Brunswick finds itself at the top of the prep table at the holiday break, sporting a 12-0-2 record that makes it the new No. 1 team in New England Hockey Journal’s rankings and the lone unbeaten remaining in the region.
But that doesn’t mean the path to emerging with the Kevin Mutch Christmas Tournament championship for the third consecutive year last weekend was an easy one.
“We found ourselves in some tighter games than we had been in the past couple weeks,” Brunswick coach Mike Kennedy said. “We started (the season) with a tight game against St. George’s, but then found ourselves in some games where we got out to big leads. … [The tournament] was definitely different. All the games could have gone either way, so what stood out about our team was that we never panicked.”
The Bruins had won six straight games by at least four goals and scored six or more goals in four of them entering the three-game tournament at St. Sebastian’s. After edging past Williston Northampton and Rivers in two-goal games, a 4-3 overtime victory over Northwood on Sunday lifted them to the title.
Continuing an incredible start to his prep career, Harvard commit Joe Salandra scored the championship-winning goal on a penalty shot to punctuate his third multi-goal game of the season.
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The native of Pleasantville, N.Y. — just across the state border from Brunswick’s Greenwich, Conn., campus — arrived at Brunswick from the prominent Mid Fairfield Rangers program and is leading the team with 11 goals and 21 points through only 10 games of his junior campaign.
“Joe does it all,” Kennedy said. “He can skate, he has speed. He’s very powerful and strong, so he’s tough to knock off the puck. And then he just shoots the puck like a pro. We haven’t had anybody with a shot like his. … He’s very confident in his ability to put the puck in the net. And he did it…from day one.”
According to senior Oliver Czaja (Darien, Conn.), Salandra’s presence has been a huge boost to a roster that graduated its top five scorers from last season, four of whom are Division 1-bound hockey players.
“He’s a great player. He’s really mature for his age,” Czaja said. “He and Mason St. Louis (Old Greenwich, Conn.) both practiced with us last year, so we knew that they were going to be a big part of the team this year. … All the new guys, really, have kept getting more comfortable in prep.”
Aside from Salandra, senior assistant captain Tucker Spiess (Old Greenwich, Conn.) scored twice on the power play in the title game and finished the weekend with three goals.
“You want your leaders, you want your guys playing the right way to be rewarded, and those guys certainly deserved it with [how hard] they play,” Kennedy said. “We don’t have many seniors, so they have done a great job leading and sort of letting the younger guys follow in their footsteps.”
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The team’s no-panic attitude was no more apparent than in the opening round, coming back from a three-goal deficit in the first half to beat Williston 7-5.
Junior Ben Lombardi (Cos Cob, Conn.) and Czaja each scored twice and combined for nine points — including five from Lombardi — in that game, while sophomore linemate Keegan Kazan (Wilton, Conn.) also had a four-point performance before scoring the eventual game-winner against Rivers the next day.
“The will to win (really stood out). We were just determined,” Czaja said. “Even though we were down in the first game, we just found a way to get it tied back up and grinded it out. … We kept finding ways to win. It’s been a great group to play with so far.”
If another postseason run is in the cards for the Bruins, this past weekend will certainly have its benefits as the season continues and the games get even more meaningful.
Rolling four complete lines and seven defensemen showcased the team’s depth, and being able to do it against strong competition was a great sign of things to come.
“It was a really good challenge for us,” Czaja said. “Further down the road in Elite 8, it’s not going to be a blowout by the first period. It was great for us to keep building as a team, and some guys stepped up who hadn’t produced as much.”
