Which teams will be holding up New York State Division I and II boys hockey state championships by the end of the 2023-24 season?
The journey for all teams in the state began on Nov. 13 and will end at HarborCenter in Buffalo on March 10.
Buffalo also won a three-year bid to continue hosting the state championship games at HarborCenter through 2027.
Here’s a look at big storylines for this season.
Defending state champion West Genesee will look a lot different as 10 seniors graduated and top scorer William Schneid is playing his junior year at prep school Northwood.
Coach Frank Colabufo said there is a huge returning junior class moving from secondary to regular starting roles who will have to find their own identities.
“We will find out a lot about who we are and where we need to get better, but that’s a good thing,” Colabufo said. “We might have to take our lumps early, but hopefully we can figure it out and compete down the road.”
Suffern, which beat West Genesee for the Division I state title in 2022 and lost to West Genesee in this past year’s final, returns a top forward line of senior Cole Tyrrell and juniors Phillip and Sean McCarthy. Tyrrell’s younger brother, Sean, a sophomore, will be a top forward on the team.
Senior Charlie Windwer, a returning All-State honorable mention defender, will anchor the defense.
“To go to the state finals last year when there weren’t as high of expectations for us and pretty much have the majority of our team back, we’re looking forward to it,” Suffern coach Rob Schelling said.
In Section VI, Clarence returns four of its top five scorers, including seniors Luke Marchant, Sean Stewart and Max Henning, and sophomore Jeremy Dorigo.
Senior John Baird-Gajdos, who hasn’t played for the Red Devils since his freshman year, should provide a boost to a defense that will be anchored by new goaltending.
Clarence lost to Orchard Park in the section’s large schools final. Marchant is still bitter about the loss and is hoping for a strong season.
“We had a good run last year but did not come away with the section title,” he said. I have very high hopes that we can achieve that goal this season.”
In other news in Section VI: North Tonawanda merged with the combined Sweet Home/Depew squad, and Nichols, back-to-back defending Monsignor Martin and Catholic state champions, dropped out of the section and will not compete at the high school level.
Skaneateles has never repeated as state champions but after beating Pelham, 4-1, in this past year’s Division II state final, coach Mitch Major said repeating is the goal for the 2023-24 season.
Two huge pieces of last year’s team are gone as goalie Chad Lowe, who set the state’s all-time career shutouts record with 21, graduated, and Henry Major, Division II Player of the Year, is playing his junior year at Bishop Kearney.
Leading the way for Skaneateles this year are senior forward Andrew Gaglione (23 goals, 17 assists), the team captain, and senior forward and assistant captain Jack Torrey (15 goals, 17 assists). Junior Danny Angelina will play goalie.
“We feel confident that we have the depth in our roster, but you never know,” Major said. “One bad game and it’s over. But we feel like we have a good problem on our hands with our depth.”
Pelham, which won the Division II state title in 2022, returns 10 players, including senior forwards Griffin Evans, Will Crotty, Santino Esposito and Joey Letizia, and senior defensemen Zyde Karame, Grant Givens and Sebastian Fisher. Evans, Crotty and Karame were all members of the 2022 state championship team.
Pelham coach Mike Cambria said the goal is to get back to the state championship.
“To have the last game of the season come up as a loss and come short of your goal, it’s definitely been in the back of their minds all offseason,” Cambria said. “Some know what it feels like to win and lose that state championship game, so I think it definitely played a little bit of motivation throughout the offseason for us.”
Section VII champion Beekmantown, which lost to Pelham in the state quarterfinals, returns its top two scorers, senior forwards Zach Lapier and Sam Bingel, and junior defenseman Louis Sweenor.
Section X runner-up Ogdensburg returns several key players led by junior forwards Tegan Frederick and Tyler Sovie, junior goalie Ty Jacobs and senior defenseman Theodore Hewko.
