#USPHLNationals Elite Team Preview Series: Jersey Hitmen

by Joshua Boyd

March 22, 2023

By Joshua Boyd / USPHLElite.com Jersey Hitmen Seed: Mid-Atlantic #2 Round Robin Schedule All games played at Utica University Nexus Center, Utica, N.Y. Game 1: Thursday, March 23, vs. Florida Eels, 10 a.m. Game 2: Friday, March 24, vs. Northern Cyclones, 2:30 p.m. Game 3: Saturday, March 25, vs. Charlotte Rush, 12 p.m. […]

#USPHLNationals Elite Team Preview Series: Tampa Bay Juniors

by Joshua Boyd

March 19, 2023

By Brendan Price / USPHLElite.com Tampa Bay Juniors Seed: Florida #2 Round Robin Schedule All Games to be played at Utica University Nexus Center Game 1: Thursday, March 23, vs. Carolina Jr. Hurricanes, 11 a.m. EST Game 2: Friday, March 24, vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights, 5 p.m. EST Game 3: Saturday, March 25, vs. Islanders […]

#USPHLNationals Elite Team Preview Series: Charlotte Rush

by Joshua Boyd

March 18, 2023March 18, 2023

By Grace Mello / USPHLElite.com Charlotte Rush Seed: Southeast #2 Round Robin Schedule All games played at Utica University Nexus Center, Utica, N.Y. Game 1: Thursday, March 23, vs. Northern Cyclones, 2:30 p.m. EST Game 2: Friday, March 24, vs. Florida Eels, 12 p.m. Game 3: Saturday, March 25, vs. Jersey HItmen, 12 p.m. […]

#USPHLNationals Elite Team Preview Series: Islanders Hockey Club

by Joshua Boyd

March 17, 2023March 17, 2023

By Joshua Boyd / USPHLElite.com Islanders Hockey Club Seed: North #2 Round Robin Schedule All Games At Utica University Nexus Center, Utica, N.Y. Round Robin Schedule Game 1: Thursday, March 23, vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights, 7:30 p.m. EST Game 2: Friday, March 24, vs. Carolina Jr. Hurricanes, 7:30 p.m. EST Game 3: Saturday, March 25, […]

#USPHLNationals Elite Team Preview: Carolina Jr. Hurricanes

by Joshua Boyd

March 14, 2023March 14, 2023

By Joshua Boyd / USPHL.com Carolina Jr. Hurricanes Southeast #1 Seed Nationals Round Robin Schedule (All games at Utica University Nexus Center, Utica N.Y.) All times EST Thursday, March 23, vs. Tampa Bay Juniors, 5 p.m. Friday, March 24, vs. Islanders Hockey Club, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 25, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights, 5 p.m. The […]

USPHL Nationals Field Is Set For Elite Conference, Event Set For Utica March 23-27

by Joshua Boyd

March 13, 2023March 14, 2023

Please Note the Nationals Schedule For The Seeding Round Will Be Announced By The Dan K Show on the USPHL YouTube page on Wednesday, March 15, at 12 p.m. After that point, the schedule will also be aavailable at USPHLElite.com. Best of luck to all the teams and keep checking USPHLElite.com right up through March […]

#USPHLPlayoffs Series Preview: Tampa Bay Juniors vs. Palm Beach Typhoon

by Joshua Boyd

March 11, 2023

By Joshua Boyd / USPHL.com Florida Division Tampa Bay Juniors (2) vs. Palm Beach Typhoon (3) All games at Fort Myers Skatium Tampa Bay is home team for Games 1 and 3, Palm Beach is home for Game 2 Game 1: Saturday, March 11, 1 p.m. EST Game 2: Sunday, March 12, 1 p.m. EST […]

#USPHLPlayoffs Series Preview: Charlotte Rush vs. Potomac Patriots

by Joshua Boyd

March 11, 2023March 11, 2023

By Joshua Boyd / USPHLElite.com Southeast Division All games to be played at Pineville Ice House Potomac Patriots (2) vs. Charlotte Rush (3) Patriots will be home team in Games 1 and 3; Rush will be home in Game 2 Game 1: Saturday, March 11, 11:30 a.m. EST Game 2: Sunday, March 12, 11:30 a.m. […]

