Week of Dec. 6-12
(Summaries by Joshua Boyd / USPHL.com)
South Division
Forward: Luca Leighton, P.A.L. Jr. Islanders
Leighton (‘03/Old Brookville, N.Y.) put together a massive nine-point weekend as the Jr. Islanders swept the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights. He scored a goal and an assist on each of Saturday and Monday, but the crown jewel was in the middle when he posted a 1-4-5 line on Sunday. He’s now on a four-game goal-scoring streak and has seven points over each of his five December games. The Captain has 30 points in 22 games this year, and the recent push sent him over a point per game for his career with 76 points in 73 NCDC games, the most of any Jr. Islanders player and third most among active players with two or more years experience.
Defense: Jack Hewitt, P.A.L. Jr. Islanders
Hewitt (‘03/Toronto, Ont.) also has a high honor on the Jr. Islanders leaderboard. He has the most career points for a single-season P.A.L. player, at 25 points through 27 games – and all from the blue line. He led the South Division with a +5 rating over the weekend – and don’t forget his 1-5-6 line over the three-game weekend vs. the Knights. He is on a current six-game scoring streak with a 1-9-10 line.
Goaltender: J.J. Cataldo, Jersey HItmen
The leader and still title-holder of top goaltender in the NCDC turned away 88 of 94 shots over two games, which resulted in a win over Connecticut and an overtime loss to Mercer. He has lost just once in regulation this season and not at all since October. He remains the NCDC leader in wins (14), goals against average (1.28), save percentage (.963) and shutouts (seven).
North Division
Forward: Ben Jenkinson, South Shore Kings
Jenkinson (‘02/Nantucket, Mass.) has utilized his year and a half of NCDC experience to have a few of his best games, as the Kings went 2-1 over the last week. He scored the first Kings goal after going down 3-0 to the Islanders in what was eventually a much closer 6-5 defeat. He scored the first goal and assisted on the other two when the Kings defeated Twin City 3-2 on the road for the Kings’ second victory in Maine.
Defense: Alex German, Northern Cyclones
German (‘04/Colorado Springs, Colo.) pushed his way from spending half the 2021-22 season with the Cyclones USPHL 18U team and the other half with the NCDC squad. Now he’s a mainstay of the NCDC blueline, one that has pushed the Cyclones to the division’s best winning percentage (.739). Over the last couple games, the Cyclones went 1-0-1 as German posted a 1-2-3 line and a +3 rating.
Goaltender: Jacob Torgner, South Shore Kings
A second-year NCDC goalie, Torgner (‘03/Molby, Sweden) picked up a couple big recent wins, helping the Kings to sweep the Twin City Thunder and going 2-1 between Dec. 6 and 10. He gave up only two goals in two of those games and one in the other. He stopped 48 of 50 Thunder shots on Dec. 10 and ended up with 90 total saves for the three games on 95 shots, good for a .947 save percentage.
