BELMONT, Mass. — Salisbury maintained its stranglehold on prep school hockey with Sunday’s dominating 4-1 win over Belmont Hill. The road triumph at Jordan Athletic Center gave the Crimson Knights back-to-back titles and marked the seventh NEPSAC Elite 8 championship for the school.
Salisbury jumped out to an early 2-0 lead that quieted down a raucous crowd that packed the rink three and four deep in many spots. Senior forwards Oliver Frontini and Ryan Walsh both scored on shots from goaltender Sam Scopa’s right within the first 3:25 of the game. A quick rebuttal from Brock Cummings gave Belmont Hill some life, but 2-1 was as close as the home team would get. Northeastern commit Dylan Hryckowian scored in the second period and fellow Future Husky Ben Poitras sealed the deal with an empty-net goal in the third period. Austin McNicholas wasn’t significantly tested, but he made the saves he needed to in order to preserve the win.
As was the case when I watched Salisbury takedown Dexter Southfield on Wednesday, the Crimson Knights employed a suffocating defense and played a disciplined, detail-oriented game. There wasn’t a lot of time and space for Belmont Hill to get its offense clicking. Salisbury got a lot of sticks on pucks, breaking up shooting and passing lanes. It clearly got to Belmont Hill’s top line as all three players ended up taking penalties, a few of the frustration variety.
It remains deeply disappointing that the NEPSAC didn’t figure out a way to get all three prep school finals in one location on Sunday. However, the atmosphere inside the rink was electric. The Belmont Hill student section was loud and boisterous. There were tons of family members, fans, college coaches, scouts and media all around the glass, above on the balcony, and inside the alumni room overlooking one end. All three prep playoff games I attended this week were played in front of terrific fan support, which was great to see.
Over the last ten years, nine trophies have been handed out for the Elite 8. There was no winner in 2021, due to NEPSAC canceling the season to coronavirus concerns. Salisbury has won five times and been a runner-up twice. Quite simply, in seven of the last nine seasons played Salisbury has been the best or second-best team in prep hockey. During the stretch of dominance for Andrew Will’s program, only Kimball Union can come close to being equal. Tim Whitehead’s Wildcats won three straight Elite 8 championships from 2017 to 2019. The only winner outside Salisbury and Kimball Union since 2013 was Gunnery in 2016.
It’s true that in most games Salisbury and Kimball Union get off the bus or leave the locker room with the most talent. However, it’s most certainly a fact that Will and Whitehead are a step above the competition when it comes to coaching and getting the most out of their players. There are other good coaches in the prep school circuit, but the track record speaks for itself. The 2021-22 campaign might be Will’s best coaching job yet. He’s certainly had far more talented teams in his tenure at Salisbury. Going back a few months, Salisbury was in the midst of a losing streak and the future looked bleak. Fast forward to the first week of March and Will brought his team into three hostile environments against teams loaded with Division 1 recruits and won them all. Defeating Dexter Southfield, Kimball Union and Belmont Hill, all on the road, is one heck of a feat.
While a loss on home ice in the final is not the way Belmont Hill wanted to go out, this is a team that accomplished a lot during the 2021-22 campaign. The Sextants were the last undefeated team in prep hockey and beat two good teams to reach the final. Brian Phinney, a Will disciple, has Belmont Hill heading in the right direction.
All-TOURNAMENT TEAM: Dylan Hryckowian leads our honor roll
Scoring summary
SS 1-0: On his first shift and just the third of the entire game, Frontini gave the Crimson Knights an early lead. He caught a nice vertical pass from Trey Deere as the pair were coming down the left wing. After receiving the pass Frontini took a few strides before placing a hard wrist shot just inside the post on the short side of Belmont Hill goaltender Sam Scopa. While he might not have gotten an assist on the play, credit goes to Cole Eichler for the net drive that might have impaired the vision or at least attracted the attention of the goaltender.
SS 2-0: Shortly thereafter, Walsh came buzzing down the left side and fired a shot from a bad angle that zipped into the twine.
BH 1-2: A few minutes later, the Sextants got on the board with a strike rebound tally from Cummings. The play started with a ‘D’ to ‘D’ pass on the attacking blue line. Jack Bosco sent the puck over to Tom Goguen, who sidestepped one oncoming opposition forward before shooting it on net. The initial shot was stopped, but a wild scramble ensued. It looked like Charlie Cave got a stick on it before the puck popped out to Cummings, who buried it. Jack Houser was also involved in the fight for the puck out front of the Salisbury net.
SS 3-1: The only tally of the second period came about midway through when Hryckowian gracefully lifted a wrist shot into the upper corner of the net above Scopa’s glove. The scoring sequence started with a great keep-in on the blue line by Brown commit Alex Zakrzewski. The puck came out to Lee Parks who took a few strides towards the middle before dishing it off to Hryckowian.
SS 4-1: In the waning minutes of the game, Poitras put the game on ice with an empty-net tally.
Salisbury lines
Parks - R. Walsh - D. Hryckowian
Driscoll - J. Ebbott - B. Poitras
Frontini - T. Deere - C. Eichler
Latta - H. Hanes - M. Strapp
Zakrzewski - D. Westen
Chapman - T. Creech
Hall - H. Metz
McNicholas
Belmont Hill lines
O’Donnell - Stiga - Fisher
McManus - Reilly - Markham
Cave - Cummings - Houser
Blackwell - Daignault - Carter
Killoran - Biotti
Bosco - Goguen
Doolan - Verville
Scopa
