the SSK Presidents Day Showcase and losses to the Junior Bruins and Monarchs since. They get a chance at vengeance against the Junior Bruins on Saturday. 

Drop The Pucks!