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Top Junior talent on display at Northwood Invitational

Players on Northwood’s Junior teams work out on the ice at the Olympic Center’s 1932 Rink during a practice session on Tuesday. The Huskies take on Shattuck-St. Mary’s today at 5 p.m. in a Northwood Invitational showdown. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)

LAKE PLACID — Due to format change at this year’s 38th annual Northwood Invitational Hockey Tournament, the host Huskies won’t get the chance to defend the Chris Ferrier Memorial Trophy they won a winter ago as the champions of the event’s top division.

Northwood’s Juniors, however, may be looking forward to their Olympic Center matchups this weekend with more excitement than ever.

There will be teams in three divisions — girls, and boys prep and U16 — battling it out for titles that are traditionally awarded at Northwood’s tournament. But this year, six Junior teams will instead be playing showcase games, with each squad playing one game each day for the next three days. And Northwood’s opener could be the most anticipated matchup of the entire tournament.

Starting at 5 p.m. today, two of North America’s most storied prep school hockey programs collide as Northwood takes on Shattuck-St. Mary’s in the Olympic Center’s 1932 Jack Shea Arena. The Sabres and the Huskies are the top two rated teams among independent prep schools in the U.S. in the MYHockey Rankings poll, and Northwood will be looking to avenge a 5-4 loss to Shattuck-St. Mary’s in early November in Minnesota.

Shattuck-St. Mary’s has a 21-5-7 record and is visiting Lake Placid for the first time. The Huskies bring a 26-4-3 record into their event and are coming off a tournament championship at Providence College where they posted a 4-0 record last weekend.

Second-year Northwood Juniors head coach Chadd Cassidy talks to his players during Tuesday’s practice in Lake Placid. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)

“It’s going to be a really nice atmosphere,” Northwood juniors head coach Chadd Cassidy said referring his team’s matchup with the Sabres. “We’ve only lost four games, and Shattuck is one of the teams we lost to, so this is a nice chance for a little revenge for us.”

St. Foy, Nichols, Culver and St. Andrews College are the four other teams in the showcase games. Northwood takes on Nichols Saturday at 2 p.m. in its second game, and wraps up play against Culver Sunday starting at 9 a.m.

Cassidy explained that all six teams have “entered into a league affiliation” that included two showcase events this winter — this weekend’s tournament and an event hosted by Shattuck St. Mary’s in November.

“We thought what a great event this would be if we could get Shattuck, Culver, St. Andrews, Nichols, St. Foy, all of those teams here along with our tournament,” Cassidy said. “It’s a showcase league that we’re trying to get to a playoff format down the road, but this year, it’s just showcases where teams play one game each day.

“We want it to be really good hockey,” Cassidy continued. “We want it to be hockey that college coaches want to come and see. I think sometimes you can get into these tournaments where you’re playing two and three games a day, and the hockey gets a little bit shabby. We want to showcase our teams and our players the best way we can.”

Senior Kaden Pickering is skating with the Huskies for his third and final season, and certainly has created some fond memories playing in his school’s annual tournament. Last year, the native of the North Country town of Madrid experienced an unforgettable moment when he buried the game-winning goal in double overtime in the championship game to give the Huskies to a 2-1 victory over St. Foy and the Chris Ferrier Trophy.

But Pickering, along with his teammates, also have some unfinished business in a rare appearance on home ice, and they can take care of that by beating Shattuck-St. Mary’s today.

“It’s definitely a big weekend for us,” Pickering said after Tuesday’s hard-skating practice session. “We look forward to it all year. It’s our third home game Friday night, it’s against our rival Shattuck and in my three years, we’ve never beat them. We’re getting pretty pumped up to play them. The games I’ve played against them have been 4-3, 5-4, and it’s been tough breaks at the end. Hopefully we can jump out to a good start and finish them off early.

“We played for trophies before, trophies are material, but beating Shattuck, beating Culver, that’s reward enough.”

After he graduates from Northwood this year, Pickering plans to play another season of junior hockey before attending St. Lawrence University. He said so far, it’s been a great season competing with teammates who have been working together and achieving success.

“We’re six-man units on the ice,” he said. “We’re never individuals. We have some really good talent, but nobody thinks they’re above anybody on the team. We’re all buying into the process and playing to the best of our ability as a team.

“It’s great hockey. That’s why I decided to come back my senior year and finish what I started,” Pickering continued. “This is my family now and wrapping up this year is going to be a tough one. The whole school is going to come out Friday night and hopefully watch us beat up on Shattuck. It’s going to be a rowdy crowd.”

Today’s action features just the junior showcase games and starts at 2 p.m. when St. Foy takes on Nichols at the 1980 Herb Brooks Arena.

The other divisions will start first-round games Saturday and Sunday, with playoff action taking place on Monday.

In addition to the Junior showcase, Northwood has teams entered in the tournament’s other three divisions. The Huskies girls start play Saturday morning at 11:10 a.m. against Wapole on the USA Rink,, the boys prep team will take on Upper Canada College on the USA Rink at 12:55 p.m., and Northwood’s 16U squad starts play at 9:20 a.m at the 1932 Rink against the Mercer Chiefs.

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