With the prep and MIAA seasons done, the focus now shifts to USA Hockey Nationals.
The two districts in this region — Massachusetts and New England — held their playoffs at different times.
The New England region recently held its district playoffs. The Yale Jr. Bulldogs won for the 18U division, while Mid Fairfield took the championship for the 16U.
Massachusetts, which is separate from the New England region, had its 16U and 18U playoffs back in November with the Boston Jr. Eagles winning for the 18U and 16U divisions.
A few other teams earned at-large bids, too.
All national tournaments will be held April 2-7. The 16Us and 18Us will take the ice in Las Vegas.
Let's dive into how each age group breaks down. And don't worry — there will be a separate story done on the 14Us and 15Us.
18U
If you're a New England hockey fan, you'll have plenty of games to watch in this age group.
Along with the Jr. Eagles and Jr. Bulldogs, Mount St. Charles, Avon Regals and Central Mass. Penguins all will be heading to Las Vegas by way of at-large bids.
The Jr. Eagles have a lot of interesting uncommitted prospects. In net, this will be a big tournament for Sam Caulfield (Needham, Mass.), who is coming off of two strong seasons for Milton Academy. He's still uncommitted. Up front, players like Tyler Hamilton (Framingham, Mass.), Colin Gorman (Westwood, Mass.), Sean Leetch (Boston, Mass.), Isaac Mitchell (Harvard, Mass.) and Nate Porter (Hingham, Mass.) will be battling for college eyes. On defense, Aidan Connors (Westboro, Mass.), Jack Harney (Needham, Mass.), Charlie Leverone (Sudbury, Mass.) and Shawn Leary (Dorchester, Mass.) will hope to have good showings, too.
The Jr. Bulldogs are fresh off a thrilling New England District win. The big player to watch up front will be Cornell commit Gio DiGiulian (South Burlington, Vt.), who will have NHL scouts watching his every move. Fellow Cornell commit Alex Pelletier (Granby, Conn.) will be a vital scorer as well. So, too, will Providence College commit Cooper Snee and Holy Cross commit Ryan Flaherty (Milton, Mass.). Two other interesting names to watch up front: Charles Blanchard (West Hartford, Conn.) and Jesse Allecia. Blanchard was a big scorer in the fall and Allecia is fresh off a very strong season with Salisbury.
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Yale commit Hudson Miller will lead the defense with Mitch McCusker and Kyle Ozgun in net.
Mount St. Charles and the Central Mass. Penguins hold interesting advantages over the rest of the field. Both teams have been playing together all season.
Mount is led up front by Gates Omicioli (New Haven, Conn.), Ronnie Hill (Saco, Maine) and Jaden Sikura. Head coach Drew Omicioli's team has some intriguing prospects on defense, too, in Noah Mertz (Coventry, R.I.), Jack Montaldo, Colton Whitfield (Warwick, R.I.) and Kai Mencel. Justin Bayers and Jaden Cholette have both had strong seasons in net.
The Central Mass. Penguins is the entire Cushing team, which is fresh off earning the No. 1 seed in the Elite 8 Tournament and making it to the final.
While the Penguins boast a plethora of college commits, some uncommitted players to keep an eye on are forwards Emerson Marshall (Gloucester, Mass.), Bronson Hunt, Tanner Hunt, Max Dineen (Brentwood, N.H.) and AJ Sacco (Middleton, Mass.).
NHL scouts will be watching this team with prospects like goalie Marko Bilic, and forwards Kole Hyles (Newfields, N.H.) and Luke Goukler.
The Avon Regals boast lots of strong prep players. The offense is led by Yale commit Tom Molson, who had yet another great season for Deerfield. There are also some intriguing uncommitted prospects from Salisbury in forwards Seamus Latta, Connor Davis, Jared Rothman and Nicholas Petrut, as well as defenseman Ty Creech.
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Aiden Hopewell is fresh off an outstanding run for Kent, leading the Lions to a Large School championship. Tyler Spokane was in net for Millbrook this winter.
16U
Only two teams from the region will represent the 16U level in Vegas. Still, both squads are strong.
Mid Fairfield tore through New England Districts to earn a spot in Vegas. Up front, the Rangers are led by UNH commit George McCaffrey (Ridgefield, Conn.). They also have strong '07s in Tommy Coccaro (Fairfield, Conn.), Corbin Carkner, Luke Dow (Orange, Conn.) and Oliver Czaja (Darien, Conn.), who had a really strong junior season with Brunswick.
Tommy Bleyl and Marco Senerchia (Greenville, R.I.) are the leaders on defense. Both are uncommitted. Bleyl was outstanding for the Rangers in the fall. That continued into the prep season with Albany Academy. Senerchia exploded with St. George's over the winter, scoring 10 goals and tallying 33 points in 28 games. He's one of the more dynamic '07 defenders.
Steven Luciano (New Canaan, Conn.), who played with Salisbury during the prep season, has been terrific in net for Mid Fairfield. The 6-foot-1, 179-pound '07 remains uncommitted. Also in net is Jack Fichthorn (Darien, Conn.), who was with Westminster this winter. He, too, remains uncommitted.
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The Jr. Eagles boast some interesting prospects as well. They will be led up front by the Mutryn brothers — Teddy (Norwell, Mass.), a Boston College commit, and Casey (Norwell, Mass.), an '08 who's playing up. Along with Casey, Freddy Meyer (Winchester, Mass.) Rian Chudzinski (Needham, Mass.), Billy MacAusland (Westwood, Mass.), Jake Tavares (Belmont, Mass.), Evan Nee (Arlington, Mass.) and Patrick Woods (Charlestown, Mass.) are intriguing uncommitted prospects. All took big steps in prep this winter.
On defense, Myles Brosnan (Winchester, Mass.) is fresh off a breakout freshman campaign with Dexter Southfield. Evan Jones (Arlington, Mass.) is another interesting player to watch, as he's a standout prospect from the MIAA. Aiden MacIsaac (Andover, Mass.) was a key piece for Lawrence Academy. J.J. Thibodeau (Waltham, Mass.) of Belmont Hill and Derek Huang (Carlisle, Mass.) of Rivers are the two netminders.
