Midway Through The Season
The St. Michael’s Buzzers have experienced extensive success in the first half of the 2011-12 year.
St. Michael’s trails the Trenton Golden Hawks by just a single point for first place in the overall Ontario Junior Hockey League standings, as of November 26th. The Buzzers currently sit atop the South Division standings with 44 points, compiled from a 21-4-2 record.
Earlier this month the team reached the halfway point of the Buzzers’ 49-game regular season.
Adrian Ignagni was the biggest star so far for the Buzzers, securing 19 victories in 23 starts, winning the South-East Conference player of the month for September.
“Obviously the goaltending’s been leading the way for us,” said head coach and GM Rich Ricci.
In his first tenure as the captain of a hockey team, Michael Neville has been an influential leader and a key part of the Buzzers’ success. In 18 games, Neville has racked up 14 points, as well as been a main part of the Buzzers’ penalty kill and power play units.
The Buzzers’ youthful defence corps, led by assistant captain and four year OJHL vet Erlich Doerkson, has stepped up to the challenge, Ricci mentioned.
“I’m very pleasantly surprised with the play of a very young defensive group,” he said. “Our overall commitment to defence has been very good so far.”
Three Buzzers represented Canada at the World Junior A Challenge. Ignagni, Neville and Daniel Milne were part of the Team Canada East squad that won the silver medal at the tournament which took place in Langley, B.C, in early November.
Tommy Sumi and Mark Cooper currently share the team scoring lead with 32 points each, while three other Buzzers (Milne, Anthony Rizzo, and Doerkson) currently have over 20 points each.
Although the team is looking at something more than regular season success, Neville looks ahead to the second half of the year one day at a time.
“(As a team we) just take it game by game,” he said. “That’s all you can really do. That’s what Buzz hockey’s all about.”
Ricci feels that the team definitely has the qualities to make a run at the championship.
However, to make that run, Ricci may have to make a couple of trades in order to get some new personnel in with the Buzzers.
“We’re going to look at different options and different guys to put ourselves in the best light going forward,” he said.
Ignagni felt that the Buzzers’ will to compete and self confidence will keep them going a long way.
“As a group of guys, we really don’t want to lose,” he said. “We don’t go into games thinking we’re going to lose, we always think that we’ve got a chance to win.”
With the Buzzers in position to continue their success and then lead into a long playoff run, it should be quite the second half of the season at St. Michael’s College School Arena.
