It’s been a few iterations dating back to last season but we finally have some movement in our rankings. We’ll dig in more below, but the lone result that went against the first rotation was the Vipers picking up a long awaited win in city play. The two teams at the top held serve through another three weeks as the Chargers remain at the top of our rankings. One more rotation awaits before we turn to 2024 which is when we’ll really start to see how these teams will evolve from their starting point.
1.) Carroll Chargers (6-0-0; 12 pts.)
Nothing new here for Carroll as they retain top spot relatively easily. A disastrous first period for Leo in the critical head-to-head matchup was just too much to overcome even if they played the final 30 minutes to just a 2-1 score. I think for Carroll you definitely take the win but I wouldn’t say it was a dominant win even in that first period as Leo was just getting it all wrong. The main lasting impact of that game for me will be the altercations that took place late in the game that led to 3 players in total being ejected. For Carroll that was AJ Baldwin and Davis Cline. Not only did those players have to sit out the next game, but it served as even more proof that these two teams don’t like each other on the ice. For us fans, that will create great entertainment in their future matchups (of which there are still at least three) but for the coaches it might create some headaches. That point goes especially for Carroll who are already dangerously close to becoming ineligible for state due to their number of game misconducts. This isn’t exactly new for Carroll, a few years ago they were right up against that line in back-to-back season but managed to retain eligibility. That was a different group of players though and the coaching staff has evolved since then too, nonetheless that will be a challenge for them to manage with still about half the season left.
As for the rest of their results this time around it’s status quo. A shutout win over the Vipers was very ho-hum with only a couple of moments worth pointing out on the Carroll side. First and foremost has to be the shutout for Luke Vanantwerp. Granted it was only 14 shots against but for a new #1 goaltender those things count for something and the Vipers have some good offensive talent as well. More to come on this later but Camden Blauvelt, a callup from the JV Renegades squad, was impressive in his time with the varsity group. The skill he posses was evident from his first shift when he scored a filthy breakaway goal to open the scoring just over a minute and a half in. Thirdly was the 10 minute penalty to Dylan Braun for slamming the penalty box door. With a player of his caliber sometimes you’ve just got to eat some of that because of everything else he brings, but with the team so close to the limit on game misconducts Braun being able to keep his cool more than he has at times in the past will be huge for Carroll. On the other side of that coin though I have to give props to Braun for not getting involved in the shenanigans against Leo when he was out there, that’s exactly the kind of thing I’m talking about. He’s also gotten the scoring going more lately and has moved into fifth place in the scoring race with eight points, just five off Finn Cupp for first. Fun fact. Carroll now has all five spots on top of the scoring race but just one of the next ten after that.
2.) Leo Lions (4-2-0; 8 pts.)
Leo remains an easy call for #2 this time around by virtue of their two wins and a big loss to Carroll. The fashion of that Carroll loss is concerning on its face but as alluded to above it was really just the first period where they got it all wrong. It could’ve just been a case of not starting the game on time but not even their first wake-up call of pulling Drew Baumert was enough. Xander Mulholland had a similar fate just moments later, with the coaching staff opting to run down the goalie depth chart as opposed to taking a timeout to slow everything down. In relief was Eian Demorest with his first league appearance coming in a very tough spot. He filled in admirably though, only surrendering two goals and making 22 saves en route to a solid .917 save percentage. Now with that said, even though the second and third periods were better, Leo was still a step slower and was outshot 19-9 in those periods. The more notable part of this game in the long term view though was what happened at the end. The 4:00 – 3:00 minute mark of the third period can really only be described as a total mess. There’s too much going on for a full play-by-play so if you haven’t seen so I’d suggest checking it out. The initial fracas led to just a slew of minor penalties and frankly I think the Lions were lucky to not come away with more as there were clearly punches thrown. The players involved in the second round weren’t as lucky and multiple players were given game misconducts, with Alex Hendricks being the lone Lions tossed while a pair of Chargers got the boot. These two teams clearly are the top two in the league right now and them not getting along only builds the rivalry. Sign me up for four more rounds of this with a trophy on the line at the end of the year once again.
