U15 SPLIT - TIER 1: News

The 98 Vipers strung together their most discouraging performance in recent memory on Friday night and the upstart NH Monarchs capitalized on every mistake handing the Vipers a 3-2 loss with just 28 seconds left in the game. The Monarchs first goal came on the PP after a foolish Viper penalty and then a complete unwillingness to win a 1v1 battle led to the tying goal. The Vipers would go up 2-1 in the second but then a lazy clearing attempt turned into a turnover on the blueline that ended up in the back of the net for a 2-2 score. The a turnover in front of their own cage with 28 seconds left would immediately end up in the back of the net for the game winner. The Vipers lacked discipline, intensity, urgency and any willingness to win battles and races in this one. Kyle Hentosh would score both Viper goals, one coming on  the PP, Dante Maribito-2 and Noah Maercklein would add assists

After giving up 2 quick first period goals the Vipers would score the next 7 unanswered in rolling to an impressive win over the Nashua Panthers. The Vipers who were out the services of JT Chamberlain with an injury got a balanced scoring attack from all 3 lines while all 6 D chipped in with a solid effort and Aaron McDonnell made some very fine stops down the stretch when this one still mattered. Kyle Hentosh lead the offensive charge with 2-2-4 totals, and Kyle lynch who scored the goal of the season put up 2-1-3, as he made an incredible rush in the third and finished by burrying it 5 hole captivating the energized crowd, linemate Dante Maribito finished with 0-2-2. The makeshift line of Braden Haley (1-0-1) (who played a fine 3 zone game game) Alex Delvento (1-0-1) and Ross Wahl (0-1-1) turned in a fine effort all morning. Evan Daddario and Noah Maercklein were the other goal scorers. Special teams also played a big part in this one as the Vipers cashed in on 2 of 4 PP chances while killing of all 5 shorthanded bids. Patrick McCarthy, and Ryna Connearney would turn in fine efforts on the blueline as well.

After holding a decesive shot advantage and terrotorial play the Vipers let one slip away by giving up a breakaway goal with just over 2 minutes left in the game to setle for a 3-3 tie with the much improved scrappy Red Rangers. Phenomanal goaltending was the story for the Red Rangers as the Vipers could not cash in on the many oppurtunities they had. Playing well in stretches but very inconsistent for most of the game in which they lacked the killer instinct. Noah Maercklein would get the visitors on the board first as he skated down the right wing and fired a shot low that squezed through the 5 hole for the early lead. The Red Rangers would score the next 2 and hold the one goal lead into the third. Dante Maribito was able to tie the game on the PP as he collected a nice pass from the stick of Kyle Hentosh from behind the net. Kyle Lynch would benefit from some nice passing betwen linemates Maribito and Hentosh again as the 3 made a spectacular play to give the Vipers the 3-2 lead with about 6 mintes left in the game. The Red Rangers would then capitilize on a Viper turnover on the blueline and cash in on the breakaway to tie the game andhand the Vipers a disapointing tie.

A goaltender's craft, according to David Letarte

March, 4, 2011 Mar 4 8:50 PM ET

By Scott Barboza

It's a couple hours before St. John's Prep will take the ice in its season finale against Catholic Memorial. The Eagles have the historic opportunity to knock CM out of the playoffs for the first time in more than a quarter century.

But Prep goaltender David Letarte is already busy. He stands along the end boards of the Cronin Memorial Rink in Revere. While a bunch of youngsters fall and flail on the ice during public skating hours, Letarte is listening to music on his iPod while feverishly taping his stick. It's not typically part of his pregame ritual; he usually tapes his stick during the previous night's practice. However, his stick broke during practice, so he's going to his backup and trying to get it ready for game action.

