Hear from Program Director Jeff Holdenrid on an important week for CPH from the Martin Luther King Jr weekend.

“MLK Weekend is always a busy one for travel hockey families. This year we wanted to have teams travel together and sent a large portion of our program to Florida for the holiday weekend. Some teams in Orlando and one in Jacksonville. The 6 teams in Orlando were fortunate enough to stay at the same hotel. Below is a recap of the weekend from a few of our teams.

10UA

CPH 10UA finished the O-Town Showdown MLK tournament with a 2-2 record. They got wins from both their goaltenders. The players are gelling into a team, highlighted by CPH holding 5 of the top 10 spots on the tournament point scorers leaderboard in the 10UA division. The hard hat award passed around the defense corps and goalies, with Chase Lorruso, Jackson Inman, Kelly Young and Cooper Olson winning it.

16AA

Coming into the new year we wanted to set some new expectations as a team and I believe this weekend we did that. We made some serious roster moves and put some people in different roles on the team and I think it was a huge success. We had some different names doing big things. Everyone over the weekend showed what they are capable of at some point. The Williams (3 Goals 3 Assists), Marino (1 Goal 2 Assists), and Schivarelli (3 Goals) line was on fire this weekend. All over the place setting our forecheck up all weekend and causing havoc everywhere. We had some new names on the blue line this weekend as well with the most notable Nate Carmack (1 Goal 2 Assists). He had a great weekend back there and contributed on the scoresheet as well. Overall this was a very strong way to move into 2024 and can’t wait to see where we can do in the remaining week! We get a very important two weeks off then we are off to the races for the rest of the season.

12AA

12UAA headed back to Florida last weekend for a season favorite ‘O-Town Showdown’, hosted by Blue Line Hockey. The division was stout, and the 12uAA team fought hard in all 4 games to the final buzzer. Countless life lessons were had in fighting hard when the cards are stacked against you, staying positive, and never giving up through adversity. Jacob Hinckley stood tall in the net facing a ton of rubber. Despite the tough competition, we saw breakout performances from Carson Huffman and Cole Murphy on offense. Carson led the team in scoring, tallying 4 goals. Evan Branecky, typically a star forward, dropped back and played great Defense covering for players that were unable to make the trip due to illness. The scoresheet doesn’t show it, but this was a successful character-building weekend for the 12uAA team. After many weeks on the road the team is back home next weekend to take on the Thunderbirds at Pineville Ice House.

14UACPH 14A had a busy and competitive MLK weekend at the O-Town Showdown tournament in Orlando. The team kicked off the tournament with a Saturday evening matchup against the eventual tournament champion South Florida Golden Wolves. An unfortunate bounce of the puck put the Wolves up 2-0 in the 2nd period, but CPH battled back with a couple of power play goals to tie the game 2-2. CPH traveled south to Kissimmee for game 2, where they controlled the play and coasted to a 7-4 victory against our NC neighbors. Game 3 at the Orlando Ice Den was an exciting affair against the Florida Jr Everblades, which didn’t start until around 8:30 pm because the game before ran long. The Everblades battled back from a 2-0 deficit to tie the game late in the 2nd period. The 3rd period was a defensive struggle until CPH scored a go ahead goal with 1:54 left in the game. The lead was short lived however as the Everblades were able to punch the puck in during a scrum in front of the net with 57 remaining to tie it up. After the late game on Sunday, CPH had to turn around and play an early morning game on Monday against the Frederick Freeze, which they had to win in order to advance to the championship. A weary CPH team, which played the entire tournament with a short bench (10 skaters) and was coming off the emotional, late game against the Everblades, largely withstood a first period barrage from the Freeze and went into the 2nd period down 1-0. The team ran out of steam in the 2nd, and the Freeze coasted to a 6-1 win. This resilient group hopes to build on the experience from this past weekend and hold on to their first place position in the CHL standings.”