Berkshire Jamboree: Top prospects and team capsules

SHEFFIELD, Mass. — To the surprise of no observer in attendance at the Berkshire Jamboree, Salisbury showed it was by far the best of the eight teams competing in Monday’s scrimmages.

With no prep school championship contested in 2020-21, Salisbury remains the defending champion from its conquest in March of 2020 just before the coronavirus put a dagger in the sporting world. Even without two key defensemen, Andrew Will’s team displayed why the Knights are heavy favorites, along with Kimball Union, to win the NEPSAC Elite 8 Tournament in March.

In addition to Salisbury and the host school, Berkshire, the other six teams in the jamboree were Canterbury, Frederick Gunn, Hotchkiss, Kent, Northwood, and Trinity-Pawling. The eight games, shared between the two ice sheets inside the beautiful on-campus home of the Berkshire Bears, was well attended by Division 1 and Division 3 college coaches.

Northwood (1-0-1) and Hotchkiss (0-0-2) were the only other teams to escape the day without a loss. The surprise team of the day was Canterbury as the Saints defeated Frederick Gunn, 6-3, before dropping a 3-1 contest to Salisbury.

Keeping in mind that the jamboree’s eight games were at times going on simultaneously and that it was impossible to watch every minute of every game, below is a look at the forecast for all eight teams plus notes on top prospects.

Salisbury

As mentioned above, Salisbury was the class of the jamboree. The Knights downed Trinity-Pawling, 5-0, and hung on for a 3-1 win over Canterbury. Two regulars on the blue line, Tye Scott and Sam Hall, were out of the lineup. Even so, the depth and talent displayed by Salisbury was impressive. The way the team moved the puck, especially in the second half of the first scrimmage against Trinity-Pawling, was fun to watch.

The top line features left wing Dylan Hryckowian (Northeastern), center Ryan Walsh (Brown) and right wing Connor Driscoll. Another Northeastern commit, Ben Poitras, centered the second line with Oliver Frontini on the left wing and Cole Eichler on the right wing. Obviously, the big names will be the offensive catalysts, but there is plenty of depth up front for Salisbury.

On the blue line, there’s plenty of talent. Alex Zakrzewski (Brown) is the only current college commit on the blue line. However, Liam Chapman, Dane Westen and Henry Metz will all be impactful defenders this winter.

The surprise of the day was the play of '05 Ty Creech, typically a power forward who plays the right wing. The Florida Alliance product showed that he might be better off on defense. Not that he’s a bad forward by any means, but he turned some heads playing on the blue line. He’s big, physical, and made some good plays carrying the puck up ice. He delivered three of the biggest hits I saw all day. Who knows if this is just a one-day experiment or not, but Creech looked like he could be a pro defenseman, based on his play Monday.

In goal, '04 Austin McNicholas wasn’t tested much, but he didn’t allow any soft goals as he posted a shutout over Trinity-Pawling. He gave way to Andrew Palena for the afternoon game.

I’ll cover Salisbury plenty during the regular season, including at the Flood-Marr Tournament in a couple of weekends. There’s not much more that needs to be said for now.

Northwood

Northwood doesn’t have much in the way of offensive game-breakers, but Mark Morris’ team plays stingy team defense. The Huskies allowed just two goals on the day as they skated to a 1-1 tie against Kent before squeaking out a 2-1 victory over Berkshire.

The team’s top prospect is late '04 goaltender Jan Korec, who played the afternoon game against Berkshire. The only goal he allowed was an absolute rocket off the stick of a Berkshire defender who beat him just under the bar. Korec, from Bratislava, Slovakia, has good size, moves well, is technically sound, and stays composed.

Olivier Beaulieu, an '05 defenseman from Terrebonne, Quebec, is a swift-footed blue liner. He’s still got some room to grow, but he gaps well, has a good stick, and can defend the rush. With the puck, he makes good breakout passes and can sidestep oncoming forecheckers.

Late '04 forward Billy Batten picked up an assist on Monday afternoon. He’s not overly skilled and doesn’t ooze Division 1 talent, but he’s seemingly scored a point in every viewing of Northwood this fall.

Northwood isn’t a NEPSAC prep school, but the Huskies will be back in New England a few more times this winter, including at the St. Sebastian’s Christmas Tournament next month.

Frederick Gunn

It was a tale of two games when describing Frederick Gunn’s play at the Berkshire Jamboree. Craig Badger’s team, formerly known as The Gunnery, struggled mightily against Canterbury but rallied from a 4-1 deficit to defeat Kent, 6-4.

'04 senior forward Ryan Novo impressed me with his quickness and willingness to go to the dirty areas to score goals, despite being undersized. There’s plenty of good prep players on this squad, especially up front, including UConn commit Mike Murtagh, Dallas Stars Elite product Evan Raines, Sean Bradley, Kyle Smyth and Nathan Stachowiak.

Defensively, St. Lawrence commit Kiernan Gately is the only committed blue liner. He delivered a couple of big hits, but it wasn’t his best viewing in terms of puck touches. The most impressive defenseman on Monday for Frederick Gunn was late '05 Luke Calabria, whose mobility was on display. He came to prep hockey from the Long Island Royals. Another youngster who should be a solid prep defenseman is Jason Fritz, formerly of the Buffalo Junior Sabres.

