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It’s the second year for Woodstock Academy boys’ hockey head coach Kevin Bisson.
That always makes things a little easier.
“Just having an understanding of who the kids are, who already fits well together and what their strengths and weaknesses are. It’s changed the way I approach everything,” Bisson said.
And while there may be a feeling of comfort in those regards, it also means raising the bar for himself and for his players.
The Centaurs finished 12-7-2 on the ice last season, 7-2-1 in the Nutmeg Conference.
A good year by any standards.
But Bisson and his team couldn’t help but feel that it could have been even better.
They finished the season with a 0-3-2 record in their last five games.
That included first-round losses in both the Nutmeg Conference tournament and the Division II state tournament.
“The very end of the season didn’t finish the way we wanted,” Bisson said.
Lineup adjustments caused by school events and other factors conspired against the Centaurs.
“It was a disappointing finish in that I thought we had a very strong team last year that certainly could have gone beyond one game in the postseason,” Bisson said.
Of course, they also played the eventual Division II state champion, Branford, in that first round of the state tournament.
It’s a new season. And, as always in high school, it’s a new team.
Among the graduation losses was team captain, defenseman Liam McDermott.
“Liam was a leader by example at all times. He had a great presence on and off the ice,” Bisson said.
Also gone is leading goal scorer Matt Odom (19 goals), fellow forwards Mason Stewart, Tom Catsam and Owen Borski, defensive players Connor Starr and Ethan Thorpe and goalie Dylan Shea.
The loss of Shea means the Centaurs come into the season without an experienced varsity player between the pipes.
Senior Josh Lavitt started one game in the net a year ago.
He returns along with junior Colin Liscomb who did not play last season.
“They’re having a healthy competition right now and, hopefully, they push each other and at the end, make each other better. Our schedule is a little different than last year where there were days between games and it stayed fairly spread out,” Bisson said.
The first week of the season has Woodstock Academy with a scrimmage Dec. 14, the season opener Dec. 18 and games Dec. 20 and 21, all on the road.
“It’s unrealistic to think one goalie can play all those games,” Bisson said. “The true hope is that we have two strong goalies.”
The offense will be led by the return of a line that stays together from last season.
Senior Doug Newton, junior Guerin Favreau and sophomore Kyle Brennan will start as the top line for the Centaurs.
Newton was the leading scorer for the Centaurs last season, getting 17 goals and 13 assists for 30 points.
“Matt is a big loss, but hopefully, goal scoring leadership can come from guys like Guerin, Kyle, Austen LeDonne and Jake Starr, who step up in big ways and get the job done just as well as Matt did,” Newton said.
Newton is coming off an ankle injury that he suffered playing soccer at the end of the summer.
He missed his senior year of soccer at The Academy due to the injury.
Staying off that ankle, however, paid off for hockey.
“It’s feeling a lot better. I feel comfortable on the ice. There is no pain in my ankle anymore and since the skate isolates it so much, there is really no movement in it. It feels great. It feels like it did a year ago,” Newton said.
Bisson agreed losing Odom hurts the team, but he’s confident in Brennan (7 goals, 3 assists) and Favreau (8 goals, 6 assists).
“Kyle had a breakout year as a freshman. I know he’s put in the work in the offseason and has come back bigger, stronger and faster. You have to hope the dedication off the ice translates to results on the ice and Guerin is the same scenario. He’s been relentless in the weight room. You have to think that he, Kyle and Doug will complement each other and get the results on the scoreboard,” Bisson said.
LeDonne finished with 15 points last season, getting nine goals and six assists while Starr had two goals and seven assists. Other players up front this season will include senior Anthony Girard and sophomores Devin Chadwick, Nick Chubbuck, and Zach Girard.
Those skating behind the blue line include seniors Sean McCusker and Sonny Neilson, junior Alex Wojciechowski, and sophomores Chris Thibault, Brendan Hill, and Gabe Geyer.
None of them were starters with McDermott and Connor Starr getting that honor and Thorpe being first off the bench.
Bisson said it will be difficult to replace the minutes that last year’s seniors provided.
There is little time to put everything together and that time was made a bit shorter last week.
A double-barreled winter storm Dec. 2 and 3 cancelled the first two days of practice.
The Centaurs will find out quickly what they are made of.
Their first game will be against the East
Boys'
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ern Connecticut Eagles who now represent the entire ECC, with the exception of Woodstock Academy, and a couple of Shoreline Conference schools.
The Norwich Free Academy-based Redhawks program disbanded due to lack of numbers following last season and those schools that comprised that program can now play for the Eagles.
An unfair advantage?
“There has been a lot of different talk and back-and-forth on that whole thing,” Bisson admitted. “It’s a challenge that we accept wholeheartedly because we want to play the best and if they were able to get the best of all these different places, then great. They were given a 1-year allowance. I would predict moving forward that there will be a division of where all these different schools will have to go and not just go to the Eagles like they currently are.”
Following that, the Centaurs travel to Tri-Town, whom they lost to in last year’s Nutmeg semis, for an 8:10 p.m. game on Dec. 20 and then have a 5:30 p.m. game at Branford on Dec. 21.
“I’m extremely excited,” Newton said. “I’ve been waiting for this all year after losing in the first round of States. This season is huge for us. ”
“To look at the final record and to think about the successful year that we had, it’s very frustrating when you see the final numbers. The season as a whole was much better. I’ve told players countless times that I have high expectations for the program as a whole. I know they feel the same way about each other and themselves so we’re looking for a stronger regular season and a stronger postseason,” Bisson said.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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