Trojan Hockey: And So We Begin...

The Trojan hockey regular season kicked off with a big win.

The team traveled up to Franklin Park on Nov. 16 to face Leyden in their first official division game. Coming off of the post-season, Leyden was undefeated. This made our win all the more exciting. 

The boys played a superb game. Passing, back-checking, hitting — all the elements were there. Danny Desmond scored the first goal, assisted by T.J. Laper. Leyden tied it up on a power play goal, but that's where their scoring ended. Joe Sambucci scored the go-ahead goal, assisted by Byron Graf, at the end of the first period. After a scoreless second period, Joe Paloian, assisted by Alex Lurie, put the final puck in the net to finish the game with a 3-1 win.

OK, now brace yourselves: I am actually going to compliment a ref’s call. After a minor high-stick call against Leyden, their player chose to mouth off to the official. Instead of just warning the individual to check his temper, the ref immediately added a 10-minute misconduct (giving him a chance to sit down and “cool off”). 

The player promptly turned around and told the ref to f*** off. Without hesitation, the ref ejected the individual from the game. What should have been a simple two-minute penalty ended up being an ejection from the game and a suspension for the following game.

Maybe I am old-fashioned (or maybe I was just raised right), but when did it become acceptable for a minor to act this way towards an adult? I’ve seen it far too many times, and not just in this sport. And then we wonder why we can’t get decent officials to ref high school hockey games.

Unfortunately, I was unable to make the trip to Kankakee on Nov. 19 to see the team face off against the Champaign Chiefs. According to my sources, this as a pretty straightforward game. The Trojans scored first in the first period on a power play goal by Joe Paloian. The Chiefs tied it up with a goal in the third period. The game ended in a 1-1 tie.

On Dec. 2, the Trojans squared off against Providence’s junior varsity team (playing up at the varsity B level). In a fairly evenly-matched game, the Trojans scored first, in the second period, on a nice backhand by Bryan Roy. The
Celtics came back and tied it up before the period ended. Toward the end of the third, the Celtics scored the winning goal and we walked away with a 2-1 loss.

At our scheduling meeting we learned that our division will consist of teams who we should be equally matched against. A few teams dropped down to JV, which is good. As much as the 10-0 blowouts allow for multiple players to notch goals, they aren’t challenging games for either team.

The Trojan High School Hockey Club is a combined team consisting of players from five high schools: Lemont, Downers Grove North, Bolingbrook, Romeoville, and Lisle. If you have any questions about our team, please email us at trojanhockey@hotmail.com.