LEADING THE WAY
Top line guides U16 team to district title
EXETER, N.H. — Based purely on their talent, its no surprise Mount’s Tomas Trunda, Jason Stefanek and Cam O’Neill dominated the final two periods of Sunday afternoon’s New England District U16 title game against South Kent School.
Whether it was Trunda’s ridiculously quick, accurate shot, O’Neill’s skill and intelligence with the puck on his stick or Stefanek’s control of the game, the kids from Connecticut simply had no answer for the Saints’ top line.
After falling into a two-goal hole just seconds into the second period, the Academy U16 team dominated long stretches of the final two periods. Trunda scored two goals in just 87 seconds to tie the game, while O’Neill recorded a game-high five points and Stefanek added a pair of points in a 6-2 victory at the Rinks at Exeter to earn the district’s automatic berth to USA Hockey Nationals later this month in suburban St. Louis.
“We just click together and have amazing chemistry,” Stefanek said. “We have amazing chemistry and we love playing with each other and we’re a family out there. It’s really easy to play with those two because we all have such complimentary games and we’re always looking to find each other for better opportunities.”
“We were awesome, that line is playing awesome,” Trunda said. “We have the chemistry going and that line is playing so good.”
“We’re all really skilled and we all work really hard and we all have great senses when it comes to making the right play,” O’Neill said. “We can all score and it seems like one of us is scoring multiple goals every game. We all move the puck and it just works.”
While three of the program’s four teams earned automatic bids to their respective national tournaments – the 15U team dropped a 5-4 decision in a shootout to Mid-Fairfield – the U16 squad was the most dominant. Coach Devin Rask’s crew allowed just two goals in three pool-play games and scored 32. They survived a scare from Mid-Fairfield in the semifinal before pouring in six goals against South Kent standout goalie Arthur Smith in the final.
It all seemed so easy for the top line and the rest of the Saints, but nothing came easy for the top line or the team this season. Trunda, who is from Praha, Czech Republic, had to miss a number of games at the start of the season because he had to quarantine in the Mount St. Charles dormitory for two weeks. The Saints lost their first three games without Trunda and talented Canadian winger Simon Hughes.
“Moving here at first was really tough because I didn’t know anyone and I’m thinking ‘Wow, I’m in a new world, this is so different,’” said Trunda, who came to Mount on the advice of the USHL’s Omaha Lancers, who drafted him last summer. “After the first month I was all good. My teammates were awesome and helped me with everything.”
The Saints (16-6-2) started to find their footing in early October with an impressive win over No. 9 Seacoast Performance Academy, but that was the final game the team played for over three months because the state shut down interstate youth sports events. During the next few months the program experienced a quarantine where most of the kids returned home and Hughes decided to leave after three games to play in the QMJHL for Saint John’s.
The season restarted in February with the Saints taking trips to Rochester, N.Y. and western Pennsylvania to play games against the elite U16 teams in the country. There were some bumps in the road against HoneyBaked and the Philadelphia Jr. Flyers, but the top line built plenty of confidence headed into districts. O’Neill led the team with 12 goals and 30 points in 18 regular-season games, while Stefanek had a teamhigh 18 assists and 28 points. In just 10 games, Trunda has nine goals and seven assists.
“That line is one of the better lines I’ve coached,” Rask said. “They were dominant this whole weekend and they’re just gamers. You win championships with guys like that. Cam is a player that when he gets a chance that puck is going into the net. Stefanek slows the game down and sees the ice so well and Trunda is kind of a blend of the two.”
After breezing through pool play and winning a high-scoring affair with Mid-Fairfield Sunday morning, the Saints ran into adversity for the first time all weekend in the final against a South Kent team that was a thorn in the side of the Saints during their 15U season in 2019-20. The Cardinals opened the scoring late in the first on a power-play goal by John Small and then Kai Billey scored on a breakaway goal after a turnover in the neutral zone just 35 seconds into the second period.
It was looking bleak for the sixthranked team in the country, but the top line came to the rescue immediately. Trunda scored on a rebound off an O’Neill shot at 2:05 and then the Czech winger scored again at 3:32 to tie the game.
Goalie Jack Spicer kept the game tied with a couple of point-blank saves before Dylan Shane scored on a seeing-eye shot from the point to give the Saints a lead they would never relinquish. O’Neill scored goals on either side of intermission to secure a victory that was important to him and a number of other kids who were on the ice last season in Marlboro, Mass. when South Kent beat them for the 15U title.
“It felt really good beating them after not beating them once last year,” O’Neill said. “It was a little personal for all of the guys who were on the team last year, so it felt really good to win.”
Cornell commit Ben Robertson, who was also on last season’s team, took a pass from O’Neill and scored to finish the scoring at 16:41 to secure a spot at USA Hockey Nationals.
“This win means everything and it was nice to finally get a win over them and move on the Nationals,” Stefanek said. “Even when we were down, we knew we could come back and win this game. We just had to put pucks on net and keep working hard.”