Unionville handles Hatboro-Horsham in Flyers Cup A 1st round
WEST CHESTER >> It took a few breaks for Hatboro-Horsham’s ice hockey team to earn a spot in the Flyers Cup Class A playoffs.
Hatters coach Gus Salfiti said he wasn’t expecting his team to make the cut, but when it was given the chance to take the No. 14 and final seed, he went for it. While the Hatters would be very heavy underdogs, it was a chance to show his mostly young team what to strive for.
Wednesday night, the Hatters got a first-hand look in an 11-0 loss to No. 3 Unionville with the game called after two periods in a mercy rule.
“We have a young group, it is a good, good learning experience for them,” Salfiti said. “It’s a measure of where they have to be to be competitive. The worst thing to do is not get anything out of this. A loss is a loss but it you don’t gain anything it was a waste of time.”
To Unionville’s credit, it played a very clean and classy game, calling off the dogs after putting the last goal in with 4:19 left in the second period. The Indians also didn’t take any penalties and kept the puck moving crisply.
They also didn’t need very long to get on the board with team captain Tyler Glennon opening the account with 15:03 left in the first. Unionville’s top line of Glennon, Jack McKenna and Daniel Hardgadon combined for five goals and seven assists as they displayed excellent puck movement and crispness in the offensive zone.
“The game was a little unevenly matched but I was proud of my kids showing a lot of class by not taking any penalties, not doing anything rough and knowing the situation they were in,” Unionville coach Nick Basilio said. “It showed a lot of maturity.”
Unionville led 6-0 after one period and held a dominating 26-3 edge in shots. The Indians finished the game with a 39-5 advantage as the Hatters struggled to advance the puck out of their own end at times or break Unionville’s possession.
Salfiti noted the play of goaltender Ryan Bell, a converted roller hockey player who is still new to ice hockey. Bell made 28 saves, most of them under heavy pressure.
“This is his first year playing ice hockey and he was only a roller hockey player for a year or two before so he’s still quite new,” Salfiti said. “To see a young goalie taking the shots that he did with some real snipers on that team, it was promising. Some of our other kids did the little things right as well that hadn’t seen out of them in the beginning of the season. To have that against a team like this was good too.”
The Hatters had a long season without many victories, but being able to experience a Flyers Cup game should be of great benefit. Unionville does a lot of things well, like passing, hitting and skating so it was a good image of a team that Hatboro-Horsham can strive to be like.
“A lot of the kids in here are young and only have a couple of years in hockey to begin with,” Salfiti said. “To see where they have to go, sometimes it’s helpful to get run over by somebody so they can begin to understand how to get back up and fight back.”
