On one bench was defending Division 3 champion Norwich, playing in its home arena where it hadn’t lost in 22 games. On the night of Oct. 27, nearly 2,000 of its fans were revved up from a ceremony to raise the national championship banner.
On the other bench was Salve Regina, with a new coach — Zech Klann — who’d been on the job for barely three months, and membership in a league whose teams routinely got outclassed in situations like this.
Salve won the game, 3-2.
"The way we prepared for Norwich, the way Zech prepared us … I’ve never been more prepared for a game in my life," said forward Jack Billings, whose goal midway through the first period opened the scoring. "The 1-3-1 (defense) we practiced 30 minutes each day, I think they didn’t expect it. We stuck to the game plan, each player bought in and it was a fun game to play in."
Norwich, as expected, shook off the loss, coming back the next weekend to dispatch fellow NEHC heavies Babson and UMass Boston. The Cadets, winners of another regular-season championship, were 18-6-2 and preparing to host a game in the league semifinals at the end of February.
Salve’s done pretty well from that point, too.
As February would down, the Seahawks (20-4-2) owned a regular-season league championship of their own. After being picked for third in the Commonwealth Coast Conference preseason poll, they were cradling a No. 4 national ranking and were preparing to host Nichols in a CCC semifinal.
They’ve been the top story in a year of great stories for the CCC, which put three of its teams in the USCHO.com top 10 for the first time ever. The University of New England (19-4-3) is currently ranked No. 6 and Endicott (18-5-3) is No. 11.
"It’s definitely progressed," said Salve goalie Blake Wojtala. "It’s great to see. Three of us are in the national rankings and getting some notice, and Nichols was getting some votes as well."
It was hard to forecast this back in June, when Andy Boschetto (Watertown, Mass.), the architect of the program’s recent success, including a league title and NCAA appearance in 2016, left to take an assistant’s job at Division 1 Niagara.
"Obviously, we loved Andy. He did a lot of great things for our program," said senior forward and captain Pat Thompson. "But Zech came in, and he knew he was going to have to give it his all to get the respect of this group."
Klann, who played at UMass Amherst and coached in preps and juniors before getting hired in Newport, R.I., was a sports psychology major. His points of emphasis were heavy on preparation, on getting his players into situations each game that gave them a chance to win.
He also benefited from the way last season ended. The Seahawks gave up three goals during a turnover-filled third period and were upset in the CCC quarterfinals by Johnson & Wales, 4-3.
"It just left an awful taste in our mouths," said Billings. "Our offseason was pretty brutal. We got in the gym hard. All the guys were up there, working out and running. It wasn’t easy and it definitely wasn’t fun."
This season hasn’t been without bumps and bruises. Two-year captain Evan Schmidbauer went down in the second game of the season with a torn ACL. Western New England ended up winning that game in OT, and there was a four-game winless streak right after Thanksgiving. Forward Sean Patry was an ACL casualty at midseason.
But since that stretch, the Seahawks have won 14 of 15 games, the last one an emphatic, 8-1, payback win over WNE in the conference tournament quarterfinals.
"Every time a guy went down like that, the guy that filled his job really rose to the occasion," said Klann, who was named the league’s Coach of the Year.
Only nine teams in Division 3 are scoring more than Salve (4.23 a game). Billings, a 5-foot-9 sophomore, has a set a program single-season record with 44 points (19 goals, 25 assists) that ranks him third in the nation.
Freshman Danny Eruzione of Winthrop, Mass., (10-20-30) has provided an offensive infusion, and defensemen Nick Cyr and Vincenzo Renda have been the leaders on the blue line.
Then there’s the 6-foot-2 Wojtala (1.90 goals-against average), whose save percentage of .939 is second in Division 3 to Evan Buitenhuis of Hamilton. In three seasons as the starter, he’s logged more than 4,000 minutes in the crease but is looking no worse for the wear.
"He’s incredible. He’s something else," said Billings. "He boosts our confidence, knowing he’s back there. We rely on him too much sometimes."
"By far, he’s the most competitive guy we have in our dressing room," added Klann.
The Seahawks don’t want this season to end before they have a chance to do something in the NCAAs. But they can still appreciate the start.
"The guys played with a lot of emotion that night," said Klann. "New coaching staff and the guys wanted to prove themselves, but we were also excited going against the team that won the national championship last year and see how we measured up."
So far, Salve has measured up just fine.
