The Holt is a relatively new conference in New England prep hockey, but the conference seems to have no trouble churning out talent. There should be some solid competition among the seven teams. We will cover the All-Holt team in a separate story, but first, we're going to take a look at each team in...
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The Holt is a relatively new conference in New England prep hockey, but the conference seems to have no trouble churning out talent.
There should be some solid competition among the seven teams.
We will cover the All-Holt team in a separate story, but first, we're going to take a look at each team in the conference.
Let's dive in.
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Berwick
Coach: Lem Randall 2022-23 record: 13-12-3, won Holt Conference championship Players to watch: Justin Massa, F; Parker Murch, F; Michael Delage, F; Tyler Montecalvo, D; Jimmy Connor, D; Matthew Pimentel, G Outlook: With solid returning goaltending and a strong group of forwards, head coach Lem Randall expects Berwick to be playing meaningful hockey in the last week of February with a chance to repeat as conference champions. The defensive group is young, but Randall hopes to see them progress quickly due to their skating ability. He expects the Holt Conference to be competitive from top to bottom once again after making strides in the last few seasons.
Hebron
Coach: Jack O’Brien 2022-23 result: 6-22-2 Players to watch: Andrea Blais, F; James Young, F; Joe Young, F; Cam Capanigro, F; Gabe Cote, D; Cullen Lacey, D; Julian Karagiannis, G; Hayden Plimley, G Outlook: Hebron had a rough season last year, as it was plagued by injury. According to O’Brien, the Lumberjacks lost 97 games due to injury. Despite that, there’s reason for optimism this year. “I had a strong offseason recruiting,” O’Brien said. “Our team should compete very well this coming season.
Kents Hill
Coach: Pavel Navrat 2022-23 record: 12-19-0 Players to watch: Ben Chapdelaine, F; Felix-Antoine Parenteau, F; Zach Tsatas, F; Robin Vondrasek, F; Matt Ionta, D Outlook: This is going to be a very young Kents Hill team, with Ionta as the only returning varsity defenseman. It's his third year at Kents Hill and Navrat is counting on him to lead the defense. He certainly has the size to do it, standing at 6-foot-5 and 200 pounds. The forward group is almost all new, as Navrat is excited for the new talent level. The biggest question mark could be in goal after postgrad goalie Ryan Roseneau put up a .927 save percentage playing in nearly every game last season.
North Yarmouth Academy
Coach: Mike Warde 2022-23 result: 20-10-3 Players to watch: Nick Pelletier, F; Hugo Daniel, F; Connor Wolverton, D Outlook: Warde’s team wracked up a strong second half of last year. Losing the top four scorers from last season, as well as both senior netminders, won’t help. But on the bright side, Daniel emerged as an intriguing ‘07 prospect last season, scoring 11 goals and tallying 25 points in 33 games. “The process of becoming a team is real,” Warde said. “New players, returning players and the maturity of many makes it an intriguing situation.”
Pingree
Coach: Dan Gordon 2022-23 record: 15-15-0 Players to watch: Ryan Kavanagh, F; Quinn Moses, F; Nick Hubbard, G; Max Kirianov, D; Cam Anderson, D; Joe Gaffney, F Outlook: Pingree was one of, if not the youngest team on the prep scene last year with 12 sophomores and no 2003 or 2004 birth years on the team. Still, they managed to jump from five wins to 15 last season. With plenty of experience after only losing one player from last year’s roster, head coach Dan Gordon expects to see the upward trend continue. He believes his team can compete for the Holt Conference championship and a spot in the Small School tournament.
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Portsmouth Abbey
Coach: Zach Cappelli 2022-23 result: 13-11-3 Players to watch: Logan McManus, F; Luke Stock, F; Chris Hahn, F; Hunter McCarthy, F; Connor Nolan, F; Tomas Aubut-Lavin, F; Drew Hayden, D; Patrick McDevitt, G Outlook: It’s the beginning of the Cappelli era at Portsmouth Abbey and he enters after two of the program’s best seasons ever. The backbone of this group is McDevitt, who posted a 2.75 GAA and .915 save percentage last winter and faced a ton of shots regularly. “We believe this group has the capability to win a ton of hockey games in this league,” Cappelli said. “We have a deep forward group with players to contribute in many facets of the game.”
Worcester Academy
Coach: Bob Lavin 2022-23 result: 10-18-0 Players to watch: Connor Dozois, F; Joe DeCesare, F; Braden Clifford, F; Colton Carpenter, F; Hans-Erik Jerosch, D; Jack Copponi, D; Braden Clifford, G; Wes DiModica, G Outlook: While Worcester Academy had a tough first half of last season, Lavin’s squad finished strong in the second half, going 6-3-0 over the final month. In net, Clifford, who is now a senior captain, split minutes with DiModica, now a sophomore, last season. The difference-maker up front is Dozois, who led the region in goals last season with 30. He also posted 49 points. He’s a captain and his power forward style could help him break 50 points this season.
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Berwick
Hebron
Kents Hill
