The road to the Dineen Cup is a long one.
For the South Shore Kings, they know this all too well. After falling in the title game of the National Collegiate Development Conference (NCDC) — part of the United States Premier Hockey League — in 2023, the Kings and head coach Tyler Holske were eager to get one more crack at it with a bevy of returning players.
It worked out.
After another deep playoff run this spring, the Kings capped off their season with a 4-3 overtime win off a goal from center Justin Ryan, a SUNY Oswego commit, over the Ogden Mustangs.
Holske believes their championship run started when their last season ended, spurred on by a determined returning seven.
"That was a tough loss to an unbelievable year," Holske said. "Fortunately, we had a pretty good core group come back this year of seven guys. They came back because they wanted to get another crack at getting to the Dineen Cup. For them to come back and for us to win it, it's just the cherry on top."
But the Kings' path to hoisting the Dineen Cup was no cakewalk. It started in their first game of the second round when they were down 3-0 to the Islanders Hockey Club. The Kings rallied to eventually win, 4-3, in double overtime. That set the tone for the rest of their playoff run.
"A lot of times, that can go the other way in a hurry, right? But we've had a resilient group all year," he said. "Especially in the playoffs. …We had a lot of comebacks throughout the season and throughout the playoffs, so I wasn't surprised."
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A big reason for those comebacks and the ability to overcome adversity was that returning group of seven: forwards Nathan Stachowiak, Culin Wilson (Hingham, Mass.), Aiden Lindley, Karim Gayfullin and Kotaro Murase, who won New England Division MVP and Forward of the Year; and defensemen: Thomas Whitford and Salvatore Cerrato, who won New England Division Defenseman of the Year.
"The experience they went through the season before, just knowing what to do in the moment,” Holske said. “Knowing what to do when adversity kicks in. I think that experience that we had in the room helped us for that moment."
Also vital to the team was goalie Ryan Keyes. He won New England Division Goaltender of the Year and is committed to Merrimack.
When the Kings needed a boost at midseason, they knew they had to add to their roster. They found their solution in Ryan via trade. It was a move that proved crucial to their late-season success, rounding out an already talented roster.
"Really good 200-foot centerman,” Holske said of Ryan. “Good at the faceoff dots, good in all three zones, has a hard stick. It just gave us more depth down the middle. He slid into our first line in the middle. From the time he arrived, he made us that much better."
Along with skill, the Kings had grit and emphasized always doing the little things right. It’s a practice Holske hopes to see continue next season.
"Hockey games are won at the net front," Holske said. "Especially this time of year. It's hard this time of the year to get to the inside of the ice. You need to have guys that are willing to get to the dirty areas. You need to have guys that are willing to win puck battles. The more you can get guys to the net, the more second and third effort you can get out of guys, the more success you're going to have this time of year."
Integral to the Kings' success was their pipeline of players. Holske learned the secret to building a team when he spent six years as an assistant with Milton Academy under former head coach Paul Cannata.
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"The one thing (Cannata) taught me was when you're out on the road recruiting, find good people. Find kids that come from good families," Holske said.
"When you have a group of really good kids, it makes the culture that much better. That's one thing I really learned early on in my coaching career and something I wanted to implement when I took the GM and head coaching job here at South Shore: Go out and find a group of really good people in it for the right reasons. Looking back on it, we didn't have one bad kid.”
