Kenmore West was on the winning end of a rare shootout playoff game last season as the Blue Devils defeated Lew-Port on a shootout goal by sophomore defenseman Owen Green. Kenmore West fell to cross-town rival Kenmore East, the eventual state champion, in the next round.
But this year, the Blue Devils are back and, coach Rob Roszak believes, better than before, even after graduating last year’s top line of George Ciancio, Kole Marquardt, and Jake Green. The three forwards totaled 45 points in 16 regular season games last year.
“We’re gonna miss the guys that are gone, but I think that we could be a better team this year than last year,” Roszak said. “We have potential to be there. Nothing’s changed from last year. We’re gonna be fast and hardworking — that’s our mantra: fast and hardworking.”
“We lost 11 seniors, but we’re coming back strong this year with a bunch of young guys,” said senior forward Ben Serrano, one of this year’s captains. “We might be a small team size-wise, but we get the job done. We move fast, and we’re gonna put a lot of goals in the net this year.”
“A big part of last season was winning the playoff game against Lew-Port,” said senior defenseman Adam Pray, another of this year’s captains. “Then of course we had to face Kenmore East in the quarterfinals, and we all know how their season ended — they went all the way. So our playoff run was ended shortly, and I think this year, we’d just like to be at the top of Division 4 again, possibly even win the division, and then obviously go deeper in the playoffs.”
The Blue Devils return five members of last year’s defense, which includes Pray and Owen Green. They also add Glenn Wirth, who spent most of last season playing for the JV team before joining the Fed late in the season for a few games. With the experience the defense has and the fact that it allowed an average of less than three goals per game last season, the Blue Devils’ defense is expected to be the team’s biggest strength this year.
“We are returning our starters from last year, so that’ll definitely be a strong point of the team,” Pray said.
“I would put our defensive core against any defensive core on any team in the Fed — large school, small school,” Roszak said. “We’re returning five guys from last year. Glenn Wirth was on JV. He was probably varsity ready; playing every minute on JV last year helped him out, and he did play games with us towards the end of the season. He’s gonna fit right in with the other five, and our D is really strong.”
Kenmore West loses Ryan Mooney in goal this season — he played in eight league games last season and posted a 2.31 goals against average in those games, including one shutout — but senior Matt Bogacki is back in net this year. He played in six league games last season and posted a 3.07 goals against average.
“Losing Ryan Mooney in goal is gonna hurt, but Matt Bogacki, the games he played last year, he was solid, and he’s gonna be another key as well,” Roszak said. “So I think goalie and defense, we’re gonna be strong.”
Offensively, Roszak doesn’t expect to have one high-scoring line or player like he had last year, but he hopes that several players will contribute. Roszak considers the team’s depth to be another strength.
“We told the kids, ‘Whoever produces is gonna play,'” Roszak said. “We’re not gonna blow past these goalies. We don’t have the shooters for that for the most part, but getting pucks to the net, knocking in rebounds is what we’re gonna have to do this year. We don’t have a guy who’s gonna get us 20 points, but what we have is a lot of guys that are gonna get us seven, eight goals as a unit. I think our top three lines are strong, and we expect all of them to score in that five-plus range.”
Roszak knows they’ll have to work hard and capitalize on opponents’ mistakes as well.
“Fast, hardworking, first to the puck,” Roszak said. “We worked on forecheck tonight. We want these guys to be first on the puck, make the opposition’s defense feel uncomfortable on the puck, and take advantage of their mistakes and score goals that way.”
Serrano is one of those returners on offense this year (five goals, one assist in 15 league games), along with Alex Militello (four goals, six assists), and Anthony Tanyi (two goals, three assists). Adam Pray’s twin brother Jake had two assists last season, and he’ll be expected to contribute more this season as well.
Adam Pray expects to bring leadership to this year’s team as well as solid defense and “the occasional offense.” He also wants to see his teammates develop more chemistry as the season draws closer.
“I’d just like to set an example for the younger players with hard work,” Pray said. “I feel like we just need to work on getting to know each other, playing as a team, because we all come from different travel teams, and just playing together and knowing where we are on the ice.”
Owen Green is a junior now in his second year of Fed hockey, and he hopes to bring some leadership to the blue line as well.
“Don’t get down on anyone, keep everyone’s spirits up high,” Green said. “If they make a mistake, it doesn’t really matter.”
As a captain along with Pray, Serrano hopes to bring more discipline to his game this year, along with leadership.
“A lot of intensity, less time in the box. Gotta put more pucks in the net, do my job as a captain, and help the team,” Serrano said. “A lot of them are young, small, and it’s their first time out here playing varsity hockey, and so we just gotta keep the positivity up and keep encouraging them if they mess up to just push on and make it up the next time and play hard.”
All of the Blue Devils have January 16 circled on their calendars. That’s the day they’ll face Kenmore East in one of four rivalry games at HarborCenter on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. They believe this could be the year that they have a chance for redemption against the Bulldogs. As far as Roszak could remember, it’s been 10 years since Kenmore West has defeated Kenmore East.
“It’s been 10 years since we have beaten them in a hockey game,” Roszak said. “Two years ago, we tied them. There’s been some times in there, but most of the time it’s been on their side. Give credit to [Kenmore East] coach [Kyle] Pray — they’ve had good players. They’re well-coached and they have talent, and we’ve always been kind of the second team to them, but I think this is the year that we may break through against them.”
“Since I’ve been here — actually, since my cousin has been on the team a while ago, we haven’t beaten East in a long time,” Serrano said. “And I think it’d be good if we came back and beat ’em this year. I really want it in my last year.”
“I think we got the team that can beat them this year,” said Green. “Last year, it could have been a lot closer, but this year I think both our skill levels are about the same. I think this is our year that we could probably beat them.”
“Obviously they’re down this year a little bit, compared to last year at least, and it’s always fun to play ’em in a rivalry game and have a shot at winning it,” said Pray.
Kenmore West opens its season Dec. 1 against Sweet Home at Northtown Center. Puck drop is scheduled for 9 pm.