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03/29/2014 12:00 AMBranford boys’ ice hockey had three objectives entering the recent campaign: win its regular season conference title, win the SCC/SWC Division II Tournament title, and then win the DII state title. Although his Hornets couldn’t achieve that final feat, Coach Adolph Brink still feels proud about the solid season his team put together.
Branford first reeled off a regular season record of 15-4-1 that included an 8-1-1 mark in conference play to win the championship. Then in the tourney, the Hornets downed Cheshire 4-1 to reach the final for the third straight year, after which they won a 4-3 thriller versus Amity to claim their second conference crown in three seasons. Brink’s team followed that with a 6-2 victory against Fermi-Enfield-East Granby-Stafford in the first round of states before seeing its season end with a 4-1 loss to Milford.
Coach Brink knows his team fell shy of reaching its elevated expectations, but also knows that Branford’s final record of 18-5-1 is one most teams would sign up for in a heartbeat.
“We had the highest expectations of a state title and it’s bittersweet when you realize that we won three of our four regular season games against the four teams who made the Division II semifinal, but overall, we went 18-5-1 playing against the best competition in DII and so it’s hard to say the season wasn’t a success on a grand scale,” said Brink, whose team twice beat DII champion Hand to go with victories versus Cheshire, Milford, New Milford, and Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe. “After losing in the SCC final last year, to go out and win the tournament for the second time in three seasons was excellent and something the kids should be proud of.”
Branford will graduate five key seniors from this year’s team in captain and defenseman Rob Denhardt, assistant captain and forward Tony Pascale, wing Jason Vitale, goalie Ryan Kallert, and forward Tyler Martin. Coach Brink began detailing these seniors’ contributions by discussing the two who wore the captain’s letters in Denhardt and Pascale, the latter who tallied 19 goals with 12 assists.
“Rob and Tony are both four-year players who’ve been part of a lot of success. They won two conference titles and played in a state final so they got to do a lot of things most high school hockey players don’t get to do,” said Brink, who was assisted by Mark Cunningham and Jim DiNapoli. “Rob was one of our four defensemen who gave us a lot of quality minutes and Tony produced over 30 points and was a big contributor on the power play and penalty kill. You don’t just dip into the bowl and replace two kids like that.”
Meanwhile, Vitale notched 15 goals with 10 assists to win the team’s Coaches’ Award, Kallert earned wins against Trumbull, Masuk, and Fairfield en route to the Hobey Baker Award, and Martin proved a reliable forward for Coach Brink and company.
“Jason is a picture perfect coach’s player. He just kept grinding and is the best example of how hard you want every kid to work every day,” Brink said. “The Hobey Baker Award goes to a player who exemplifies great citizenship, academic accomplishments, and dedication to his sport and team and Ryan certainly fit the bill in all those areas. And Tyler Martin was under the radar, but worked hard because he loves to play hockey and fit in very well to our system. He’s one of the best supporters of his teammates we’ve ever had.”
Branford’s junior class certainly had a huge impact on the Hornets’ success for two members of that group gained All-State and All-SCC/SWC honors. Center Tyler Hackett scored 30 goals and had 32 assists to make First Team for both and win Branford’s Most Valuable Player Award. Fellow assistant captain AJ Brink was the starting goalie and posted 15 wins with a 2.18 goals-against average, plus a save percentage of 92.8 to make the Second Team on each. The team’s other assistant captain was forward Tyler Criscuolo, who missed a month due to a hand injury, yet came back strong for the conference final and ultimately put up 17 goals with seven assists.
“Tyler Hackett led the team in scoring and, when he played well, there was a good chance we were going to win. A lot of pressure fell on his shoulders when Tyler Criscuolo got hurt, but he responded well and took it to another level in the second half,” Brink said. “AJ took some big steps and had some great games when we needed him to. He got bigger and stronger this season and played really well in the conference tournament. Tyler Criscuolo came back for the conference final and scored a critical goal. He’s one of the best players in the state who brings a lot of energy and having a two-headed monster in the two Tylers is something most coaches dream of.”
Brink handed out one other award to a junior in Jack Murray, who was switched from forward to defense this year and made giant strides in a short span to take home Most Improved Player honors.
“Jack steadily improved and became a top four defenseman for us without having a lot of time to learn the position,” said Brink. “His play and confidence swelled toward the end of the season and he developed quicker than we thought he would.”
The rest of Branford’s roster was comprised of forward Cooper Bunton (6 goals, 7 assists) and fellow juniors Pat Cunningham and Aiden Deane, who were both defensemen; in addition to sophomores in forward Nick Johnson, James Mason, Ryan Winkler, Dante Ghiroli, and Mike Annunziata; along with freshmen in forwards Zach Withington (7 goals, 7 assists) and Scott Klouda, plus Frank Higgins, Dalton Childs, and Mitchell Petrillo.