The 2018 NEPSAC Stuart/Corkery Elite 8 final was a prep school hockey fan’s dream matchup.
Kimball Union and Salisbury were the clear-cut top two teams in the prep circuit from start to finish. The two behemoths of the sport had 15 NCAA Division 1 commitments between them. The Wildcats were the defending champions and the Crimson Knights had won three in a row just a few years earlier.
Making the clash of the two titans even more intriguing was that the two had skated to a 2-2 tie earlier in the season at the Flood-Marr Tournament.
So it was fitting that that the championship game went down to the wire. Ultimately, Kimball Union held on for a 3-2 win in front of a large crowd at Saint Anselm College’s Sullivan Arena.
"It feels amazing. Twice in a row is so rare. It’s just such a great feeling," said Andranik Armstrong, KUA’s alternate captain and first-line center, whose second goal of the game proved to be the game-winner.
Kimball Union defeated Rivers, 2-1, in overtime a day earlier on the road to advance to the championship game. KUA downed Exeter in the quarterfinals, making the Wildcats’ road to the championship the toughest.
"It’s great, especially against a great team like Salisbury. Andrew (Will) and his staff do a great job. I’ve been here long enough that I know we just got the last bounce," said KUA coach Tim Whitehead, who took four teams to the Frozen Four while at the University of Maine.
Senior goaltender Sean Dynan (Reading, Mass.) stopped 33 of 35 shots in the final. He came up particularly huge in the final minutes with Salisbury throwing everything but the kitchen sink his way in a last-grasp effort to even the score. That herculean performance came just 24 hours after he made 41 saves in the semifinal win. For the tournament, Dynan posted a .969 save percentage.
"He’s a big-game goalie. He has that intangible of being calm under pressure. He rises up, he reads plays well and he competes," complimented Whitehead.
"He’s obviously the most underrated player on our team and maybe in prep hockey. He’s carried us this whole playoff run. He’s a great player and he should be going somewhere," added Armstrong, who also could aptly be considered one of the more underappreciated players in the region.
Standing at just 5-foot-9, Armstrong isn’t afraid to mix it up with bigger players, fight for pucks and get in positions to score. His two goals in the final were typical of the type of player he is. Taking a beating in front of the net, his first goal was a tip-in of a point shot for a power-play goal and a 2-1 lead. The game-winner was a rebound goal where he fought in traffic to get his stick to the puck before the opposing defender.
"I’m a smaller guy so I have to work harder and get into the dirty areas. I try to bang in rebounds and get into the greasy areas," Armstrong explained.
Armstrong, an Alexandria, Va., native, worked his way up from a fourth-line role as a sophomore to be the team’s topline center and one of the top scorers in prep hockey.
"He’s unbelievable. I’m so impressed with him offensively and defensively," Whitehead said. "He worked his way up for three years. He played on the fourth line as a sophomore and he kept building and building. He’s improved every year. His growth each year has been significant. He’s a fierce competitor and he’s poised under pressure."
Armstrong was quick to heap praise on Whitehead and the rest of the coaching staff for giving him the opportunity to improve his game over the past three seasons.
"It’s all thanks to Coach Whitehead. He’s the best coach I’ve ever had," said Armstrong.
Armstrong remains without a college commitment, but some major programs are starting to take notice. According to sources, both Boston University and Harvard are now showing significant interest.
"He’s got to be the best uncommitted player in the country. Now with so many early commitments, guys don’t have opportunities sitting there," said Whitehead.
In addition to a quick, crafty forward who plays with a high compete level, Whitehead is confident the college program lucky enough to land Armstrong is getting an equally impressive young man.
"As a leader, he’s unbelievable with our younger guys. He’s a great kid off the ice," Whitehead said.
A more unsung hero to the championship run was junior Kyle Penney, a Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia, native, who is committed to playing college hockey at Cornell University. A forward by trade, Penney stepped up and moved back to the blue line when star defenseman Christian Felton was lost to injury late in the season.
"That was big. We wouldn’t be here without Christian Felton. When he went down, Kyle was the only guy we felt could bring it in our top four and without us missing a beat. He was fabulous. Cornell has a special player," said Whitehead.
Kimball Union senior Jordan Harris (Haverhill, Mass.) didn’t find the scoresheet in either the semifinal or final but did yeoman’s work, logging a ton of minutes with the shorthanded blue line. A projected second- or third-round pick in this summer’s NHL Draft, Harris performed well all season long in front of a myriad of scouts.
UMass commit Alex DiPaolo scored both goals for Salisbury in the losing effort.
While both teams will lose a lot of firepower to graduation and to junior hockey, it shouldn’t shock any observer of prep hockey if the two titans are back in the championship game next season.
