By Joshua Boyd / USPHLPremier.com
The USPHL Premier season kicked off on Friday, Sept. 6, with a Columbus Mavericks 6-2 win over the visiting Cincinnati Jr. Cyclones. The Mavericks also won on Saturday, Sept. 7, 6-4, for a 2-0 start to the season. The only other regular season action for the Premier last weekend was on Saturday, when the Hawkesbury Knights earned their first win against the Montreal Black Vees in the first-ever USPHL Premier game played in the Canada Division. Hawkesbury defeated Montreal by a 7-2 score.
We’ll break down some of the eye-catching stats from this weekend:
Columbus Enjoys First Opening Weekend Sweep Since 2021
The Mavericks enjoyed a sweep for the second time overall and for the first time since the kickoff to the 2021-22 season, when they also picked up a pair of victories against the Cincinnati Jr. Cyclones, who were playing their first two games in their history. The Mavericks won 4-2 and 5-1 that weekend (Sept. 17-18, 2021).
- This is the second time in their six-year history that the Mavericks have played the first game of the entire Premier season. They also opened the Premier’s 2019-20 season, with the Mavericks playing their first-ever game on Sept. 6, 2019, taking a 5-1 loss to the Toledo Cherokee.
- The 12 goals in a weekend was the most for the Mavericks since they closed the 2022-23 season with seven and five goals, respectively, on March 4-5, 2023.
- Caden Cavalieri (’04/Amherst, N.Y.) started his third USPHL Premier season with three assists on Friday, then added four goals and two assists for his first career six-point game. He previously put up a 1-4-5 line last year as a member of the former Buffalo Stampede on Feb. 18.
- The six-point game tied the team record for points in a game with Colin Crowley, who put up a 3-3-6 mark on Feb. 5, 2023. Crowley is also the last Mavericks player to score four goals in a game, registering a 4-0-4 line on Dec. 11, 2022.
- Cavalieri’s nine points were the most for a single player on a USPHL Premier opening weekend. The new record pulls one point ahead of those set by Daniil Avdioukhin (DME Sports Academy, 5-3-8, 2018) and Hunter Berry (Charlotte Rush, 4-4-8, 2022).
- Dominic Nuanes put up a 3-1-4 line for Cincinnati during the weekend series, already matching his 2023-24 season totals after he played briefly for the Jr. Cyclones over eight games last year. Newcomer Hank Davis also had a 2-2-4 line for Cincinnati over the weekend.
Alexis Roy Hat Trick Highlight Of First-Ever USPHL Canada Division Game
Alexis Roy put up a hat trick and added one assist to help the Hawkesbury Knights take a 7-2 win over the Montreal Black Vees on Saturday, giving the Knights the first win in the first USPHL Canada Division game. That also marked the first time a USPHL game was played over the border in Canada.
- The Knights made it two straight years that a first-year USPHL team scored at least seven goals in their first game. The Bold City Battalion opened their existence on Sept. 22, 2023, with a 7-0 victory over the Florida Jr. Blades.
- One day after the Battalion’s win, the College Universel Gatineau squad won 4-0 over the South Shore Kings, marking the historic first win by a Canadian team in the USPHL.
- Roy’s hat trick marked the most points in a team’s first game of the season since the Carolina Jr. Hurricanes’ Luc Corbin opened up the 2023-24 season with a four-assist effort.
- The Corbin hat trick was the first in a team’s first game of the season since Filip Molnar scored one for Elmira on Sept. 23, 2023, and Dalton Thomas registered a hat trick in the Bakersfield Roughnecks’ 2023-24 opener on Sept. 29, 2023.
- The last time a player scored a hat trick in their team’s first-ever USPHL Premier game was at the start of the 2022-23 season, when three players – including two in the same game. Filip Molnar and Alex Rene Bartakovics each scored a hat trick in the Vernal Oilers’ inaugural game on Oct. 1, 2022. Kyle Avery scored a hat trick in the first-ever game for the former Rock Springs Prospectors on Sept. 23, 2022.
- Hawkesbury goaltender Jeremie Barron (’04/Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que.) made 45 saves against the Black Vees to take an early save percentage lead in the USPHL at .956.
- Odile Grenier, an ’07 defenseman from St-Etienne, Que., scored the first-ever Montreal Black Vees goal at 15:27 of the third period.
