This season, the dominant teams in prep school hockey were the ones with balanced scoring, rolling more than one line to generate offense.
This is particularly evident when you look at the most recent New England Hockey Journal Coaches Poll results, which lists Avon Old Farms, Lawrence Academy, Salisbury and Dexter Southfield as the top four.
Other than Lawrence, which has Riley Duran pulling the trigger on a regular basis, none of those teams have a singularly dominant scorer. Outside of the top 10, though, you have Jack Dempsey of Dexter Southfield, and just below him, Tabor Heaslip of Avon Old Farms.
Heaslip, 18, is a high-scoring but responsible center, helping the Winged Beavers to an amazing 23-2 record in New England prep school play. Avon Old Farms faces Nobles & Greenough Wednesday, at 5 p.m., at home in the prep school quarterfinals.
Avon Old Farms coach John Gardner, no easy guy to impress, has good things to say about Heaslip, one of his two senior captains.
"Speedy guy. He plays like he’s 6-2, 210, and he’s not," Gardner said of the 5-foot-8, 160-pound Heaslip. "He plays hard all the time, he plays with passion, and I think he inspires the other guys with the way he is on the ice.
"He’ll do whatever it takes. He’s gritty, he’s fast, he’s unselfish, he plays 200 feet."
Heaslip hasn't had what you would call a conventional hockey upbringing. Born in Naples, Florida, he spent the first 10 years of his life in the Sunshine State, playing youth hockey with the Florida Junior Everblades. Then, when his mother had to move to Texas for her job, Heaslip played with the Dallas Stars Elite before being recruited by Avon assistant coach Mike Pereira.
Heaslip's mom still lives in Texas but will be in the stands for the playoffs. The youngest of five, Tabor has an older twin sister (by five minutes), Teagan, who is headed to Lindenwood next year to play hockey.
Last season with the Winged Beavers, his first, Heaslip had 12 goals and 15 assists for 27 points in 26 games. Not too shabby at all. This season, he had 18 goals and 21 assists for 39 points in 25 games. Next season is still up in the air -- he's committed to UConn for 2021-22 -- but he's leaning toward playing juniors somewhere.
"I want to be a 200-foot centerman that can play great in the defensive zone and also bring offensive opportunities in the O zone, and create turnovers and create offense from turnovers, and play solid defense," Heaslip said of his style of play.
There's more to Heaslip than on-ice play, Gardner said.
"Great leadership," he said. "He supports the other kids on the team and I think he works to inspire them. He’s always patting the kids on the back, particularly guys that don’t play a big role."
Heaslip said he likes to model his leadership style after that of Jamie Benn of the Dallas Stars, whom he saw play frequently while growing up. It's that leadership that earns props from Gardner and is shown in the way he helps out freshman linemate Nick Capasso. (Timur Alishlalov is his other winger.)
"(I) always definitely give (Capasso) positive feedback because it’s tough whenever you go out there and make a mistake; you've just got to know that you’ve got to push through that," Heaslip said. "It’s a tough league to play in, especially with it being his first year, (so I've) just got to keep his confidence up as much as I can and let him know that he’s doing the right things out there, and just keep him going, keep the positive energy up."
Heaslip has energy to spare, creating a pretty formidable punch for opponents to contend with down the middle in centers J.P. Turner and Gentry Shamburger, another senior captain, a four-year guy who has served as a role model of sorts.
"He helped me a lot through my process and becoming a captain as well,"Â Heaslip said.
"(He) brings a lot to the table with his leadership and his work ethic every day. And I feel like that’s what drives our team the most, is our work ethic. The boys are ready to come to the rink every day and work hard and get better every day, and that helps each and every one of us get better, and I think that helps us a lot."
It's all added up to one pretty amazing season.
"This year, it’s been unreal," Heaslip said. "The bond between the boys on the team is unbreakable and I feel we’ve got something here that I’ve never been a part of before. I’ve enjoyed every single second of it."
With big things come big expectations for the playoffs. How does a team that lost but two games all season, dominating some pretty good teams along the way, prevent an upset? Heaslip said the biggest challenge will be staying grounded.
"I feel like we’ve just got to keep our composure and not let our success get to us because, at the end of the day, we’re still a team," he said. "We’ve got to be there for each other, and support each other, so can’t get too ahead of ourselves there."
Paul Grant is an editor and a writer for HockeyJournal.com and Seamans Media. He previously oversaw hockey content at ESPN.com and Sporting News. You can connect with him at pgrant@hockeyjournal.com.