Scott Barboza for ESPNBoston.com

St. John's Prep goaltender David Letarte's preparation for a game begins more than a hour before the Eagles hit the ice with playing ping pong against the wall to work on his hand-eye coordination.Soon after, about an hour before the Eagles are to take the ice, Letarte goes off into a secluded corner of the rink with goaltending coach Scott Hentosh. The pair work through a battery of reflex drills. The series lasts about 20 minutes and it incorporates all elements of hand-eye coordination that are beneficial to playing between the pipes. Hentosh and Letarte started this particular ritual about halfway through the season; its impact has been evident in Letarte's play.

"You can really see the difference." Hentosh says.

Whether it's motor reflex drills, taps against the goal posts, or hopping over the blue line, goalies are always looking for an edge. They're a tightly-bound pile of nerves, ticks and idiosyncrasies. They're a breed of their own and they also happen to be a critical part to any team's postseason hopes.

But, as Letarte will have you know, there's a method behind all the madness.

Scott Barboza for ESPNBoston.com

In the next phase, Letarte works with goaltender coach Scott Hentosh, who throws a tennis ball against the wall from behind Letarte. He then reacts, making the "save" with either hand."The thing about anyone's routine is that it makes you feel like you're mentally prepared," the Prep junior said. "It's whatever you need to do to make you feel you're ready to play."

Playing goal is more than just a collection of superstitions - well, somewhat. Letarte also confesses to having his own set of mannerisms in the crease. Moreover, it points to a frame of mind, a sort of Zen that a goalie accesses to play at their highest level.

"The biggest part about this game is the mental," Letarte said. "If your mind isn't right, you're not ready to play."

Scott Barboza for ESPNBoston.com

Letarte says the drills help him tune his mind and body in preparation for upcoming game.A mainstay of Letarte's pregame preparation is visualization. He spends quiet time in the locker room running through the game in his mind before he dresses. Putting himself mentally on the ice, Letarte visualizes himself playing the angles, making the saves.

During that process of introspection, he also focuses on breathing patterns. He's taught himself how to slow breathing, which in turn slows his pulse, which in turn has a calming effect. It's an aid he picked up with the suggestion of his brother, Andrew, a 25-year-old Prep graduate and former hockey standout who is now a member of the Army Rangers.

Scott Barboza for ESPNBoston.com

In the next round of excises, Hentosh faces Letarte and holds the tennis ball at the height of his head, dropping the ball and calling out which hand Letarte should catch the ball with -- again reinforcing reflex time."My brother told me about how snipers use breathing techniques to slow their heart rate and how it helps them hit their shots," Letarte said. "He's always been a big help to my game."

Letarte hopes to follow his brother's path into armed forces. Andrew is up for deployment next year, but even when he can't be in attendance for David's game, his younger brother "carries him" into every game. He wears an U.S. Army t-shirt underneath his chest guard the Airborne eagle logo is emblazoned on the back of his mask.

He wears the Army t-shirt during his pregame session with Hentosh. The first installment lasts around five minutes with Letarte playing a game of ping pong against himself. Like Forrest Gump, Letarte bats the ball against the wall, gripping the paddle with his right hand and then his left.

Scott Barboza for ESPNBoston.com

Hentosh next tests Letarte's reaction time. The goaltender stands about 30 paces away, crouched in the starting position. Hentosh drops the ball and Letarte tried to catch the ball on one bounce.Next, Hentosh uses a tennis ball to test Letarte's reflexes. Standing behind Letarte, who's crouched in butterfly style, Hentosh bounces the ball off the wall, forcing him to make a "glove save." After going for several minutes, they switch to a face-to-face drill, where Hentosh holds the ball at eyes' height. While dropping the ball, he calls out: "Left, left, right, left," and Letarte catches the ball with the according hand. Finally, there's a sprint reaction drill. Letarte stands about 30 paces to either side of Hentosh, who then releases the ball. The idea is that Letarte will catch it, mid-sprint, on one bound.

The additions to Letarte's pregame regimen with Hentosh's assistance have helped him to a 2.52 goals against average this season. He's also been no small reason for the Eagles' run to the Super Eight, which begins with Prep's battle against play-in winner Woburn at 4 p.m., Saturday, at Merrimack College.

