All Games At Cyclones Arena, Hudson, N.H.
Thurs., Feb 29, 1 p.m. EST
Fri., March 1, 1 p.m. EST
Sat., March 2, 1 p.m. EST (if necessary)
The defending USPHL Premier National Champion Northern Cyclones are the first to step out on playoff ice for the 2024 postseason. They’ll kick off at 1 p.m. Thursday against the Boston Junior Bruins. The Cyclones finished second in the New England Division at 29-11-3-1-1 and the Junior Bruins took the seventh seed at 13-28-1-2.
Adding quite a bit of drama to this match-up is their most recent meeting when the Junior Bruins won 5-4 in overtime on Feb. 24, their first win to go 1-2-1-0 against the Cyclones this year (whose record in the season series was 3-0-1-0).
“I think the match-up is going to be another great series between the Cyclones and Junior Bruins,” said Cyclones Head Coach Bill Weiand. “Both teams play each other tough each and every year. We always have great games against each other and have played each other in the playoffs in the past!”
“It will be a very competitive series with the Cyclones,” said Junior Bruins Head Coach Nevin Hamilton. “Over the course of the year, all of our guys have developed and continued to get better and we started seeing the results that we wanted in the last month of the regular season, including an OT win over the Cyclones last weekend. We can score goals in bunches, and we were a very dynamic team offensively all year.
“The key for us will be taking care of business in the D zone and in the net,” Hamilton added. “The Cyclones will earn their own scoring opportunities, so we need to limit the chances that we just hand them. If we can make the consistent safe play out of our zone and put the puck 200 feet away from our net in the hands of our forwards then we have the ability to take this series.”
Leading the Cyclones offensively have been the trio of returning champions and veterans Justin Tremblay (68 points), Justin Scarbrough (47 points) and Billy Dougherty (45 points). The top three point-getters for the Junior Bruins are Eli Cardosi (43 points), A.J. Bongiorno (33 points) and Danil Nikiforov (31 points).
Defenseman Brady Bomal and Tremblay were co-leaders in plus-minus for the Cyclones, and defenseman Ben Parent led in blocked shots with 36. Bongiorno’s +9 led the Junior Bruins this season and defenseman Niklaus Bloom stopped an amazing 77 shots for the season.
The Cyclones’ Cameron Prodin went 14-3-3-1 with a .929 save percentage, the latter ranking eighth in the Premier. Zackary Hall was the Junior Bruins’ most frequent choice for the net, playing in 23 games this season.
