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USPHL Southeast Showcase Kicks Off In Morrisville, N.C. Friday

by Joshua Boyd

October 6, 2023October 6, 2023

The United States Premier Hockey League cordially invites you to join us in person or catch all the action on FloHockey.tv for the 2023 USPHL Southeast Showcase, running Oct. 6-9, 2023.

The first entirely USPHL Premier and USPHL Elite event in the USPHL Showcase Series, the Southeast Showcase will be hosted by the Carolina Jr. Hurricanes and take place at Wake Competition Center in Morrisville, N.C.

All of the Southeast and Florida Division teams from both the USPHL Premier and Elite Conferences will be at the event, plus the USPHL Premier’s Cincinnati Jr. Cyclones and Nashville Spartans, both from the Great Lakes Division.

Full Premier Schedule

Full Elite Schedule

USPHL Elite Midwest Division Players Of The Month: October 2024

USPHL Elite Southeast Division Players Of The Month: October 2024

USPHL Elite Power Rankings: Nov. 7, 2024

USPHL Elite New England Division Players Of The Month: October 2024

Note: September Statistics are also included in October Players Of The Month

Forwards

Griffin Delfosse, Chicago Cougars

Delfosse (‘06/Chicago, Ill.) was the leader in the voting among Midwest forwards, putting up five goals and seven assists for 12 points in seven games, giving him a 1.71 points per game average. After Oct. 11, the Cougars management had seen enough and brought him up to play with the Premier Cougars since that date.

Dylan Davis, Fort Wayne Spacemen

The second-year Spaceman registered a division-best 1.75 points per game average, evening out with seven goals and seven assists for 14 points in just eight games. He ended October on an active four-game, 12-point scoring streak, including a four-goal, five-point effort on Oct. 26. Davis has also seen three games up with the Spacemen Premier squad.

Mac King, Chicago Crush

King (‘07/Glen Ellyn, Ill.) put up four goals and six assists for 1.67 points per game on the season through October, giving him an average of 1.67 points per game, registering at least one point in each of his games for the Crush Elite team through Oct. 12. Like Davis and Delfosse above, he also saw significant time with his organization’s Premier team, including three assists for five games for King with the Crush. USPHL Advancement In Action!

Forward Honorable Mention: Caleb Lind, Chicago Cougars

Defensemen

Morgan Blair, Fort Wayne Spacemen

Blair (‘05/Dunedin, New Zealand) was recently named to his home country’s roster for the IIHF World Under-20 Division 3 Group B Championships this winter. A second-year Spaceman, Blair had put up 12 points through 11 games, making him the only Midwest Division blueliner to average more than a point per game. Blair has already doubled his 2023-24 Elite points output, as well, and has a good base of Premier experience as well.

Caleb Lindley, Decatur Blaze

Lindley (‘06/Chesterfield, Mo.) helped the Blaze to start hot, winning three of their first four games of the season and they finished October just off the .500 mark at 4-6, a big improvement from a tough first year at the Elite level for the Blaze. Lindley put up a goal and five assists for six points in his seven Elite games, and he also got a call-up with the Premier Blaze.

Defenseman Honorable Mention: Krstan Dukic, Chicago Crush

Goaltender

Cameron Cyrus, Metro Jets

Cyrus (‘06/Leonard, Mich.) joined the Jets after putting up a strong showing with the nearby Romeo High School. In Mount Clemens, Cyrus put up a 2-1-0-0 record in 200 minutes of play, stopping 129 of 136 shots for a .949 save percentage. He closed October with a fantastic 37-save shutout defeat of the Fort Wayne Spacemen.

Goaltender Honorable Mention: Brendan Kusbel, Fort Wayne Spacemen

Selection Process: The division’s coaches are presented with a ballot form with statistical leaders (ranked by points per game average for skaters and save percentage for goaltenders) and vote on that form. The league takes the results of that vote and presents the coaches with the finalists, who are able to vote on further changes if desired.