#USPHLPlayoffs Series Preview: Florida Eels vs. Atlanta MadHatters

by Joshua Boyd

March 10, 2023March 10, 2023

#USPHLPlayoffs Series Preview: Florida Eels vs. Atlanta MadHatters By Joshua Boyd / USPHL.com Florida Division Preview Florida Eels (1) vs. Atlanta MadHatters (2) All Games at Fort Myers Skatium Eels are home team for Games 1 and 3; MadHatters are home for Game 2 Game 1: Saturday, March 11, 10 a.m. EST Game […]

#USPHLPlayoffs Series Preview: Jersey Hitmen vs. New York Aviators

by Joshua Boyd

March 10, 2023March 10, 2023

By Joshua Boyd / USPHLElite.com Mid-Atlantic Division Jersey Hitmen (2) vs. New York Aviators (3) All games at Ice Vault, Wayne, N.J. Game 1: Friday, March 10, 8:45 p.m. EST Game 2: Saturday, March 11, 7:30 p.m. EST Game 3: Sunday, March 12, 5:30 p.m. EST (if necessary) It’s Northern New Jersey vs. […]

The USPHL Elite National Championship will be decided between the Northern Cyclones and the defending National Champion Carolina Jr. Hurricanes at noon on Monday, March 25.

The Cyclones were able to reach the final off the strength of a 3-1 victory against the Tampa Bay Juniors. Noah Malcolm, Shane Parent (GWG) and Matthew Taylor scored the goals for the Cyclones, and Richard Moskala scored for Tampa Bay.

In the other semifinal, the Carolina Jr. Hurricanes were able to skate past the Islanders Hockey Club by a 6-0 score. Jakson Furlotte and Zachary Rich each scored twice, and Luke Moses and Carter Radosta each registered one goal. Anthony Trantas registered 22 saves on 22 shots.

The teams will clash at the Mastrovito Hyundai Rink at the Utica University Nexus Center.

By Joshua Boyd / USPHLElite.com

It’s Year 3 for the WBS Knights, and it’s also Year 3 at Nationals for the WBS Knights.

The Elite team (and the Knights’ Premier team) has returned to Utica and will play in its third straight Nationals, one for every year of its existence since joining the league in 2022.

The Knights won the Atlantic Division this year, finishing 28-15-1-0, certainly impressive, but they’ve done even better in Years 1 (35 wins) and 2 (39 wins). Still, the Knights were strong enough to gain the No. 1 seed in the Atlantic Division.

In the playoffs, they took on the No. 4 Jersey Hitmen, which was the other team along with the Knights in representing the Atlantic Division last year. The Hitmen of 2023 made the semifinals, falling to the Knights who went on to play the eventual champion Carolina Jr. Hurricanes.

This year, it would only be the WBS Knights of the two who would make it to Nationals, as the Knights defeated the Hitmen 8-1 and 10-4.

The Knights had three players in the Top 10 of Elite playoff scoring, with Blake Francione tying for second with nine points in two games. Veteran Jason DiMatteo was tied for fifth with seven points and Kaden Smith came across with five points in two games, good for a tie for fifth in the league. Andrew Zang stopped 59 of 64 in net in both wins against the Hitmen.

This past season, the Knights went up against fellow Atlantic representatives the Rockets Hockey Club seven times and came out with a 3-4-0-0 record. The other Nationals team they faced somewhat more than seldom were the Northern Cyclones, against whom the Knights finished 2-2-0-0.

Additional Nationals teams that the Knights took on during the regular season were the Metro Jets (3-2 win), Islanders Hockey Club (4-1 win) and the Tampa Bay Juniors (4-3 shootout loss).

By Joshua Boyd / USPHLElite.com

The USPHL Elite National Championships are just about to start on Thursday, and you have to include the Carolina Jr. Hurricanes in the conversation to win it all – again.

“I feel that Potomac, the Northern Cyclones and Atlanta are teams you need to keep an eye on,” said returning Head Coach Brad Gaylord. “And us of course!”

And why wouldn’t you expect the Jr. Canes to be in the final big mix? After all, they did win the regular season championship for the first time. They went on to win a two-game series with two very different games – an 8-1 victory and a 3-2 win against the Hampton Roads Whalers. That, of course, sent the defending National Champions back for another shot at glory, potentially becoming the first team to win back-to-back Elite titles in the current iteration of the conference going back to 2017-18.