Scott Barboza for ESPNBoston.com

With his exercises behind him, Letarte pulls his gear on and takes the ice for the pregame shoot-around with his teammates."We started out kind of slow this season, but then we started to get know each other's games," said Letarte, a Salem resident. "We've got a good group of seniors and then we had some younger players step up like [freshman Shane] Eiserman. We started to play more physical hockey and we started playing the way we wanted to play."

On Saturday, as before any other game, Letarte will go through his usual routine.

When he skates to his crease, he'll get down in his split, stretch out, get up. He'll put his mask along with catching glove, blocker and stick on top of the net and take one last big swig of water (as he does habitually after every whistle). He'll slip the mask back on, tap the pads in his ceremonial form, face center ice and raise his arm to the official.

Let the puck drop.

 

For the original ESPN story: http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/high-school/post/_/id/5392/a-goaltenders-craft-according-to-david-letarte

Marlborough, MA (Youth1) – Over Presidents' Day Weekend, some of the top Squirt Minor through Bantam Minor teams traveled to Massachusetts to compete in the Eastern Hockey Federation (EHF) Elite Invitational and after five days of competition, the winners have been decided.

 

Squirt Minor – Minuteman Flames (Elite)

As the tournament's top ranked team with a record of 47-1-2, the #2 Minuteman Flames came into the EHF Invitational as heavy favorites.  Placed in the Squirt Minor Black division for the preliminaries, they opened with wins against the #22 Assabet Valley Patriots and #15 Team Comcast.  They then closed out the opening round with a 3-3 tie against the #7 New Jersey Colonials and a victory over the #18 Long Island Gulls.

 

The Flames coasted through the playoffs, defeating the 6^th ranked Mid Fairfield Blues 4-1 in the quarterfinals before topping the 11^th ranked Westchester Express 10-2 in the semi-finals.  In the championship game, the Flames shut out their league opponent, the #10 Middlesex Islanders, 5-0, giving them the championship.

 

Squirt Major – Boston Jr. Eagles (Elite)

The 22^nd ranked Jr. Eagles started off strong in the Squirt Major Black division, beating the New Jersey Rockets, #12 St. Louis Blues and #14 Bridgewater Bandits (Elite) before dropping a surprising game to the Florida Jr. Panthers.

 

In the quarterfinals, the 4^th seeded Jr. Eagles faced the #8 Middlesex Islanders (Elite).  Despite Boston having struggled against Middlesex all season, going 1-1-3 in the five games they have played against each other, they were able to pull out a 5-4 win thanks to a great effort from the entire team.  During their semi-final game, they edged past another EHF league opponent, the #9 Minuteman Flames (Elite), to advance them to the finals where they would play the #2 team in the country, the Tampa Bay Jr. Lightning. In a stunning upset, the Jr. Eagles were able to shut out the Jr. Lightning 3-0 to earn their second tournament title this season.

 

Pee Wee Minor – Syracuse Nationals

During the preliminary round in the Peewee Minor White division, the 6^th ranked Syracuse Nationals had wins over the #9 South Shore Kings (Elite), Long Island Gulls and #15 Mid Fairfield Blues and tied the #19 Minuteman Flames (Elite).

 

As the division's top seeded team, Syracuse earned a bye in the quarterfinals and then took on the #4 New Jersey Colonials, who the Nationals had played twice, winning one game 2-1 and losing the other 6-2.  In a very evenly matched game, the Nationals were able to defeat the Colonials 2-1 to send them to the finals.  There, they played the #11 New England Jr. Falcons, who they had also split a pair of games with earlier this year, but with a full team effort, the Nationals were able to defeat the Jr. Falcons 5-3, earning them the championship title.