Summaries by Joshua Boyd

Note: September Statistics are also included in October Players Of The Month

Forwards

Braylen Cox, Potomac Patriots

Cox (‘05/Nashville, Tenn.) enjoyed time in mid-October as the leading scorer in the Premier, registering 19 points in 14 games to close the month tied for fifth overall. Cox’s 12 goals were tied for third. Add to that two more shootout goals, which co-led the Elite.

Taryk Filipuzzi, Hampton Roads Whalers

Filipuzzi (‘05/Coleman, Alb.) has been everything the Whalers needed from the third-year Whaler, as he has contributed with plenty of goals – scoring eight – and assists, with 10, for a total of 18 points in 18 games, ranking him sixth in the Elite in scoring. He has already surpassed the 17 points he put up in his full season of 2023-24.

Zachary Rich, Carolina Jr. Hurricanes

The third-year Jr. Hurricane and former National Champion Rich (‘05/Omaha, Neb.) put up six goals and 10 assists for 16 points in 14 games, averaging 1.14 points per game. He enjoyed six multi-point games in his first 14 games of the 2024-25 season.

Forward Honorable Mention: Viktor Pettersson, Charlotte Rush

Defense

Zachary Alberico, Hampton Roads Whalers

The second-year Whaler Alberico (‘05/Collinsville, Ill.) has helped his team to tie the Charlotte Rush at the very top of the Southeast standings. He dished out 10 assists in his first 18 games of the season, placing in a tie for fifth in overall points and second in assists. The Whalers were fourth in team goals against average at just 2.17.

Cooper Thomas, Carolina Jr. Hurricanes

A veteran of the Jr. Hurricanes youth and Midget program, Thomas (‘07/Apex, N.C.) has had an outstanding run as a junior rookie, registering a 3-7-10 line in his 16 games. He helped the Jr. Canes to stand just one point behind the Rush and Whalers. They are also right behind the Whalers in goals against average at 2.44.

Defense Honorable Mention: Raymond Johnson, Hampton Roads Whalers

Goaltender

Janic Kennedy, Hampton Roads Whalers

Kennedy (‘04/Mission Viejo, Calif.) went 7-3-0-0 over 632 minutes, stopping an amazing 329 of 349 shots for a .943 save percentage to lead the Southeast Division. He also already has two shutouts to match his 2023-24 full season output, including an absolute jewel of a 46-save showing against the Charlotte Rush on Oct. 26.

Goaltender Honorable Mention: Owen Nasholds, Carolina Jr. Hurricanes

Summaries by Joshua Boyd

Read About How The United States Premier Hockey League Utilizes Ken's Ratings For American College Hockey ("KRACH") to determine its Power Rankings.

These rankings are used only to determine Divisional seeding for Premier Nationals; and for selecting the Elite wild card team to fill out the 6-team Elite Nationals field.

Power Movers: We saw big jumps of six positions apiece from the Metro Jets and Carolina Jr. Hurricanes this week! The Florida Eels, Metro Jets and Jr. Canes are all new to the Top 10 this week.

See the Complete Nov. 7 rankings right here!

Note: September Statistics are also included in October Players Of The Month

Forwards

Chase Stebbins, Springfield Pics

A fourth-year Pics organization veteran, Stebbins (‘06/Enfield, Conn.) impressed coaches across the division with his heads-up and selfless playmaking style. He led the division with 11 assists, and added a pair of goals for 13 points in 11 contests in September and October. This included an eight-game, 10-assist streak, which is the second best in the league this year.

Daniel Mordas, Springfield Pics

Mordas (‘07/Lithuania) has been a threat to score every time he touches the puck, as he posted 12 goals to tie for third in the Elite through the end of October. By Oct. 20, he had already delivered two hat tricks. Mordas also added five assists for 17 points in 11 games as of the dawning of November. His three game-winning goals were also ranked in a tie for second Elite-wide.

Ethan Hoff, Boston Jr. Bulldogs

Hoff (‘07/Murrysville, Pa.) was huge in establishing the first-year Jr. Bulldogs as an early force to be reckoned with. He posted a 5-5-10 line in just seven games through Oct. 31, averaging 1.43 points per game. Hoff, who also played in the Elite last season, has also seen action in 13 Premier games with the Worcester Railers JHC, scoring three points at that level.

