NCDC 2023-24 New England Division Players Of The Week
Week of Dec. 13, 2023
Games of Dec. 6-12, 2023
Summaries by Joshua Boyd / NCDCHockey.com
Forward: Payne Gatewood, Utica Jr. Comets
Gatewood (’03/Boulder, Colo.) stood tall for the Jr. Comets during their sweep of the Northern Cyclones with a 3-2-5 line in their Nov. 8 game, which followed an additional assist on Nov. 7 for a six-point weekend. Overall, Gatewood has put up 51 points in 76 career games for Utica.
Defense: Salvatore Cerrato, South Shore Kings
Cerrato (‘04/St. Louis, Mo.) came away with a pair of goals and one assist as well as a team-leading +4 rating as the Kings split with the Islanders Hockey Club. He and Jason Zaccari both came away with 25 takeaways for the weekend and Cerrato also tied with teammate Jake Kavanagh for shots on goal with 11. Cerrato, for this season, has a career-best 21 points and 36 points for his career in 63 games with South Shore.
Goaltender: Garrett Simpson, Boston Junior Bruins
Simpson (‘04/Cincinnati, Ohio) played every minutes of the Junior Bruins’ sweep in Auburn, Maine, against the Twin City Thunder. He stopped 72 of 75 shots for a .960 save percentage on the weekend, including 42 saves on 43 shots on Dec. 8. A first-year NCDC player, he is on a 3-0 winning streak heading into his next action and has improved to 6-5-0-1 on the season with a .927 save percentage.
Rookie*: Jake Kavanagh, South Shore Kings
No stranger to this honor, Kavanagh, an ‘05 from Montreal, Que., put up the game-tying goal with 5:27 remaining to force an eventual overtime (and a win) for the Kings in their split weekend with the Islanders Hockey Club. He also added two assists for a three-point game. He has 13 goals (six of which are game-winners) and 11 assists for 24 points in 24 games.
* = no more than 10 Tier II games prior to 2023-24 / ’04 or younger
