The Vipers captured another championship this past weekend by winning the EHF U18 league championship. The Vipers rolled through the semi-finals with an 11-5 victory and had trick from Matignon’s leading goal scorer John Andrews. In the finals, they faced a “New & Improved” Bulldogs team that came out extremely aggressive and scored four early goals taking advantage of the Vipers slow start. After a mid-game time-out and some individual player self-reflection, the Vipers settled in one shift at a time chipping away the old fashion way. Having the Bulldogs take a 4 minute penalty, the Vipers immediately scored two goals in one shift to jump right back into the game. Having the game shift in a positive direction, the Vipers continued the aggressive fore-check by forcing defensive zone turnovers and again capitalized on the power play with a Ryan Spagnoli snipe from the top of the slot. With nothing to lose the Matignon trio of Andrews, McPherson, Petrie took matters into their own hands. On a neutral zone transition McPherson carried the play on a three on two and caught the goalie sleeping with an absolute blast from the blue line to tie the game and force the overtime.

With the Vipers having experience with over-time from the previous State championship weekend they remained calm and incorporated a four forward and one defense offensive attack system in play early to put the Dogs back on their heels. With all pucks to the net and recognizing the many rebounds being left on the door step, McPherson once again chose to take ownership and “seize the moment” by burying a loose puck rebound to win the EHF Championship!

“These young men are a special group and it’s a true honor to be a part of their continued development, they have worked extremely hard, paid their dues on and off the ice and have had to deal with much adversity this past season. While doing so, they never lost focus and their true character was certainly tested and revealed, we couldn’t be any prouder for them, they deserve this Championship”… Coach Somerville

Congratulations winning the U18
Mass State Hockey Championship. This tournament recently took place
at NESC in Marlboro with a total ten qualifying teams participating in a very
competitive round robin format with the top four finalist moving on to single
game elimination. The Vipers went 3-0 in round robin play and qualified as a
high seed leading into the final rounds with some stellar individual
performances. Now facing a very talented team Quincy (CM players) in the
semi-finals, the Vipers battled to an extremely exciting intense overtime win
set up by Somerville and McGovern to a Ryan Smith stretch breakaway goal to
advance to the championship game against the Coastal Whalers (Barnstable High).

With the championship on the line, the Vipers made it
entertaining once again by going ahead by three goals early by (Spagnole, Smith
& Monagle). However, the Whalers refused to quit and fought their way back
by tying the game early in the third period and going ahead with 8 minutes
remaining. With an immediate adjustment to a stretch off side break-out system.
The Vipers capitalized with Mike McPherson receiving a loose puck on the wall
and burying a two on one five hole to tie the game with four minutes remaining.
Moving into sudden death overtime, the vipers players immediately recognized the
instability of the Whalers fatigued defense and applied an aggressive dump and
chase off side system to apply constant pressure. In doing so, Bernie McGovern
executed this practice perfectly with Andrew Somerville crashing to the net
splitting the defense and picking up the puck for the one timer shot and a 5-4
Championship victory.

• The Vipers will now be moving on to participate in the
  National Championship series in Troy Michigan March 26^th, 2015.
  

This weekend was a true testament of a group of young men
recognizing and finding the ultimate “Will To Win”. Each and every
player elevated their level of play and sacrificed themselves for the common
goal of TEAM! It was an amazing half season, these experiences are
once in a lifetime and the ultimate success can only be measured in the journey
as those memories will certainly last forever. Coach Somerville…

The 05E's won in OT in the Can/Am Championship Gold Medal game at Lake Placid today. 

Congrats 05E's!

Story to follow.

Congrats to the Vipers U18 Black team for winning the Massachusetts State Championship Tier II. A 4-3 overtme thriller with the game winner going to Andy Somerville........... Good Luck in Nationals

Playoffs

Good luck in the Semi Finals.........

Road to Nationals

Sunday, November 9

PLAYOFFS

Schedule can be fould at

The 5th annual Vipers Parent Appreciation Night at Kowloon Restaurant is scheduled for: Thursday, November 20th, 2014 @ 7:00pm.  

Dinner and Entertainment will be provided by the Vipers.  Cash Bar.  Dinner will be served at 7pm which will be followed by a Comedy Show.  This is an adult-only event.

Thank you. 

Q: At the older and higher levels of hockey, what separates the great players from the good players?

A: As players get older and more physically mature, the physical skills like speed, strength and size become slightly less decisive than they were at younger ages because the discrepancy in those skills narrows among older players. So many of us who have coached at the older levels have learned over the years that hockey sense (the mental skill of the game) is what separates great from good as players progress through the 14U/16U ranks and beyond.

Decision-making skills are critical to be effective at higher levels of hockey. Size, speed and strength can be negated by great hockey sense. The understanding and awareness to make the right decisions with and without the puck is what really creates a special player. 

What many of us have also learned is that it’s really difficult to teach the mental part of the game. 

So how do you enhance a player’s hockey sense? I believe that cross-ice hockey at the younger ages helps do it.

Putting physically gifted young players in smaller spaces is important. It challenges them. It puts them in an environment that creates diverse decision-making situations repeatedly. Experiencing that kind of environment is really the only way to develop the mental skill.

And, as players get older, hockey in small spaces takes on a slightly different, but no less important role. It becomes all about putting the players in game-like situations as often as possible to simulate what will happen in a game. Nothing simulates these situations more frequently and competitively than small-area games. It’s an efficient tool for building hockey sense and stamina.

In my opinion, hockey sense could be the most important skill of all to insure long-lasting success in the game. And the development of that hockey sense starts early, through under-coaching at the lower levels and allowing young players to fail and be creative in both practice and games.

There are three key components to being an effective player: effort (how hard a player works and competes is extremely important), decision-making (mental skill/hockey sense) and execution (the physical skills of the game). All three are critical, but where we’re too often falling short is in providing the mental training and development for our players. 

Give me a smart player over a really fast, big or strong player any day. Give me a player that has all three, and then you have a very special player.