Forward Honorable Mention: Zack Baker, Boston Jr. Bulldogs

Defense

Matteo Johnson, Northern Cyclones

Johnson (‘05/Laguna Niguel, Calif.) has been a fantastic addition to the defending National Champion Northern Cyclones. Johnson has maintained a point per game average since joining the team, posting a 2-7-9 line in nine games. He also saw call-ups for two games to the Cyclones’ Premier team. He and teammate Jackson Bulthaup were both tied for sixth in Elite defenseman scoring.

Jackson Bulthaup, Northern Cyclones

Bulthaup (‘05/Big Rock, Ill.) has been a career Cyclone, coming up through the program’s youth and Miget ranks and now he’s making a big difference with the Elite team. He had points in all but two games over the course of October and stood with a line of 4-5-9 in nine contests.

Defenseman Honorable Mention: Justin Pniewski, Islanders Hockey Club

Goaltender:

Nick Cowles, Northern Cyclones

Cowles (‘05/Irvine, Calif.) is an Elite veteran goaltender who came out of October still undefeated at 6-0, tying for No. 1 in Elite wins. He also had a save percentage of .924 off of 145 saves on 157 shots this season so far. Cowles joined from the Anaheim Jr. Ducks program, where he was once a teammate of Matteo Johnson and three additional current Cyclones.

Goaltender Honorable Mention: Andrew Libby, Boston Jr. Bulldogs

Summaries by Joshua Boyd

Note: September statistics are also included in October Players Of The Mont

Forwards

Caleb Rae, Florida Jr. Blades

Rae (‘07/Stouffville, Ont.) has been a great newcomer for the Jr. Blades, leading the team out of the gate with five goals and eight assists for 13 points in 11 games. He started out red hot with nine points in his first five games, including a three-point junior debut on Sept. 20. To close October, he led all of the Florida Division with a 1.18 points per game average (among players competing in at least 50 percent of their team’s games).

Max Ratliff, Tampa Bay Juniors

The second-year TBJ forward Ratliff (‘06/Tampa, Fla.) helped the Juniors stand at first place in the Florida Division and go 10 games without a regulation loss to bridge October and November. Up to Oct. 31, Ratliff had posted a line of five goals and six assists for 11 points, averaging 1.1 points per game. Tampa Bay’s scoring leader evened up his career points per game at exactly 1.0, with 51 points in 51 games played.

Rene Krytinar, Tampa Bay Juniors

Krytinar (‘07/Praha, Czechia) has been back and forth between the Tampa area and his home country, but he has settled in very nicely this season with a line of six goals and four assists for 10 points in 10 games. His highlight was putting up a 3-2-5 line against the Florida Jr. Blades on Oct. 4.

Forward Honorable Mention: Matt Gonzalez, Palm Beach Typhoon

Defense

Steven Eberhardt, Bold City Battalion

Eberhardt (‘07/Seaford, N.Y.) returned for a second season with the Battalion and has solidified himself early on as one of the top blueliners in the Florida Division for the 2024-25 season. With eight points in nine games, he had already bypassed his full 2023-24 season points total of seven points. He has already seen time in three USPHL Premier games for the Battalion, as well.

Cooper Christensen, Florida Jr. Blades

Christensen (‘07/Oldsmar, Fla.) joined the Jr. Blades with an Elite season already under his belt and showed just how important veteran leadership can be with two goals in his first game as a Jr. Blade. He went on to post four goals and three assists for seven points in 11 games overall up to the end of October.

Defenseman Honorable Mention: Ty Elzinga, Florida Eels

Goaltender

Shane Passaro, Tampa Bay Juniors

Passaro (‘04/Palm Springs, Calif.) returned this year and has been in mid-season form from the start, going 4-0-0-0 with two shutouts and a .941 save percentage. He stopped 96 of 102 shots through the end of October and held a 1.47 GAA. Leaderboard-wise, he was fourth in GAA and second in shutouts. For his career, he is 17-4-0-0 with a .917 save percentage.

