Photo Credit: Kelsey Lee-Violet Turtle Photography

Despite a heartbreaking loss at the final buzzer of regulation in the first round against the New Jersey Titans, the legacy of this Northeast Generals group will live on. The team not only came closer than it ever has to it’s ultimate goal, winning the Robertson Cup, it laid the foundation for teams to come. As General Manager Matt Dibble said

“This team was special. Bryan and I built this team very differently then a lot of other teams. It was a mix of free agents, draft picks and tenders, and trades. When deciding about players, character and effort were the most important things. The legacy for this team will be that they were the best generals team to date, and laid the foundation for the years to come. I will remember the guys like Matt Boczar who refused to take his jersey off until 2 days after the season because he never wanted to take it off. I can’t list every kid, if I could I would but they each put their blood, swear, and tears into this.”

On the ending and moving forward Dibble said “ The ending leaves you in a weird place mentally. Should we be disappointed that we missed the east finals by .01 seconds or proud of the way we ripped off 4 straight to get in and then took the Titans to the brink in game 5. The message next year is every day, every rep, every shift, every second counts. It won’t change how we are building this team. We want to continue to allow for maximum development and opportunity for kids who act and work the right way.”

Dibble then touched on the fate of his 2001 born players still looming “The 01s are almost done. Keefer, Orr, and Krause all have division one commitments. Schroeder has a great division 3 commitment. We have Steven Ardagana and Matthew Boczar still looking and considering options. They are narrowing down their options but I believe that they are both division one hockey players. They will be great hockey players at whatever level they decide. They both changed this program forever. With the portal and extra year, things are complicated but lots of teams are still doing their due diligence.”

Finally Dibble praised Bryan Erikson, the Head Coach, saying “Bryan did a terrific job this year. I think me being able to focus on building the team and he on coaching it worked out well. Bryan deserves a lot of credit, lots of these guys came in with a chip on their shoulder. He coached well start to finish and deserves a lot of credit for the run we had.”

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