Now this wasn’t unique to the game against Carroll as last week against the Vipers there were more extracurriculars late in the game, which is why this starts to become a long term concern regarding state. At the end of the game Anthony Serafini finished his hit on Dylan Parks just after the buzzer sounded , drawing a shove from Parks which resulted in a pretty solid slash from Serafini that landed him a major penalty and a game misconduct, and all for what? Now yet another one of Leo’s top six forwards gets to watch a game from the stands and adds to their allowance of eight game misconducts before being ineligible for state. And again it comes with the game’s outcome already decided. Beyond that, the game against the Vipers was a successful one. Leo was able to win 4-2 and watching it back it felt like their win was only briefly in doubt. A three goal lead that included a power play goal, a short handed goal, and a five-on-five goal was too much for the Vipers to overcome and Colin Robison’s second of the game sealed it once he sent it into the empty net at six-on-four. Another positive was that after surrendering three goals on four power plays to Carroll a week prior, the penalty kill bounced back and killed six of seven Viper power plays. There’s nothing to add about the Homestead game, it was very ho-hum but a quick shoutout to Mulholland on a 28 save shutout of the Spartans.
3.) Fort Wayne Vipers (1-5-0; 2 pts.)
While they still occupy the bottom of the standings due to tiebreakers, the Vipers move up a spot into third place of our power rankings after winning the most recent head-to-head matchup and putting in better performances against the other two teams. Of course it’s that head-to-head though that is the real difference maker at this point. The Vipers controlled play for the majority of the first period and that showed with an 11-6 advantage in shots on goal. It took a while before they were able to score but with under a minute left in the first Logan Ormsby was able to redirect a shot from Michael Scully past Connor Gould for the game’s first goal. Speaking of Ormsby, one of the things that I had though was holding the Vipers back early in the season was their power play. For whatever reason it just wasn’t productive and I think it hit bottom in Week Four when Carroll out-chanced them while being short handed on multiple occasions. Thankfully they also recognized the need to switch it up and moved Ormsby to the Quarterback role and moved Scully to the right side starting with the Homestead game. While it still hasn’t yielded many goals (1-for-8 in the last two games) the process has looked better than it did. With time the goals will come but it might take some time for them to refine their new roles. Back to the game itself, Scully scored early in the second period to make it a 2-0 game before the Spartans answered back at the beginning of the third. That was as close as it would get though as the Vipers held on, powered by 22 saves from Brody Rosswurm.
Aside from that the Vipers put in another decent showing against Leo but ultimately came up short although this game was a slower death compared to the first time the two teams met. Leo took a 2-0 lead and the Vipers were able to make it 3-2 with 14:15 still to go in the third but weren’t able to find the equalizer. It was another game where the Vipers had a solid first period but weren’t able to sustain that advantage through the next two periods. Even when they have had that advantage they haven’t been able to convert those shots into goals on a regular basis. Through six games they have only ten goals which is not going to be enough to pull any type of upset considering they’re giving up the most goals of any team in the league (25, two more than Homestead). Getting the power play going more will help that but the next step for them is finding more five-on-five scoring which will be more sustainable than hoping for the power play to come through. They also need to clean up the penalty kill which has given up at least one goal in four of the first six weeks. The next few weeks will be important to show their growth but as is usually the case I think January is when we’ll really see improvement shine through.
4.) Homestead Spartans (1-5-0; 2 pts.)
