Mount team looks dominant
U18 squad routs NJ team on Sunday at Adelard Arena
WOONSOCKET — While most hockey players increase the flex on their stick as they get older and stronger, Providence College commit and Mount St. Charles Hockey Academy 18U forward Michael Citara found a stick with the flex he liked while playing Pee Wees and he’s never found a reason to play with a different one.
Most of Citara’s teammates have a flex rating – which measure how many pounds it takes to flex a stick one inch – of over 75, the talented senior forward uses a stick with flex of just 55.
“I love that stick. I’ve used it my whole life and I’m so used to it,” Citara said after scoring for the second time in as many days in a 6-1 rout of the New Jersey Rockets Sunday afternoon at Adelard. “I can whip the puck like crazy and it gives me a fast release – I just love it. I have used different sticks, but I have to shoot different. The stick doesn’t break. I’m probably the only one using a 55, but there might be some kids using a 65, I’m a stickler though.”
“That all comes down to feel,” Mount coach Matt Plante said. “I know guys love specific gloves, they love specific sticks and specific flexes; my advice is to find something that feels right and just stick with it. I get the idiosyncrasy of athletes and the superstitions and all of that, but it makes sense. Whatever the sport is, there’s a feel to it. When you find your feel, you stick with it.”
Citara wasn’t the only Mountie who was comfortable on the ice Sunday because Plante felt his squad, which improved to 5-1-1 on the young season, played superb hockey. A day after committing nine penalties and giving up far too many odd-man rushes, the Mounties only committed three penalties – all in the third period – and simply wore down their opposition.
Because special teams weren’t a big factor in Sunday’s game, Cumberland’s Alex Pratt recorded more ice time. The winger, who came over from the Mount RIIL squad, played his best game since changing teams. After a second period which featured strong offensive zone play and a shot block, Pratt recorded his second goal of the season when he tipped a Charlie Banquier shot behind his back and into the net to increase the lead to 4-1.
“I’m starting to get settled in and starting to gel with everyone else,” Pratt said. “My game’s kind of been a little inconsistent to start the season, but I’m starting to figure it out. This was my most comfortable game where I felt like everything I did wasn’t wrong and I could just play my game.
“On the goal, I saw that it was a little flutter puck, so I knew I could skate by it and still get a stick on it. I didn’t know if it was going to go in, but I wanted to change the direction and hope it would go in.”
The 18U and 14U teams were the only squads to sweep the weekend, as the 15-year-old squad followed up Saturday’s 4-1 victory with a 4-4 tie against the Rockets. The talented 16U team only earned a point over the weekend after skating to a 0-0 tie Sunday afternoon.
Plante is starting to see signs of his 18U squad coming together after what he felt was the best game after two weeks.
“This was our best game as a team, we were smothering,” Plante said. “I don’t have one issue with how we played today, and I’m the type of the guy who always wants to check all the boxes. We were hungry, we were structured, we played hard, we played fast and we got pucks to the net. You could see how we utilized everyone in our lineup today. That’s what we want to do, we want to wear teams down.”
As well as Mount played for the opening 22 minutes of the contest, the game was still scoreless early in the second period. That’s when Citara and University of Vermont-bound defenseman Austin Cook went to work on the power play. Cook corralled the puck near the blue line and found Citara curling off the boards near the right circle.
The forward took control of the puck, faked a shot to create a better shooting angle and ripped a shot from inside the right circle into the net.
“I just roofed it,” Citara said. “I like to shoot to that spot all the time and it usually works.”
The lead was doubled less than 30 seconds later when Josh Rule found centerman Ryan Gordon for a goal at 6:12. While Mount didn’t score over the final 10:48 of the period, they controlled the game. Pratt was particularly impressive with his work below the offensive goal line. The senior also produced a blocked shot in the waning seconds of the period to keep the two-goal lead.
After Robert Hyde extended the lead to 3-0 with a power-play goal, Pratt netted his second goal of the season when he redirected Banquier’s fluttering puck from the blue line into the goal to make it 4-1.
“For all of these guys it’s an adjustment, so [Pratt] is learning how I want to do things with our structure in all three zones,” Plante said. “He’s learning to play with new teammates, so it’s an adjustment for all of these kids. He has a great attitude and, as everyone knows, he works his butt off.”
Forward James Barbour and defenseman Nate Benoit added goals in the final six minutes to finish the scoring. All four Mount teams will hit the road next weekend to play games at Plante’s former stomping grounds, South Kent School in western Connecticut. Mount will play four games in three days, starting with Friday night’s clash with the South Kent Selects Academy.
Follow Branden Mello on Twitter @Branden_Mello