 

Pee Wee Major – Greater Boston Vipers

With a record of 41-13-6, the 34^th ranked Greater Boston Vipers entered the tournament as underdogs. They struggled during the preliminary round in the Peewee Major Black division and after beating the Seacoast Spartans, tying both the #28 New England Jr. Falcons and Minuteman Flames (Elite) and losing to the #27 Providence Capitals (Elite), they entered the playoffs as the bottom seeded team.

 

After pulling out a 4-3 win in the quarterfinals over the top seeded Bridgewater Bandits, the Vipers advanced to the semi-finals.  There, they beat the Middlesex Islanders 4-2 to send them to the championship game, where they would face the Jr. Falcons again. With great offensive play from Brendan White, Evan Daddario, Kyle Hentosh and Alex DelVento and an excellent performance from goalie Nick Fiorentino, Greater Boston pulled off the upset and topped New England 6-2, which earned the Vipers their first win over the Jr. Falcons, as well as their first tournament title.

 

Bantam Minor – Westchester Express

Ranked 14^th in the nation with a record of 42-17-4, the Express were one of the favorites to win the tournament at the Bantam Minor level.  During the preliminary round in the White division, they had wins against the #24 New England Falcons, New Jersey Colonials and Florida Alliance before tying the #21 Providence Capitals (Elite) 4-4.

 

In the playoffs, they earned convincing wins over the Rochester Alliance in the quarterfinals and Providence Capitals in the semi-finals, beating both teams 8-3 to advance to the championship game to play the Boston Jr. Eagles (Elite).  In the finals, led by a great offensive performance, the Express defeated the Jr. Eagles 9-1 to become the tournament champions.

 

Provided by http://youth1.com

If the Vipers were going to win this one it was going to have to be without JT Chamberlain as he would miss this one but the 98s stepped up as a team and got a solid effort from the goal out and cruised to a 6-2 win over the New England Junior Falcons in the finals. The Vipers would shake off a slow start and pick up the pace against the weary Flacons and after some great forechecking set up by Noah Maercklein (0-2-2), Braden Haley's (0-2-2) shot from the slot was kicked out and Brendan White (2-0-2) was johnny on the spot and knocked in the rebound for the 1-0 lead. The lead would be stretched to 2-0 with just 6 seconds left in the second period as Evan Daddario (2-0-2) would jump on a turnover high in the slot and snap the shorthanded goal by the keeper. Two minutes into the 3rd period the Vipers would jump out to a 3-0 lead on Whitey's second goal as he knocked in a goal mouth scramble, with help from Maercklein and Haley. The Flacons would would answer just 16 seconds later to trim the lead back down to 2. The Vipers would not be rattled as Kyle Hentosh would collect a Dante Maribito chip of the window at center ice win a foot race for a breakaway and deposit it over the goalies blocker to get the lead back to 3. Just two minutes later the Falcons would respond again  with a long hard slapper that evaded Nick Fiorentino and made the score 4-2 with 5 minutes left in the game. The Vipers would call timeout at this point to settle the troops and it worked as on the very next shift Evan Daddorio would sweep one in that was set up by some tenacious forechecking by Ross Wahl and Alex Delvento, who did a fine job filling in at right wing. The Vipers would add the empty netter by Kyle Lynch with a minute left that would put this one in the books. Nick Fiorentino was a rock in the nets keeping the strong talented Flacons off the board late. The Viper defense also stood tall and did a fine job of taking away time and space and holding their blue. A tremendous weekend by the 98s as they were underdogs all the way through and played near perfect hockey down the stretch of this tournament.

