(Summaries by Joshua Boyd / USPHL.com)
North Division
Forwards
Paden Hicks, Northern Cyclones
You can’t keep a good ‘Clone down, and the repeat Player of the Month selection Hicks just kept putting up the points (and especially the goals), even after the Cyclones’ insane nine-game winning streak ended early last month. The ‘02 native of Kansas City, Mo., holds the league’s longest scoring streak this season at 12 games featuring 12 goals and seven assists for 19 points. In November, he posted three goals and seven assists for 10 points in just six games, an average of 1.7 points per game. He is currently tied for third in NCDC scoring with 25 points in 19 games. At 23 goals on his career, he is two goals away from breaking into the Cyclones’ all-time top five NCDC goal-scorers.
Michael Felsing, Northern Cyclones
Felsing (‘03/Pittsburgh, Pa.) is enjoying an active scoring streak of seven games, good for a tie for the league lead in that category. He has posted four goals and 10 assists for 14 points in his last seven games. November’s portion of that run was a 3-7-10 line in six games. That kind of production tied with teammate and fellow Forward of the Month Paden Hicks for the North Division’s best points per game average of 1.7 per game. The ‘Clones captain has 22 points in 17 games on the season, and his 1.22 points per game is good for top 10 in the league. His 49 career points are also in the top 10 all-time for the Cyclones’ six-year NCDC history.
Luke Panchisin, Boston Advantage
Panchisin (‘02/Lincolnshire, Ill.) pushed himself into the top five of NCDC scoring with a ferocious seven goals and six assists for 13 points in his eight November games. With 25 points on the season, Panchisin has already more than quadrupled his total offensive output over 19 games last season, when he put up six. He posted a seven-game point streak between Oct. 30 and Nov. 15 and missed the scoresheet only once in November. He also registered both of his game-winners this season during his point streak.
Defensemen
Conor Lally, Boston Advantage
The top-scoring defenseman in the North Division earns his Player of the Month nod because the three-year NCDC veteran just keeps on keeping on. The ‘02 from Scarborough, Maine, posted a pair of goals and eight assists in eight games over the course of November. Along with his offense, he posted 14 blocked shots and touched the puck more than any other NCDC player in November (1,132 times), underscoring the philosophy that the best defense is to simply keep the puck away from the other team. Over the last season and a half, Lally’s 42 points is second among defensemen only to the 65 posted by the league’s all-time highest-scoring defenseman, Sean Melso of the Jersey Hitmen. Lally earlier played two years with the Islanders Hockey Club USPHL 16U team and helped them win the National Division championship in 2019.
Zander Lizotte, New Hampshire Jr. Monarchs
Somehow our two Scarborough, Maine-born Defensemen of the Month have managed to never play with each other, at least not at the higher levels since youth hockey. The ‘02 Monarchs blueliner Lizotte has continued to push the Monarchs to remain a top North Division contender through steady play that saw him register 63 takeaways for an average of nine per game over his seven November contests. He’s helped the Monarchs give up the fewest shots per game at 28.23 per game on the season. He also added four assists and five blocked shots as he nears his 100th game this week – he’s at 98 in his career. He’ll pass former Monarch Cameron Speck for second on the team’s all-time games played list, with enough games remaining this year to potentially pass the record-holder Aidan Curran (123 games).
Goaltender
Connor Strobel, Islanders Hockey Club
A strong month for Strobel (‘02/Butler, Pa.) put him in the top 10 in the NCDC for both save percentage (.922) and goals against average (2.70) and saw him exit November with a 3-2-0-0 record when the Islanders as a team earned four of their seven total wins in the eight November games. His showcase game of the month was stopping 35 of 36 Jersey Hitmen shots as the Islanders defeated the league’s top team with the best offense by a 6-1 score. In 300 minutes of November action, he stopped 157 of 168 shots for a division-best .935 save percentage among goalies with at least 180 minutes played last month. He put up his career high in saves in a loss to New Hampshire, turning away 37 of 40 shots.