Goaltender Honorable Mention: Filip Vitanov, Florida Eels

Summaries by Joshua Boyd

USPHL Elite Atlantic Division Players Of The Month: October 2024

Note: September Statistics are also included in October Players Of The Month

Forwards

Ilya Baldin, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights

Baldin (‘08/Voronezh, Russia) did plenty of damage in the short amount of time he was with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights’ undefeated Elite team, putting up eight goals and 13 assists in seven games for 21 points to average 3.0 points per game, tops among all Elite players with a minimum six games played. He moved up to the Knights’ Premier team in mid-October, where he has a 1-1-2 line in six games.

Timofei Korober, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights

Korober (‘08/St. Petersburg, Russia) was also a major reason why the Knights went 11-0 to the end of October. Korober put up a line of seven goals and 10 assists for 17 points in seven games, averaging 2.43 per game. His best performance was a six-point showing on Oct. 19, and he also has three points currently in six USPHL Premier games. Korober was tied for the Elite Conference lead in shorthanded goals (two) and shorthanded points (three).

Dante Scibelli, PAL Jr. Islanders

Scibelli (‘06/Farmingdale, N.Y.) finished October as the leading scorer in the USPHL Elite, posting seven goals and 20 assists for 27 points in 14 games, an average of 1.93 points per game, good for third in the division. Scibelli also led the league in assists.

Forward Honorable Mention: Harold Stauffer, PAL Jr. Islanders

Defensemen

Brandon Eigner, Rockets Hockey Club

Eigner (‘08/Mendham, N.J.) registered a line of six goals and 14 assists for 20 points in 11 games, leading all Elite defensemen in both points and points per game, at 1.82 points per game, and he also led in assists with 14, power play assists with 11 and power play points with 14.

Anthony De Simone, Rockets Hockey Club

De Simone (‘04/Staten Island, N.Y.) was second only to Eigner in power play scoring by defensemen with nine points and a league-leading seven goals with the man advantage. He capped a four-game goal-scoring streak with a hat trick on Oct. 26 to help him to an 8-5-13 line in nine games, averaging 1.44 points per game.

Defenseman Honorable Mention: Kirill Serebryakov, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights

Goaltender

Roberts Kravalis, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights

Kravalis (‘08/Ogre, Latvia) came out of the end of October with a 6-0-0-0 record, giving him a share of the tie for the league lead in wins. He was also second in GAA with a 0.99 mark, third in save percentage at .958 and first in shutouts with three, a full 50 percent of his appearances up to the dawning of November.

Goaltender Honorable Mention: Dominik Feiler, PAL Jr. Islanders

Summaries by Joshua Boyd

Nov. 7-10

SportOne Parkview Ice House, Fort Wayne, Ind.

Teams from the USPHL Premier and USPHL Elite Conferences will join together at the SportOne Parkview Ice House in Fort Wayne between Nov. 7-10, 2024.

The host Fort Wayne Spacemen will welcome their Midwest rivals the Chicago Cougars, Chicago Crush, Decatur Blaze, Metro Jets Development Program and Motor City Gamblers. The same organizations’ USPHL Elite teams will also be in the showcase, along with the Florida Eels Premier and Elite teams of the Florida Division of each conference. There will be a total of nine USPHL Premier and 11 USPHL Elite games in total.

Fort Wayne presents a perfectly central location in the Midwest Division, equally distant from Chicago and Detroit, the two metropolitan areas from which the majority of teams will be traveling. SportOne Parkview Ice House has three NHL-sized rinks, and the Spacemen share the facility with the Indiana Tech ACHA team.

Last year, the USPHL Premier sent more than 300 players to NCAA, ACHA and AAU college hockey teams. An additional 16 Premier alumni made NCAA Division I commitments.

The USPHL Elite Conference sent more than 60 players directly to ACHA and AAU schools from the 2023-24 season, and 18 alumni were committed to the NCAA ranks in 2024-25.

