Pirates start New Year with promise
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
The West Windsor-Plainsboro South ice hockey team is hoping that with the New Year comes experience and an increased resolve to do what it will take for the Pirates to earn a few more wins.
The Pirates took a dose of confidence out of the end of 2011 when they tied Robbinsville, 1-1, and then took it to Nottingham for a 6-1 win last week.
”I knew we were going to be young,” said Pirates head coach Laurent Lassance, whose team sat 2-4-1 going into Thursday’s scheduled game against Lawrence. “I knew that off the get-go. More than half of our team are new players. Either new because they’re freshmen, or a couple transfers coming in. We have another guy, who’s returning, who didn’t play his sophomore season. It’s challenging in that point. Not only do we lose easily four of the best players in the CVC, who contributed a whole lot to our success, but we’re pretty young.”
The youth has given the Pirates some energy and an encouraging glimpse of the future, and the glimpses are sure to grow longer as they log more minutes and adjust to the varsity level.
”We lost a lot of talent,” Lassance said. “I knew in no way were we going to replace them quickly.”
Lassance, though, didn’t expect to struggle so much to score. Their six-goal explosion against Nottingham eclipsed their total from the three previous games combined.
”We’re struggling to generate shots,” Lassance said. “Maybe because they’re young, and they’re holding on to the puck too long to look for the perfect shot. We’re not creating shots as much as we need to.”
Getting more scoring opportunities is a primary focal point for the Pirates, who produced plenty against Nottingham. Chris Clancey had three goals, Jonathan Matthews had two goals, Brian Tso had a goal and two assists, Mike Morabito had a goal and an assist as did Kyle Inverso, and Adam Deslatte, Carlos Alvarez and Matthew Sayde had single assists. WW-P South is hoping it can do more of that each game.
”We’re telling them that a shot on net doesn’t have to be a 1-on-1 shot with the goalie,” Lassance said. “Just send the puck towards the net. Any chance you have it on the forehand, fire it if you have a shooting lane. If your linemates know that’s the game plan, they should be on the net ready for the rebound. The majority of goals don’t come from first shots.”
”We’re trying to teach them that — rebounds are goals you’ll get more than the first shot. We do drills to work on it in practice. We’re trying to create shooting opportunities and scoring opportunities. It’s going to take time to develop them into a force again.”
While the Pirates have to keep telling themselves to be patient with a growing team, there have been encouraging signs along the way.
”When they do execute and go at it at the intensity they’re supposed to,” Lassance said, “there isn’t a team we’ve played that has been able to do anything.”
The Pirates put together a strong effort in a 1-1 tie with Robbinsville. Jon Plester made 35 saves to back the defense and Deslatte scored with an assist to Clancey.
”It takes a full 45 minutes of working together and doing the system they’re supposed to for the entire game to keep them in reach of winning the game,” Lassance said. “That tie, I told them in the locker room, that’s a great tie. You’re a young team and you went against a team that has a lot of good leadership.
”I feel down the stretch, I think we’ll be in more games than we were in the first half. They’re going to keep getting better. They’re confidence is only going to get better from here on in.”
Lassance is hoping that more wins will follow before too long as the inexperienced players need to see a reward for their work ethic.
”I try to teach them,” Lassance said. “We try to make sure we keep them looking forward and not on the what-ifs. We try to keep them focused ahead. They can’t worry about the past.
”We just hope they learn from their mistakes. They’ve been making a lot, and we expect that. They’re a young team. And because of that, the other teams are capitalizing on those mistakes.”
WW-P South is trying to lean on its veterans. Plester, a senior, has been terrific between the pipes, but the goalie doesn’t play offense. The Pirates are looking to senior defenseman Alex Mangone, Clancey who is a junior forward and Morabito, another junior, as their main sources of leadership on ice.
”This year for the first time, I took on a couple seniors who don’t have much playing experience,” Lassance said. “One kid (Faizan Butt) gives all-out effort. At dry land workouts, he gives it all he has. He does that in all his workouts. Then Austin Gioseffi, he was the starting fullback on football team, and he’s playing. It’s not that they get regular shifts when we play the tougher teams, but they can help. Austin played football for four years. Hopefully they bring something to the table in the locker room.”
The Pirates could see first-hand what the veterans meant in the tie against Robbinsville. While WW-P South did give up some good shots, Plester helped plenty with one of his best games.
”The games are definitely tougher on Jon to keep us in them,” Lassance said. “He’s seeing a lot of rubber because of a lack of talent on defense. The main reason we were able to stay in the game was because we made the decision to move Chris Clancey back on defense. It worked out.
”We’re missing Steven Cangelosi right now. That hurts a lot too. I can’t take Clancey from forward and move him back. That’ll really deplete the forwards. Clancey is good at generating shots. He has size and power. We don’t have a superstar. We have our leaders and a lot of role players.”
The role players are young and finding out just what they can do at the high school level. They’ve had one month to get a good taste of the competition and the demands of the game.
”Brian Tso, he’s a freshman,” Lassance said. “He’ll be a good player, but he’s getting outmuscled right now by the bigger guys. One of the biggest surprises on the team, I knew he was a very physical player, is another freshman, Jon Matthews. He loves to play physical and looks for it. He goes out there and kills people. He destroys people. He’s not dirty. He doesn’t care about how big the other person is.”
As the Pirates grow this season, they could develop into a dangerous team just in time to make some noise in the postseason. The question is how much they can improve.
”We have our work cut out for us,” Lassance said. “It’s going to be a really good test to see how much we’ve improved and how far we can go. I think Mercer County can be our Super Bowl. With Jon in back of the net, he can steal us a game here and there.
”We were hoping we could finish close to .500 so we can get a state bid,” he added. “This month is a huge challenge. Every team we play this month either plays out of the Colonial Division or they’re teams that have an above .500 record. It’ll be a huge challenge. They went into the break where we tied a good team and played a good game against Nottingham. So they have some confidence.”