'04 Joey Lovullo is the projected starter between the pipes. Badger doesn’t have an Alex Jeffries (Merrimack), Cam Donaldson (UMass) or Gustaf Westlund (Ohio State), but there is still an abundance of depth to make a run at one of the tournaments in the 2022 postseason.

Kent

Kent has plenty of talent as the Lions have come accustomed to over the years. Their downfall Monday was youth. It’s tough to win in prep school when many of your best players are '06s and '05s.

The blue line boasts two of the best '06 defensemen in the country in Alex Bales and Jacob Ingstrup, who came to Kent from Buffalo Junior Sabres and Chicago Mission, respectively. Of the team’s top seven defensemen, three are '06s and three are '05s. Only late '03 Joey Sciabarra brings any semblance of experience to the team’s blue line.

'05 right wing Patrick Walsh scored against Northwood and showed well in the second game, as well. I liked the toughness and compete level from '03 left wings Max Resnick and Geno McEnery. First line center Jacob Kraft has already received an offer from an Atlantic Hockey program.

Late '04 goalie Harrison Fogel was exceptional in the team’s 1-1 tie against Northwood. He’s on the smaller side but made a couple of game-changing stops. It was a tough outing in the afternoon for heralded '05 Aiden Hopewell, who made it to USA Hockey’s NTDP Evaluation Camp last spring. The big goaltender from the Washington Little Caps has plenty of hype and should be solid down the road.

Trinity-Pawling

It was a tough day for Bobby Ferraris’ team as it got smoked by Salisbury and then blew a late lead to skate to a draw against Hotchkiss. The Pride would have been a much better team had two defensemen, Brady Schultz and Brendan Kimball, not opted for junior hockey the week before school started.

With an undermanned blue line, Trinity-Pawling went with four forwards for most of both games on Monday. '04 Jackson Graber showed skill, quickness and offensive instincts. He was a little snakebit, but '04 newcomer Tobias Iantorno played hard, showed hockey sense, and drove the net a few times. '04s Caleb Owens and Anthony Kahl are both on the smaller side, but the duo brings energy to each shift. '03s Ryan Walker and Gavin Bloder add size to the offensive group. '04 defenseman Raphael Denis lit the lamp on a power play in the second game.

Ferraris is a good coach and will get the most out of his squad, despite an unfortunate situation. There will be better days ahead this season and in the future.

Berkshire

The hosts skated to a 2-2 tie against Hotchkiss before falling 2-1 at the hands of Northwood. There is some talent on this squad, but depth and mistakes cost the Bears dearly on Monday.

Up front, I liked '03 Cal Osterberger, who plays hard, is heavy on pucks, and can be utilized in all situations at the prep level. '04 Tanner Marsh had the puck a lot and created offense. '03 senior Ben Boren, a Middlebury commit, used his size and strength to score a goal. '06 Walker Bright (New Canaan, Conn.) scored a goal in his first prep scrimmage. The Mid Fairfield product is one of the better forwards in his birth year in the New England district. 

The top four blueliners all bring an element. '03 Nick Donaldson scored one of the highlight reel goals of the day, going bar down against Northwood stud goalie Jan Korec. His defensive partner, Liam Bard (Southboro, Mass.) is a good skater. '05 Nico Pasquale and '04 Will Sinclair made up the second pair with '03 Davis Kinne (Swampscott, Mass.) being out of the lineup with an injury. Pasquale had a solid day, bringing an unexpected physical element, and making some plays with the puck on his stick.

Canterbury

I missed most of Canterbury’s 6-3 win over Frederick Gunn as I was watching the entire Salisbury versus Trinity-Pawling game. However, I was impressed with Padraic McCarthy’s team in the 3-1 loss against Salisbury.

'06 freshman right wing Ryan Lucarelli (Westport, Conn.) had the team’s lone goal, coming on the power play. He’s the most skilled forward on the Saints. Once he gains strength and continues to learn to play hard with and without the puck, he’ll be a good prep forward over the coming years.

'05 Mitch Stenger (Wilton, Conn.) has good size and stood on his head for large portions of the second game against Salisbury. He only allowed two goals, both in the first half. The third goal was an empty-netter late in the game.

Canterbury played a scrappy brand of hockey and certainly turned some heads with their victory over Frederick Gunn and their narrow loss against Salisbury.

Hotchkiss

Despite not losing a game Monday, Hotchkiss projects as the team that will probably fare the worst in the 2021-22 season. Mike Traggio’s team is missing Henry Wilder, now at Boston College, whose goaltending led them to a NEPSAC Elite 8 bid in 2019-20. The other key loss was center Karsen Dorwart, who opted to head to the USHL instead of returning to Hotchkiss for his senior season.

'05 right wing Brennan Cail has a good shot and is heavy on pucks. The Cheshire, Conn., native doesn’t currently skate well enough for Division 1, but he’ll make a Division 3 team happy with his goal-scoring ability. Another '05 who showed some positive signs for the Bearcats was defenseman James Mackey. His skating also needs work, but he made some plays and has decent size. Senior forward Jesper Snow found the back of the net a couple of times on Monday.