For those who cannot attend the showcase in person, you can go online to FloHockey to watch all of the action live and on demand!

Full USPHL Premier Fort Wayne Showcase Schedule

Full USPHL Elite Fort Wayne Showcase Schedule

What is it? – KRACH is “Ken’s Rating for American College Hockey.” Ken is statistician Ken Butler and the mathematical model he used is known as the Bradley-Terry Rating System.

KRACH combines the performance of each team with the strength of the opposition against which that performance was achieved and produces a value (“rating”) for each team. The higher the rating, the better the team.
KRACH accounts for strength-of-schedule (SOS) as it ranks the teams.
KRACH is calculated purely from game results (win/loss/tie).
Overtime wins count as wins.
Shootouts count as ties.
The ratings can be interpreted as the team’s component of empirical odds. If the ratings for two teams are 200 and 100, that is equivalent to 200:100 odds (or 20:10 or 2:1). The scale is relative.

How is it used and why? – KRACH ratings are used only to determine Divisional seeding for Nationals and for selecting the Elite wild card team to fill out the 6-team Elite Nationals field. The rationale is as follows:

Teams play an unbalanced schedule.
Teams do not play every team in the Conference.
Teams that play an empirically more difficult schedule should not be unduly undervalued.
Teams that play an empirically weaker schedule should not be unduly overvalued.

How does it work? – The simplest example is a two-team system. If A plays 9 games vs B and wins 6 of them, KRACH A =666 and KRACH B=333. (or 6 & 3, OR 2 & 1, 0R 1398 & 699).

If you are asked what the probably is that A wins game #10 vs B, your answer is 2/3 based on empirical evidence. If B wins game #10, KRACH A=600 and KRACH B=400 and your empirical probability for A to win game #11 changes to 3/5.

When you add teams C, D, etc. and they all play or don’t play each other, the arithmetic gets more complicated very quickly.

The key is understanding that KRACH is calculated recursively. The ratings are such that if you take one team's schedule to date, play a theoretical "game" for each game already actually played, using the KRACH ratings themselves in order to predict the winner, the end result would be a theoretical won-loss percentage that matches the team's actual won-loss percentage. Thus the results are self-checking.

It is not possible to do any better than that with a completely objective method. Any other method introduces arbitrariness and/or subjectivity.

What is the process for the USPHL – The KRACH algorithm is built into an excel program for each Conference that takes the result from each game played as input and performs the iterative calculations of the model. Initially, a fictitious team is included that plays everyone once to a tie. This eliminates division by zero for teams without a loss or tie. Otherwise, a team with no losses has KRACH=infinity.

Iterations are set to 10,000 and are repeated as necessary until the difference in expected and actual values are less than 0.00001. Published results are scaled to an average KRACH of 100. The scale is arbitrary.

At some future point, when there are no unbeaten teams or teams without at least a shootout result, the fictitious team will be removed.

For more detail on the statistical calculations and the iterative process, Google KRACH.

Week of Oct. 31, 2024

Games of Oct. 22-28, 2024

Midwest Division

Forward: Dylan Davis, Fort Wayne Spacemen

Davis (‘06/Fort Wayne, Ind.) scored four goals and added one assist for five points, including scoring the GWG against the Decatur Blaze on Oct. 26. The next day, he added a shorthanded goal and two assists to give him eight points in just two games. He has 14 points in eight Elite games this year, and he’s also seen three games up with the Premier Spacemen, adding one assist there – USPHL Advancement In Action!

Defense: Morgan Blair, Fort Wayne Spacemen

Over the Spacemen’s three-game sweep of Decatur, the second-year SpacemanBlair (‘05/Dunedin, New Zealand) put up a 1-6-7 line against the Blaze, giving him the bulk of his 12 points in 11 games this season.

Goaltender: Phillip Tate, Motor City Gamblers

Tate (‘05/Clarksville, Tenn.) put up 32 saves on 33 shots to defeat the Metro Jets in overtime on Oct. 24, giving him his first junior win after joining this year from the Clearwater Ice Storm in Florida.