“I felt they played very well in Game 1. In Game 2 we went away from our game a little,” said Gaylord. “ If we want to defend our championship, we can’t do that at all in Utica.

“It feels really good [to qualify again] and the players are itching to get the tournament started!” said Gaylord. “They all know everyone wants to beat the champs, so they have been practicing very hard. We have our plan of attack against our upcoming opponents for Games 1 and 2. With three practices left, we’ll be going hard and making sure all players understand the plan of attack.”

The Jr. Canes path at Nationals begins Thursday with the Chicago Crush, a first-year USPHL Midwest Elite Division team, and they also go up against the Islanders Hockey Club, who are making their fourth straight trip to the Nationals. Last year, they also met at Nationals, with Carolina winning 5-2, in a game partially overshadowed by a frightening injury suffered by Carter Radosta. Radosta returned this year to the Jr. Canes and is one of their top players, scoring 50 points.

During the postseason, Gian Khani led the way with five points in two games, while three other returning players were also on top of their game. Jakson Furlotte and Nathan Rhodes each had four points, and both Colby Markham (the league’s all-time leading scorer among defensemen) and Luke Moses had three points apiece.

Ryan Kalina had 18 saves on 19 shots for the win in Game 1, and Anthony Trantas stopped 33 of 35 in the Game 2 victory.

The Jr. Canes this year went 4-3-0-0 against Potomac in a fantastic series played throughout the season. In other games against Nationals teams, they’ve defeated Atlanta and Tampa Bay twice each, and they went up against the Rockets Hockey Club at the USPHL Tampa Showcase, also winning there.

By Joshua Boyd / USPHLElite.com

The Metro Jets’ first-year USPHL Elite program had quite the blueprint to work off of. They were borne of an organization that has been one of the most successful in the USPHL Premier. In fact, the Jets’ Premier team has the all-time best winning percentage in regular season play at .874.

The Jets organization has had three junior teams before, as they fielded the Jets, the Metro Jets Development Program (MJDP) and Metro Hockey Club (MHC) in 2020-21, but this is the first time the Jets have fielded an Elite team. They were very successful in winning the inaugural Midwest Elite title at 31-12-1-0.

In the playoffs, they faced a Decatur Blaze team that had several players with USPHL Premier experience, but were just able to edge the Blaze in two overtime games, 5-4 and 3-2, on March 10 and 11.

“Earning a sweep in our divisional play was impressive given the challenge they faced with a strong Decatur lineup. It was a test our players knew would be a challenge, but they kept to the game plan and were rewarded for it,” said Tina Ciraulo, the Jets Elite Associate Head Coach. “We are excited for our guys with all the work they put in this season. They bought into the process and developed over the season to prepare for an opportunity like this. It was truly a full team effort from top to bottom.”

The twins John and Peter Spiridonakos put up five and four points, respectively. McKenna Baker scored three points, including an OT goal. Hunter Folgmann had the other overtime winner.

In net, Elliot Duerr made 50 saves on 52 shots, and Zachary Robert stopped 29 of 33 in net. While the Elite players are new to the Nationals, the Jets staff have, in some cases, six years of experience at that level.

“We are fortunate that we have experience in playing for National titles,” said Ciraulo, who joined the Jets coaching staff in 2020-21. That year, with MHC, she became the first female head coach of a USPHL Premier team. “Therefore, we have been using our model to continue to work on things and with our other Jets teams attending, it gives us a chance to use different inter-squad practices to touch on details. [The 10-day break] also allows our guys to properly heal up those end of the year bumps and bruises to be 100 percent heading into Nationals.”

Against the Jets in the Seeding Round will be the Atlanta MadHatters and Potomac Patriots, certainly two tough customers. The Jets fell 2-0 to the MadHatters in the USPHL Tampa Showcase in January. The Jets went 5-2-0-0 against the other Midwest Elite representatives the Chicago Crush. They also took losses, however, to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights, the Islanders Hockey Club and Tampa Bay Juniors.

“We know all the teams will be strong. We stay loyal to our players and have not added any Premier players,” Ciraulo said. “So we are hoping our consistency and chip on our shoulder playing these teams will give us an edge.”

By Joshua Boyd / USPHLElite.com

Welcome to the Nationals, Potomac Patriots. A legacy member of the USPHL Elite (and USPHL Premier) in 2017-18, the Patriots have had a long and winding road to get to Utica not just this year, but over their seven years in the league.

