Boys Varsity Hockey Wins New England Championship

Boys Varsity Hockey

Boys Varsity Hockey defeated Pomfret 5-2 to win the 2020 NEPSAC Boys Ice Hockey Tournament Piatelli/Simmons (Small) Bracket at Trinity College on March 8.
 

The game was the first of three NEPSAC championship finals played at Trinity College.

"To call the Boys Prep Piatelli/Simmons Small School championship game the the wildest of the day on Sunday would be a severe understatement," Kevin Stone of HNIB News said. "Pomfret and Gunnery played the most entertaining game of the day at Trinity College’s Koeppel Community Center, full of plenty of goal scoring, some serious hitting and a raucous crowd that made for a phenomenal playoff atmosphere."

“We talk a lot about not riding the highs and the lows, and this game certainly put that to the test,” Head Coach Craig Badger told the online newspaper. “We don’t want to be in neutral. We want to be high all the time and that’s a very fine line. When you’re trying to play high all the time sometimes guys get too emotional, but I thought today and really the last couple of games we did a really good job. Pomfret had a great crowd that was screaming at our guys, and it was wild back-and-forth wagon hockey out there, and honestly this year that’s the game that we play for better or for worse.”

The New England Championship win follows a series of successes for the team under the leadership of Badger, Assistant Coach Shane Gorman '10, and Assistant Coach Chris Gragnano. That record over the past five years includes 110 wins, a Division I New England Boys Hockey Championship title in 2016, a 2016 Watkins Tournament title at Cushing Academy, and two Avon Old Farms Christmas Hockey Classic titles, in 2017 and 2018.

As the NEPSAC tournament's #6 seed this year, the Highlanders defeated #3 seed New Hampton 5-2 in the quarterfinal matchup at Cushing on March 4. The Gunnery hosted the semifinals at Linen Rink on March 6, defeating Rivers, the #7 seed, 5-2. The team ended its regular season with a record of 18-10-3.

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