Atlantic Division

Forward: Dante Scibelli, P.A.L. Jr. Islanders

Scibelli (‘06/Farmingdale, N.Y.) had a big run against the Elmira Impact over the weekend, running up a pair of goals – including a GWG – and he also added three assists for four points. Scibelli utilized this five-point weekend to move into No. 1 on the points leaderboard with 27 points in 14 games.

Defense: Brandon Eigner, Rockets Hockey Club

Eigner (‘08/Mendham, N.J.) registered four goals and added two assists for six points to become the league’s leading scorer among defensemen with 19 points. He registered his first hat trick on Oct. 27.

Goaltender: Pandelis Tursi, Connecticut Jr. Rangers

Tursi (‘06/Glen Cove, N.Y.), a former Long Island Edge Bantam and Midget teammate of Dante Scibelli, stopped all 39 shots he faced against the Jersey Hitmen on Oct. 27.

New England Division

Forward: Zach Greer, Islanders Hockey Club

Second-year Islander Greer (‘04/Milford, N.H.) scored his first hat trick on Oct. 23, and added an assist as the Islanders went to OT against their local rivals and the defending National Champion Northern Cyclones.

Defense: Robert Ritter, Northern Cyclones

Ritter (‘06/East Baldwin, Maine) scored a pair of goals and added three assists in a three-game run against the Islanders and Springfield Pics between Oct. 23 and 27. He has seven points in his last four games total, a scoring streak he’ll carry into his Oct. 31 game.

Goaltender: Nick Cowles, Northern Cyclones

Cowles (‘05/Irvine, Calif.) scored two wins to move into a tie for second-most wins in the league with five this year. He is undefeated at 5-0, coming off wins against the Islanders Hockey Club (Oct. 23) and Springfield (Oct. 26), over which he stopped 55 of 60 shots.

Week of Oct. 31, 2024

Games of Oct. 22-28, 2024

Florida Division

Forward: Joseph Walter, Atlanta Mad Hatters

Walter (‘05/Crawford, Pa.) registered a 3-2-5 line as the MadHatters split with the Palm Beach Typhoon, and he now has a 4-5-9 line in 11 games.

Defense: Zachary Smith, Palm Beach Typhoon

Smith (‘05/Charlotte, N.C.) scored twice, including the Typhoon’s GWG on Oct. 25, and added a goal and an assist for a three-point weekend in the split against the Atlanta MadHatters. Smith, a former Philadelphia Hockey Club AAA player, has four points in his first eight junior games.

Goaltender: Kael Woolverton, Bold City Battalion

Woolverton (‘05/Denver, Colo.) came up huge in a pair of games against the Florida Eels, which resulted in a split. He went 1-1 while stopping 96 of 100 shots for a .960 save percentage and 2.00 GAA during the series. For the season so far, he has a 3.07 GAA and a .932 save percentage.

Southeast Division

Forward: Blake Marvici, Hampton Roads Whalers

Marvici (‘05/Colorado Springs, Colo.) registered five assists, dishing the puck out generously to teammates as the Whalers swept the Charlotte Rush over the Oct. 26-27 weekend. That sweep allowed the Whalers to tie the Rush for first overall.

Defense: Adam Wiley, Charlotte Rush

The second-year Rush blueliner Wiley (‘06/Pottstown, Pa.) put up a pair of assists to keep his team neck and neck much of the weekend with the Whalers, falling by scores of 1-0 and 5-3, the latter being 4-3 until a late Whaler goal.

Goaltender: Janic Kennedy, Hampton Roads Whalers

Kennedy (‘04/Mission Viejo, Calif.) put up a 46-save shutout victory against the Charlotte Rush on Oct. 26, giving Kennedy a three-game winning streak in which he’s allowed just one goal on 75 shots back to Oct. 21.

Selection Process: Divisional statistical leaders are presented to coaches, who are able to vote on the leaders, or nominate and vote on alternate candidates.

Summaries by Joshua Boyd

USPHL Southeast Showcase Kicks Off In Morrisville, N.C. Friday

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