This is the first in a series of stories looking back on how the top New England prep school boys' hockey teams performed in the 2019-20 season and what lies ahead over the summer.
Kimball Union has been the beast of New England prep school hockey, winning the last three NEPSAC Stuart/Corkery Elite 8 titles.
Three in a row? Who even does that?
So, when the 2019-20 season started, coming out of the gate everyone was aiming for the Wildcats. The pressure to fourpeat must have been intense.
"There’s no pressure on the coaches, the only real pressure is what we apply on ourselves," said KUA coach Tim Whitehead. "There’s more pressure on the kids because they don’t have that perspective knowing there are things out of your control, which either happen or don’t happen.
"We were fortunate to come out on top three times, which is very unusual. But the truth is, we could have lost in any one of those championship games. And so going into this year we knew, as coaches, we were a lot younger and had lost a couple of key players. But at the same time, we knew we had a shot at it."
KUA took more than a shot at it. Let's take a look back at the season of the Kimball Union Academy Wildcats:
Record: 25-8-2
Highs
The Wildcats' start to their season would be a hint of what was to come for the season in general, rolling out to a 3-2 record in their first five games, not what most would expect from a team that was coming off three consecutive titles. It wasn't until after the team had gotten to a 7-4-1 that it started really clicking, from that point knocking out nine wins in its next 10.
Whitehead lists the team's Lakes Region regular-season league among its biggest accomplishments.
"We were happy for the guys with that, and we were able to defeat Culver and Shattuck, in the Prep Cup, which has quickly become a great tournament," Whitehead said. "We were able to knock off Cushing twice, which is one of our rivals, and that’s not easy. And the seniors won their final home game, against New Hampton, right before the New Englands, so that was great for them, exciting for them and their families. So, we won the season series with all our league rivals, so a lot of positives along the way."
The development of the players is regularly a highlight at this level, and it's no exception for Whitehead. To observers, Luca Fantilli, older brother and teammate to phenom Adam Fantilli, in particular stood out as a player who raised his game.
"This is the first year he’s really emerged," Whitehead said of Michigan recruit Luca. "He wasn’t really on the map recruiting-wise until this fall, so it was really exciting to him and I think he had a tremendous year. I know there’s a lot more in the tank and I think next year he’ll be a dominant player."
In addition, watching the play of star 6-foot-3 Czech center Tomas Mazura combine with goal-scoring winger Sullivan Mack was a treat in itself. Those guys could fly and were fun to watch.
Top five scorers
Lows
"It always feels disappointing if you don’t win the last game of the year," Whitehead said.
The culprit in slowing the team's roll this season were a slew of injuries, which reared their ugly head almost immediately when sophomore forward Jaiden Moriello (Saugus, Mass.) broke his leg at the Exeter tournament in the first weekend of December, essentially the beginning of the season.
Foremost for the offense was the sidelining of Adam Fantilli, the second-leading goal scorer on the team who sat out the last nine games -- including the playoffs -- with nagging injuries. Then, when you add in a shoulder injury to Andrew Noel (Maynard, Mass.) and a wrist injury to defenseman Teddy Griffin, you have a hobbled core. And then there was the hand injury to third-line center Carson Moe that required surgery and sat him down for the rest of the season after the first weekend of February.
Whitehead didn't want to fault the injuries for this team's uncharacteristically early exit, though. He also didn't want to dwell on the fact that the uncharacteristically early exit came thanks to a 7-4 quarterfinals loss at the hands of the Andrew Will-coached rival Salisbury, which the Wildcats had beaten the last two years for the Elite 8 title.
"No, it’s not that it has a special sting because we’ve come out on both sides of that," he said. "I think it’s a really great rivalry with a lot of mutual respect. There certainly doesn’t seem to be any hatred on our side of it, certainly not between Andrew and I; we have a great respect for each other and friendship.
"The only disappointment for us is that we didn’t win that game. At the same time, he’s become a good friend and obviously I know that he does a wonderful job with the program, so if we’re going to lose to anybody, that’s certainly a very worthy opponent.
"For us, we always set the bar fairly high for ourselves each season. Truth is, even the Patriots can’t win it every year, so we’re, 'OK, it’s not easy!' You take it for granted and all of a sudden you realize how difficult it is, and we just feel fortunate to have gotten back into that tournament again and had a shot at it.
"We definitely had a bull’s eye on our back this year and the guys handled it well, though. They left it all out on the ice."
Looking ahead
Whitehead was feeling good about having seven sophomores returning for next season. That, combined with the fruits of recruiting (which the coronavirus has limited to watching players on video instead of in person), will be relied upon to provide offense because the Wildcats are losing six of their top eight scorers, with only the Fantilli brothers expected to return.
In addition to Mazura (Providence), Mack (Cornell) and Paul Dore, KUA will also lose Zach Whitehead (13 goals, 25 assists, 38 points; Meriden, N.H.), Griffin (3-23-26; Duxbury, Mass.; Trinity College) and Donte Pierre (5-11-16).
Senior goalie Veeti Kohvakka is also moving on, but Zak Brice, the other goalie in Whitehead's primary rotation, will be back.
"That’s a great sign, knowing we’ve got one of our top two goalies back, that’s a huge bonus," Whitehead said. "We’ve got seven sophomores, so we’ve got a lot of young kids who may not look like they’re putting up big numbers because they’re not, but I think they will as they mature and get older. No different than our seniors this year -- none of them were putting up big numbers when they were sophomores. It takes time, so I think you’ll see a lot of those guys develop into strong players and we’ll have some new kids coming in, particularly at the forward position, so that’ll be good."
Adam Fantilli is expected to be a top pick at this summer's Ontario Hockey League draft, but Whitehead said he was planning on having both Fantillis return. The plan, in fact, is to have Adam fast-track to be a senior, coming out of his sophomore season.
"When we drop the puck again next year, that will be our goal once again, is to win our regular-season league championship and then to win our league tournament and the New England tournament," Whitehead said. "I'm not saying we’re going to do it, but I’m not embarrassed to say we shoot for it every year."
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.co
