Raiders top Holy Ghost in final
By: Bob Nuse
Francois Bourbeau had a couple of things in mind when putting together the first Hun School Ice Hockey Tournament.
First and foremost, the Hun head coach wanted to put together a competitive field that would play quality hockey. And, if possible, it would be nice to win.
Bourbeau got the best of both worlds when Hun emerged with the championship on Sunday with a 5-2 win over Holy Ghost. The win closed out a very successful weekend of hockey at Ice Land.
"Both games we played were close and intense," said Bourbeau, whose team opened the tournament with a 6-5 win over Landon School of Maryland. "I tried to have a tournament with good competition and I think that’s how it came out. Landon and Holy Ghost both played good games and it was a tough tournament.
"Landon came out strong in the first game and we did too. We were on top at the end of the game, but it could have gone either way, that’s how close it was."
Matt Torstrup scored three goals in Sunday’s championship game win, while Peter Plumeri and Jeff Fisher also scored for the Raiders. The wins raised Hun’s record to 4-1-1 on the season heading into the holiday break. The Raiders return to action on Jan. 5 against Morristown-Beard.
"Matt Torstrup played well in the tournament," Bourbeau said. "He had a hat trick today and he had two goals in the first game. So he really came through for us. He played well for me last year and he’s playing well again this year."
The Raiders are off to a good start this season. They have been using a balanced offense, led by Torstrup.
"We have some new players this year that have come through for us," Bourbeau said. "We played two nice games in the tournament. Landon was very good and so was Holy Ghost. I thought the tournament went very well."
With the first tournament proving to be such a success, Bourbeau is hoping to make it an annual event.
"I’m going to try to do it again," Bourbeau said. "I’d like to try to do the same thing next year. The coach of Holy Ghost was really happy with it and would like to be involved again. It’s the kind of thing that we’d like to be able to do every year. I don’t know if we’d make it bigger. I’ll take baby steps first."
Bourbeau was happy that in the first year, he was able to make the tournament a competitive one. In the consolation game on Sunday, Landon topped Pennington, 3-2.
"We wanted it to be competitive, that was the most important thing," Bourbeau said. "It was nice to win, but it was even better for my team that we got to play two games against good teams."
Making this year’s even work out just the way the Hun coach wanted.

