Lawrenceville prepares to host prestigious tourney
It is one of the most prestigious prep hockey tournaments in the nation, and every year it’s the highlight of the Lawrenceville season.
This Friday, seven prep schools convene on the Lawrenceville campus and begin play in the 70th Lawrenceville Invitational Hockey Tournament.
“It’s exciting for me,” said Lawrenceville’s first year coach Keith Dupee. “It’s a tournament with great history and a group of schools that have the same mindset, academically and athletically. It’s an honor for us to play in it.”
The Big Red (1-5) begin play at Loucks Ice Center at 11 a.m. on Friday when they face Taft (2-4), which won in 2016. Other Friday game pti Upper Canada College (14-31) facing Belmont Hill (2-2) at 9 a.m., Choate Rosemary Hall (1-3) against Northfield Mount Hermon (4-1-1) at 1:30 p.m. and the last game of the opening day has Canterbury (4-2-1) against Nichols (13-12-3), who first won the tournament in 1949, the third year of its existence.
“It’s the highlight of the season for us,” said senior goalie Karl Szabo. “It’s something we’ve been preparing for since we got on the ice in the fall. It’s going to be a challenge, but we are going to go out and give it all we got.”
Lawrenceville is coming off a promising showing in the Albany Academy Tournament where it defeated Wyoming Seminary and lost in overtime to Gilmour Academy and then lost on Sunday to Rice Memorial.
“The Albany Tournament showed us we can compete with the more experienced teams,” said Szabo. “We got our first win of the season and that broke the ice and now we want to keep going. It was good to do some team bonding.”
Dupee can recall college teammates referring to the tourney and what a great experience it was to play in.
But the main goal is to win and Lawrenceville, which has played well the last few years, would love to claim the title.
“It’s going to be another battle,” said Dupee. “We have a good group of young men that are working hard and doing what we are asking of them. We have only been together about three weeks and they are working to make themselves better hockey players.”
Szabo has been a starter for two years and he knows although the tournament is the highlight of the season, it’s important to stay focused.
“We want to get some wins and be in the race for the championship,” said Szabo. “This is a big opportunity for us. When I get in big games I try not to let the pressure get to me.”
The format is a round-robin with each team playing the three in their division. The championship game and consolations are set for Sunday, beginning at 8 a.m. with the championship a 2:15 p.m. face off.