The Vipers controlled this one from the start and never really let the Islanders get on track as they advanced to the finals of the EHF Championship game with a 4-2 win. Special teams played a big part in this one as the Vipers PK killed off a 4:30 major penalty in the middle of the second period. Braden Haley got he 4th seeded Vipers on the board first as he one timed a beautiful centering pass from Noah Maercklein into the open left side, Brendan White picked up a helper also. The Islanders would come back and tie it up in the second but not for long as Kyle Hentosh (2-1-3) would blast a one time feed from Kyle Lynch (0-2-2) upstairs off the bar for the 2-1 lead. Kyle Hentosh would stretch it to a 3-1 lead as he finished off a beautiful 2v1 with Lynchy, Christian Kukas started the play with a nice outlet to Lynchy. Dante Maribito (1-1-2) would make it a 3 goal lead early in the third as he popped in a Hentosh rebound off the post. The Islanders would try to make this one interesting with a late goal in the third but the Vipers would not let them any closer. Aaron McDonnel was solid in this one between the pipes and he was helped with some solid team defense. Ryan Connearney, Steven Tettoni, Aaron Dollin, Patrick McCarthy, Christian Kukas and Alex Delvento would stand out on the blueline

4th Seed Vipers Take Down 1 Seed Bridgewater Bandits to advance to Semi's

The Vipers turned in an inspired solid effort and advanced to the Semi-Finals with a 4-3 win. Brendan White (1-1-2), Noah Maercklein (1-0-1) Dante Maribito and Evan Daddario would score for the Vipers in this one. Braden Haley and Ross Wahl would pick up two assists each while Christian Kukas and Kyle Lynch would also add assists in this one as the Vipers pushed out to a 4-2 lead half way therough the third. The Badnits would cut it to one with 6 minutes left but the Vipers would clamp down and go on to take this one 4-3. Nick Fiorentino would be solid between the pipes backed by some excellent team defense.

In Game 2 of the tournament this morning the Vipers wasted no time in avenging their disappointing tie from the day before as they scored 4 first period goals in route to the 7-1 whitewashing of league riveal Seacoast Spartans. Evan Daddario would score the first 2 goals in the first 5 minutes, the first coming on a low hard snapper as he came in from the wall, the second just 2 minutes later as he would be high in the slot and rifle a snapper high over the blocker side, JT Chamberlain and Ross Wahl picked up helpers on that one after some intense forechecking. Kyle Lynch (1-1-2) from Kyle Hentosh (1-1-2) on the power play would push it to 3-0 and then Noah Maercklein (2-0-2) would get his line on the board on a pretty goal with help from Brendan White (0-2-2) and Braden Haley (1-1-2). All 9 Viper forwards would have at least a point in this one. Noah Maercklein would get his second of the game as Whitey would win a race to a loose puck, knock the defender off the puck that would lead to some cycling of the puck and eventually a goal as Lynchy would pick up a helper as well, Kyle Hentosh would round out the scoring as Dante Maribito would spring him in the neutral zone and Hentosh would end up on a partial breakaway and slide one 5-hole. It was Aaron McDonnell's turn in the nets in this one and he turned in another gem as both Viper goalies continue to play well. The Viper defense also played well, and physical in their own zone and in front of their own cage. A nice team win. The Vipers take on the Providence Capitals later on today...

In their first game of the EHF Invitational the 98 Vipers couldn't hold on to a game they clearly should have won as they settled for a 3-3 tie with the Falcons. The Vipers would come out strong and Dante Maribito would get his first of two on the day to put the Vipers up 1-0, then the first miscue of the game would come while on a 5v3 power play as the Flacons would cash in on a turnover on the blueline for a breakaway goal with just 9 seconds left in the period. The Vipers would go up 2-1 on a pretty goal by Kyle Hentosh on an even nicer pass from Dante Maribito for the lead. The Vipers would go up 3-1 on on the power play as Dante Maribito would clean up a rebound of a Steven Tettoni blast from the point, Christian Kukas also picking up a helper. The Vipers had a great chance to push the lead to 4-1 but Lynchy was denied on a breakaway that looked like it may have crossed the line. The Falcons would capitalize on another bad Viper mistake and cut the lead to 3-2 with just 4 minutes left, then with the goalie pulled and just 13 seconds left and the Falcons swarming the net they would tie the game. Nick Fiorentino would shine between the pipes in this one coming up big when tested