For the first five years in the Elite, the Patriots were unable to crest the .500 mark, coming closest in 2021-22 with a 14-23-4-3 mark. Then, 2022 came along and the Patriots organization saw a massive turnaround as former pro player Josh Gratton (who saw 86 NHL games as part of an international career) launched a head-spinning culture change, after originally arriving in 2020.

Since then, the Patriots have regularly been a tough draw for every opponent and, to put the exclamation point on the point, both their Elite and Premier teams qualified together for the first time here in 2024. The Patriots have fully arrived.

“It feels great having made Nationals for the first time! We have come a long way since taking over here at Potomac and we are excited to see what this group can do,” said Alex Grose, the Elite Head Coach. Grose is one of very few current coaches to have also played in the USPHL, as he was part of the Patriots’ inaugural USPHL Elite team in 2013-14, which was actually his fourth season in the organization. After his college playing career at George Mason University ended, he became a coach there in 2018-19, and he joined the Patriots staff two years later.

“We are looking to just have fun this week going into it,” said Grose, when asked how the team was preparing with just about 10 days between games. “We know we’re one of the best teams so if we are healthy and in good spirits we will do well!”

In qualifying, the Patriots defeated longtime Nationals staples the Charlotte Rush, two games to zero. They took Game 1 convincingly with an 8-3 victory and squeaked by in a closer 2-1 win on March 10. It could’ve easily gone the other way, Grose said, given the team’s shortage of healthy regulars.

“Our team played fantastic in our last round of playoffs. It’s no secret that Charlotte is a very good team and program every year,” said Grose. “We were really proud of our guys handling adversity over the weekend with six regular players being sick in Game 2 of the series. Our team’s depth and leadership got us through a tough one!”

This includes one of the all-time leaders for the Patriots, such as Ilya Biesiedin, who has played in the organization since 2021. He led the series in scoring with five points after posting 99 points in 98 career Elite games. Additionally, newcomers to the program Dominik Budka and Noah Ribeiro each posted three points. Goaltending-wise, Christian Nalle made 50 saves on 53 shots in Game 1 and Taeyang Lim made 47 of 48 in Game 2.

The Dan K Show Elite Nationals Selection Show drew Potomac to face the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights on Thursday and the Metro Jets on Friday in the Seeding Round. The Patriots have never played either team (the Jets being new this year, and the Knights starting back in 2021-22).

Among the Nationals teams they have faced are the fellow Southeast Division representatives and defending National Champion Carolina Jr. Hurricanes. The Jr. Canes gave the Patriots their last loss of the regular season back on Feb. 18, a 5-2 Jr. Canes win. Potomac finished 3-4-0-0 against Carolina this year, so it’s a great rivalry that’s grown there. They also defeated the Tampa Bay Juniors, 6-2, at the USPHL Florida College Showcase in December, and the Atlanta MadHatters 2-1 at October’s USPHL Southeast Showcase.

All these games have given Potomac a lot of confidence to not just be at Nationals, but to be a contender to win the whole thing.

“We think we will be the toughest team at the Nationals this year,” said Grose. “We have our sights set on Carolina, as they are the defending champion, they are well coached and work very hard! We are excited to get a chance against them!”

By Joshua Boyd / USPHLElite.com

The Tampa Bay Juniors are geared up and excited to fly north to Utica, N.Y., where they’ll be part of a very tough field of 10 teams.

The Juniors, however, have a lot of experience with Nationals. This is the Elite program’s fourth straight trip and sixth overall. The Juniors made the Championship Final in 2019, falling to the former Richmond Generals.

“Our goal at the beginning of the year was to get to Nationals, but also to not just be satisfied being there,” added Head Coach Garrett Strot. “Last season, I think once we made it to Nationals we were kind of like ‘We made it.’”

With the veteran coach Strot knowing just how far Tampa Bay can go when the Juniors play their best, the organization has worked to impart that the destination is not the goal. Leaving that destination with a trophy is.

Strot said he’s been able to use the Juniors’ roster depth to get past the Florida Jr. Blades in a tough three-game series, which started with a 4-3 overtime loss on March 9. The Juniors won on Sunday, 6-1, and they completed the series win with a 7-3 victory on Monday, March 11.

“One of the strengths of our team is its depth. We moved some guys in and out of the lineup during the three games and felt it helped our energy going into the third period of Game 3,” said Juniors Head Coach Garrett Strot.

