By David Fierro
In the midst of another sensational season, Brunswick School’s hockey team hosted Hoosac School on its Senior Night on Feb. 7 at Hartong Rink and produced a familiar result before its home crowd.
The Bruins, who have excelled at Hartong Rink so far this season and have thrived against most of their opponents, added another ‘W’ to the win column, cruising past Hoosac, 5-2, for their 19th victory of the season.
Brunswick generated goals on its first two shifts to seize a quick 2-0 lead and never looked back. To its credit, Hoosac School put forth a representative showing thereafter, but the Bruins’ fast start was too much for the visitors to overcome.
“These games are tough to play when the opponent doesn’t have a great record, then you score a couple early and you get back on your heels,” Brunswick coach Mike Kennedy said. “We’re happy to get through it and get the win but we need to be a lot better in the next few weeks.”
Prior to Brunswick’s matchup against Hoosac, the Bruins paid tribute to their five seniors with a special Senior Night ceremony. The Bruins’ five seniors include: Goalie LJ Bylow, forward Oliver Czaja, forward Alex Melillo, forward Tucker Spiess and defenseman Blake Stant.
“It’s a small senior class,” Kennedy noted. “We had 14 last year. Everybody has contributed to the program, whether that’s two years, or three or four years. It’s a small class, but they are a bunch of great kids who have contributed a lot to our program.”
“They are good students and good citizens of Brunswick, so it’s nice to give them good recognition tonight and honor them,” Kennedy continued.
Brunswick was ahead of Hoosac, 2-0, after the first period, then skated into the third period with a 4-1 advantage. In the victory, junior forward Mason St. Louis registered one goal and one assist and senior forward Joe Salandra also posted one goal and one assist, as did senior right wing Joe Lombardi for the Bruins.
Just 39 seconds into the 18-minute first period, the Bruins took a 1-0 lead on Hoosac, with St. Louis scoring off a strong rush up the ice. Salandra and Lombardi assisted on the game’s opening goal.
Following the ensuing faceoff, Brunswick struck again. Spiess, an alternate captain, tallied off assists from sophomore left wing Keegan Kazan and senior linemate Oliver Czaja 1:40 into the first period, making it 2-0.
Senior goalie LJ Bylow, meanwhile, kept Hoosac off the scoreboard in the first period, as ‘Wick enjoyed a 13-7 shots-on-goal advantage the first 18 minutes of play.
In the second period, Salandra snapped a shot home from the left faceoff circle, giving the Bruins a 3-0 lead on the visitors from upstate New York. St. Louis set up Salandra for the game’s third goal. Hoosac got on the scoreboard at the 10:42 mark of the second period, but the Bruins regained their three-goal edge, courtesy of a Lombardi goal 11:36 into the period.
Senior defenseman/captain Blake Stant sealed the Bruins’ scoring 3:39 into the third period, putting the hosts in front, 5-1. Czaja assisted on the tally. Stant has been one of Brunswick’s mainstay defensemen during his varsity hockey career.
“It’s an honor to be part of the program at Brunswick,” Stant said. “It’s such a cool school and to wear the logo, it’s something else.”
Like his fellow seniors, Stant enjoyed the Senior Night ceremony and competing at Hartong Rink in one of his final home games.
“It means a lot, the support from the school was unreal,” Stant said. “It was a special night and I was enjoying playing one of my last times playing at this rink with everybody.”
“There were five of us, so it was special for us,” he continued. “I’ve always loved playing at this rink, it’s a beautiful rink. I’ve always enjoyed it and we have a great student body that supports us, so I love it.”
Currently, Brunswick is well on its way toward earning a berth in the NEPSAC Elite 8 Tournament, which features the top eight ranked teams in the ultra-competitive NEPSAC.
“We basically control our own destiny as far as where we’re going to end up and we’ll take it one game at a time,” Kennedy said.
Brunswick, which has defeated a number of strong NEPSAC teams, plays Cushing Academy on Feb. 12 at Sacred Heart University. They will then visit Frederick Gunn School on Feb. 14, before hosting Berkshire School on Feb. 15.
“We are going to look forward to some tough games coming up and the playoff stretch,” Kennedy said. “We have a seven-game stretch coming up with all quality opponents, starting with Cushing on Wednesday. It will be played at Sacred Heart. Then we have other tough games against playoff caliber teams.”
Said Stant: “We’ve been pretty solid this season. We were just up in Canada and had some big competition. Tonight wasn’t really our best effort, but we’re looking to get back at it. We have a big stretch with some big games coming up. I love playing against the tougher challenges, so I’m looking forward to that.”
On Feb. 5, ‘Wick earned a 5-0 road victory against Lawerenceville School.
The Bruins dominated the opening period, outshooting the hosts by a 24-3 margin and jumping out to a three-goal cushion. Salandra, who has committed to attend and play hockey at Harvard University, highlighted the period by pulling off the Michigan move at nearly full speed as he rounded the net and finished with the lacrosse-style goal to the top shelf.
“The L’Ville faithful could do nothing but applaud what should be a top candidate for Prep Goal of the Year,” Kennedy noted.
Seniors Oliver Czaja (2) and Tucker Spiess rounded out the scoring on the afternoon and junior Dylan Lee-Stack made 24 saves to earn the victory.
