STANDING TALL: Princeton Day School boys’ hockey player -Connor Fletcher, center, leads the celebration after a goal in recent action.  While PDS fell 4-3 in overtime to visiting Shady Side Academy (Pa.) last Saturday in the championship game of the Harry Rulon-Miller ’51 Invitational, the Panthers have enjoyed a big turnaround this season ending December with a 6-2-1 record after winning three games all season in 2014-15. PDS returns to action when it plays at Malvern Prep (Pa.) on January 4 and at the Hill School (Pa.) on January 6. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Keith Asplundh has displayed a knack for being in the right place at the right time this winter for the Princeton Day School boys’ hockey team.

Last Saturday as PDS trailed Shady Side Academy (Pa.) 3-2 in the third period of the championship game of the Harry Rulon-Miller ’51 Invitational
championship game, the junior forward found the back of the net with a power play goal to knot the contest at 3-3.

“It was a great play by Fletch (Connor Fletcher) and Tyler Coffey, they kept it in,” said Asplundh, recalling his goal.

“I was in the crease, they put me in a great spot. It is great playing with them. I just give them the puck and let them work and not get in their way. I just try to not make mistakes.”

Although the Panthers ended up losing 4-3 on a goal early in overtime, Asplundh believes the team is in a good spot as it brings a 6-2-1 record into the holiday break.

“It is definitely a great start; last year we had three wins and this year we have already doubled it so we can build off of this,” said Asplundh, who starred a weekend earlier as PDS finished third at the Albany Academy (N.Y.) Tournament, beating Hoosac School (N.Y.) 7-2, tying the Hill School (Pa.) 2-2, and then edging Lawrenceville 2-1.

“We lost to some of them pretty handily last year so it is great to get back at them and give us confidence when we play them later in the year.”

Asplundh is drawing confidence from being on the same line with senior star Fletcher and prolific sophomore Coffey.

“Just playing with those two guys, Fletch and Coffey, they definitely put me in spots to succeed,” said Asplundh, who had a goal on Friday as PDS topped Moses Brown (R.I.) 7-2 in the opening round of the tournament.

“I am working on becoming smarter and faster and trying to get better all of the time. Learning from them is definitely a positive. There is some pressure but when you are on with those guys, I try to get open because you will definitely find some chances with them.”

Asplundh’s work over the weekend earned recognition as he was the PDS recipient of the Christopher Reeve ’70 Sportsmanship Award for the tourney.

“It means a lot but I thought a lot of guys could have won it,” said Asplundh.

“It was a great team effort. I am really happy for the team that we took it into overtime and it was a close game.”

In Asplundh’s view, the team’s togetherness helps explain its reversal of fortune from last winter.

“I definitely think we are a closer group,” asserted Asplundh. “We really trust each other on the ice and everyone has each other’s back.”

PDS head coach Scott Bertoli is seeing a deeper commitment from his players to the team and program this winter.

“The one thing that has changed, and I knew it would, is that these kids are invested and that takes time,” said Bertoli.

“You can’t walk in here as a freshman and understand the history of the program and the level of success that we have achieved over the years, that takes time. That is now apparent to these kids. They see when there are 10, 15 alumni back watching us play this weekend, that it is important to those guys and now it is important to these guys in here. We got outshot pretty significantly for two periods but at the end of the day, we take this game to overtime and we are one shot from winning this hockey game. Maybe we don’t deserve to win but I give them credit for putting themselves in that position.”

In Bertoli’s view, last winter’s rough season helped steel his young squad for the challenges ahead.

“Last year we were all freshmen and sophomores, now we are sophomores and juniors so that kind of experience and being thrown into the fire last year benefitted us, especially the sophomore class,” said Bertoli.

“That is a talented group. I think we have already beaten three or four teams that we lost to last year and lost to handily so that is a good feather in their cap.”

The Panthers nearly earned another feather in their cap as they battled Shady Side from beginning to end of the tight title contest. The Panthers took a 1-0 lead on a Jack Mascali goal. After Shady Side answered with a goal late in the first period and another early in the second, PDS made it a 2-2 game on a goal by Ian Zyvith. The Indians took a 3-2 lead in the waning seconds of the second period.

“They had their way with us territorially for two periods but we were opportunistic when we had our chances and I give our kids credit for that,” said Bertoli.

“We challenged them at intermission between the second and the third; we said you have got 15 minutes to really cap off a tremendous start to the season. They have been the better team for the fist 30 minutes but that doesn’t mean that you can’t go out for 15 minutes and play well and put some pressure on them. I thought we did. I thought we had the better of the play in the third and we scored the goal to tie it.”

It was not surprising to Bertoli that Asplundh got the tying goal. “Keith is a really smart hockey player and I think what he brings to the table with those other two (Fletcher and Coffey), who are offensively gifted, is that he allows them to kind of freewheel that and take chances offensively,” said Bertoli.

“They are completely comfortable knowing that Keith is going to be defensively responsible but at the same time he has got enough offensive abilities and instincts to make plays and deposit pucks in the back of the net when given the opportunity. I think that line is working really well, they have done some really good things for us. They have carried the load offensively.”

Star forward Fletcher and junior goalie Logan Kramsky have carried the Panthers.

“I keep harping on the play of Fletcher and Logan Kramsky, those two guys are just great,” asserted Bertoli.

“Logan gives us the chance to win every single game; he stopped 45 pucks today. Connor Fletcher, at times, is a man on an island by himself. That is big team. They probably had 10 guys over 6 foot. Fletcher is a head taller than every one of the guys on our team and he is a dominant force. It is pretty impressive to watch.”

Bertoli believes the Panthers can keep up their impressive play when they return from holiday break with games at Malvern Prep (Pa.) on January 4 and at Hill on January 6.

“The focus is our league; we had a real good game against Hill and a tight game against Lawrenceville,” said Bertoli, whose team topped Hun 3-2 on December 7 in its Mid-Atlantic Hockey League (MAHL) opener.

“I think that the league is up for grabs this year. There is no question that we will play five good hockey teams and have a chance to win five games or a chance to lose five games. Playing those teams early and having some success and the guys recognizing, hey this isn’t last year and we have evened the playing field should help. It is a confident group in there, they feel good about themselves. They are disappointed about today and they should be.”

Asplundh, for his part, is confident that the Panthers will keep rolling come 2016.

“The break is definitely going to help, we are a little banged up,” said Asplundh.

“We will rest up and then we start league play. We have confidence to play the teams we are going to play. We already beat them so we should be ready to play those teams.”