Just like with the Vipers the main focus is on their head-to-head matchup. I already laid out the case as to why the Vipers are #3 which in turn also explains why Homestead finds themselves at #4 now. From their perspective though, I think the thing that exemplifies them the most right now is a 5-on-3 they had in the second period of the game against the Vipers. They had a full two minutes with the two-man advantage trailing by one. This was about halfway through the game and was a tremendous chance for them to jump start the offense and ignite a comeback. To say it didn’t do that would be an understatement. Frankly, considering they controlled the puck for 3/4ths of that power play, I don’t think they could have done any worse than that. Completely benign chances, especially in the first minute of it. These shots were so weak that the I don’t even think the #1 goalie for the 14U Force team would be worried about it. There were a total of five seconds where it looked like MAYBE the Spartans would score. Bare minimum puck movement, one singular pass to the slot, and one shot of any danger at all. I hate to hammer away at this one phase of the game but in the biggest game you play every three weeks, to be that lackadaisical in a critical moment can’t be acceptable and shows the lack of firepower this team has right now.
Further to that point, I understand they are playing last year’s 4A state runner-up and a team in Leo that will likely be a good 3A team, but the Spartans could only muster one goal against both those teams combined which brings their total for this rotation to two. I’ll also say they were playing with multiple JV call-ups in two of those games which does buy them some wiggle room against Leo but against the Vipers the only player scratched was Cam Hurley, a big loss to be sure but still just one player. On the positive side of things I think the goaltending as been up to expectations and putting in middle of the pack numbers. Sure you’d like to subtract one from the Leo and Carroll games but when you’re scoring one goal across both those games it doesn’t really matter. What counts is that the tenders have shown up and given them a chance to beat the Vipers in both games. There’s also still 3/5ths of the season left. Three remaining matchups against the Vipers means that while they’re 4th right now, they won’t necessarily stay there . They also have opportunities to be a closer match for Leo like the Vipers have shown at times which can help them claw back into 3rd, a spot that they still hold in the standings for the record. On that point, Homestead actually played a solid game against Leo but the inability to score doomed them even in a game where they had a good share of the shots. Like last season this is shaping up to be a season where Homestead turns it on late and builds momentum heading into the post-season.
Most Interesting Team: Fort Wayne Vipers
This is a new category I’m introducing and in all likelihood will be a one off. The point of this lower section is to just get some additions thoughts out there and spotlight certain teams/players a little more and I feel compelled to share this idea. On that note, why are the Vipers the most interesting team? Well for starters they hadn’t won a league game in twelve straight tries until last week and finished 4th last season after being regular season champs the year before. I think the bounce-back storyline is just inherently interesting. They also haven’t beat Leo or Carroll since the 2021-22 season which adds another element to that. Most importantly though I think they’re way more talented than their record last year showed. I say that because it means I just like watching some of their guys play hockey and it’s also interesting to see how last year they were able to continually find new and increasingly painful ways to lose games. On the flip side it makes that aforementioned comeback story more fun because I want to see if their talent can come out on top this year and have a record more reflective of that skill.
Rookie of the Rotation: Camden Blauvelt, Carroll Chargers
This one really just comes down to the goal he scored against the Vipers in not only his first varsity game, but his varsity shift. That was an absolute beauty and without a doubt the best first varsity goal I’ve seen. Blauvelt also filled in admirably in the remainder of his call-up and helped the Chargers secure the two wins in those games. In hindsight we should have expected something like that to happen considering he has 19 goals in just 13 JV games. Combine that with seven assists for a total of 26 points and he’s averaging two full points per game for the Renegades. He’ll be one to watch next season when he is almost certainly a full-time varsity player. While I’m at it, shoutout to the Renegades who are putting together another very solid season with a 10-4-1 record through 15 games. That program has certainly held up its end of the bargain in the restructuring of high school hockey a few years ago.
Goal of the Rotation: Colin Robison SHG vs Vipers
Just a beautiful effort here on the PK from the Leo forward. Takes the puck away on the wall in his own end, skates it all the way down the ice and fires a shot from a mediocre angle that hits the post and goes in. All while down a man and it gave Leo a two goal lead when the Vipers were hoping to convert on the power play to tie it.
Game of the Rotation: FW Vipers vs Homestead, Week Five
No surprises here but the closest game of the rotation is also the game of the rotation. In terms of seeding this is probably going to be the biggest game each time around the order. I’ve already discussed this one plenty in the sections above so I won’t repeat myself here.