Four Tampa-area residents were the offensive leaders in the series, led by former Tampa Crunch and Steinbrenner High player Mookie Killen, with five points. Additional locals Richard Moskala, Ari Blatt and defensemen Carter Trussler each had four points. Elite veteran Ethan Carlone put up 92 saves on 100 shots in going 2-0-1.

“We gave our guys a couple of days off after the tough three-game series vs. the Blades,” said Strot. “This week was more getting guys a skate, battle a little bit, and next week before we fly up will be more special teams and scouting our first two opponents.”

Those first two opponents are the Islanders Hockey Club on Thursday night at 8 p.m. and the Rockets Hockey Club at 5:30 p.m. on Friday. The Juniors have not faced the Rockets or Islanders this year, but they have a 7-5-0-0 record against other Nationals foes. They are 4-2-0-0 against their fellow Florida Division representatives the Atlanta MadHatters. Outside of the division, they had wins during the season against the Metro Jets, Northern Cyclones and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights.

Their only losses against fellow Nationals teams outside of Atlanta were a pair of defeats at the hands of the defending National Champion Carolina Jr. Hurricanes and one loss to the Potomac Patriots.

“This is going to be wide open! You have two teams, Atlanta and Potomac as No. 2 seeds that easily could be No. 1 seeds, and Carolina is the defending Champs and will be the team to beat,” added Strot.

By Joshua Boyd / USPHLElite.com

The Rockets Hockey Club have themselves a few gems in terms of offense, and a team defense that can play the shutdown game. So they certainly come into Utica feeling good about their chances in the 2024 field.

Returning Rockets forwards John Crowdell and Jace Lombardo put themselves in the Elite record books as the No. 1 and 5 all-time scoring forwards, and Lombardo set the all-time single season scoring record at 113 points, followed close behind by Crowdell’s 108 points. Crowdell holds the all-time record at 191 points in 87 Elite games.

“With so many key returners this year, our goal from Day 1 of the off-season was to get here this year,” said Head Coach Todd Wagenbach. “We found the players we needed to add both in the off-season and during the regular season to accomplish this, and it feels great to be back. We earned it through the entire roller coaster ride that was our season.”

The Rockets finished third in the Atlantic Division at 26-16-0-2, which is RHC’s best record in the seven seasons of the current USPHL Elite Conference. And with that, they could still only finish third in a pretty stacked division, from which they are joined by the division’s regular season champion Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights. Against the Knights, the Rockets had their best record of the season against any Nationals team, going 4-3-0-0 over the year. They also faced the Northern Cyclones, Islanders Hockey Club and Carolina Jr. Hurricanes during the regular season and fell to each. They will face the Cyclones on March 21 and hope for better results than the shutout defeat they took on Feb. 8 in their first Cyclones Showcase game.

The Rockets did just come off a big, confidence-building series against the higher-seeded P.A.L. Jr. Islanders, winning two games to one.

“We played three truly complete games in the playoffs, and just had some trouble finding the back of the net in Game 1,” said Wagenbach. “We are firing on all cylinders offensively, defensively and in net at the right time and are finally healthy enough to play the way we want to play.”

Lombardo and Crowdell were again 1-2 in scoring against P.A.L., with lines of 4-4-8 and 2-5-7, respectively. The Staten Islanders were especially effective in the Game 3 win, with Lombardo scoring twice and Crowdell putting up a 1-2-3 line in the 4-1 victory this past Monday. With his two goals, Lombardo now has 11 points in five career playoff games, tying him for the Rockets all-time lead in postseason points with Jason Lastra (2018-21).

John Whyte II, an up-and-coming ‘06 in the program, put up five points in the three-game series. Joseph Auletti put up a .949 save percentage in net in going 1-1 against P.A.L., while Eric Rosati stopped 38 shots in Sunday’s Game 2 victory.

Playing on Monday gave the Rockets roughly 10 days between games, but that’s less when you count travel and other preparations.

“Over the next week, we will be doing exactly what everybody else is doing: fine-tuning our systems and special teams at practice, working out in the gym, stretching, watching film, making adjustments, getting reps, taking care of our bodies through nutrition and hydration, and preparing for battle,” added Wagenbach. “Everybody at this Nationals event is good. You have to be to get here. We will be prepared!”