The Branford boys’ ice hockey squad is sporting a much different look this winter, but the Hornets are still hitting the ice with the same elevated expectations.

Head Coach Adolph Brink’s squad graduated seven seniors from a club that won the SCC/SWC Division II Tournament for the second-straight season, including three All-Conference selections in forward Tyler Criscuolo, goalie AJ Brink, and defenseman Aidan Deane. Criscuolo was an offensive powerhouse and fellow graduate Cooper Bunton also lit the lamp with regularity, leaving the Hornets with some voids in terms of goal scoring.

The thing is—when you’ve been to the conference final four years in a row and are a fixture in the Division II State Tournament, you don’t want to take steps back and settle for a rebuilding season. Consequently, Coach Brink is looking for his team to adopt a defensive mindset in order to keep the Hornets near the top of the Division II mountain and possibly reach the peak.

“Last year, we could score our way out of trouble and people worried about our offensive firepower. That group of seniors was probably one of the strongest to come through and, with forwards like Cooper and Tyler, the team played a whole lot looser because we scored goals when we had to,” said Brink. “This year, without that experience coming back, we’re really dedicating ourselves to playing low-scoring games and that’s where we’ll be most successful. The emphasis is on defense and how well we do as a collective group from the goalie out will dictate how well this team does.”

Last winter, the Hornets went undefeated in SCC/SWC DII regular season play to capture that crown for the second-consecutive year, after which they blanked New Milford 5-0 in the title game of the conference tourney. Brink’s squad then won two games in states before taking a 5-3 defeat against Suffield-East Granby-Windsor Locks in the Division II state semis for a record of 19-5. It won’t be easy to repeat or top those feats with such an inexperienced club, but Brink said his team features a good group of budding up-and-comers who have the potential to help Branford once again play into mid-March.

“We have the same goals we always have. No. 1 is to qualify for the conference tournament, No. 2 is to get into the State Tournament, and those are both achievable. With the parity that’s gone one for the first week—why not us?” Brink said. “We have some really strong, young talent and, if they develop the way we’d like them to, we could be in the mix.”

Thus far, Branford, which has no captains at this time, has faced off against three Division II squads and come away with one win, one loss, and one tie. The Hornets opened their campaign by taking a 3-1 loss to Trumbull that was followed by a 2-1 triumph against Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe, after which they skated to a 2-2 tie versus Hand at Northford Ice Pavilion on Dec. 30.

The Hand game was notable in that Branford rallied from a two-goal deficit. The Tigers netted the contest’s first two goals 55 seconds apart in the middle of the second period before Zach Withington scored from fellow junior center Scott Klouda. The goal came right after the Hornets killed a 5-on-3 power play. The puck squirted to Withington as he was leaving the box and he converted a breakaway to make it 2-1. Then 6:32 into the final stanza, junior defenseman James Cunningham fed the puck to Withington, who ripped a shot over the blocker of Hand’s goalie for a 2-2 score that held up as the final. Junior Justin Edwards made 41 saves for Branford, which was outshot 41-23.

“Both teams were tired at the end and so it was a real good, knockdown, drag-out type of battle for an early season game,” said Brink, whose team closed last week with a 5-2 loss in Milford. “The kids’ backs were against the wall. All these new kids were looking to make something happen and so we were pretty happy from a coaches’ point of view that they battled back like that.”

Brink was also happy to see Edwards make an abundance of saves in one of the first big tests as the team’s starting keeper. That’s especially important since Edwards is the only goalie on Branford’s roster. The Hornets have two defensive pairings to support Edwards. One features senior Nick Johnson, who played forward last year, and sophomore Liam Deane. The other consists of senior James Mason, who missed all of last season with a broken ankle, and Cunningham.

“As a collective group, they’ve done well. They’re learning against some real good competition. They’re limiting the second shots and rebounds and doing the little things we’re asking them to do well, so we’re happy with them,” Coach Brink said. “We need Justin to do big things and he’s played really well. He’s a nice calming influence down there and a likeable kid who’s a battler and that’s what we need from him all year.”

Something else that’s impressed Brink is how Withington has picked up where he left off with finding the back of the net. Withington was an All-Conference player last year and has three goals on the current campaign.

“We’re looking for Zach to provide a lot of our offensive production and, to this point, he’s living up to that,” said Brink.

Withington and Klouda are the Hornets’ two centers and the team’s primary wings are seniors Mike Annunziata and Dante Ghiroli, junior Mitchell Petrillo, sophomore Will Benni, and freshman Rob Lionetti. Branford’s other forwards are junior Dalton Childs, plus freshmen Theo Kirby, Max Bunton, Eli Schlesinger, and Sam Roberts.

Brink is in his seventh season as Branford’s head coach and will be assisted by Jim DiNapoli. Sadly, everyone on the Hornets’ bench will miss the presence of Mark Cunningham, who passed away at age 53 on Oct. 7 of last year. Cunningham, whose son Patrick was a senior last season and whose other son James is still on the team, had been Brink’s assistant coach since Brink came to Branford. Brink said it’s been strange to guide the Hornets without having someone who was like a brother alongside him. Brink knows the best way to pay tribute to Cunningham is to play hockey the way Cunningham would have wanted.

“He was such a low-key guy that he wouldn’t have wanted any of the pomp and circumstance. He always deflected attention. He would just want the kids to go out with a lunch pail attitude and do what was right and take whatever lessons you learn on the ice and apply them to real life,” Brink said. “If you do that, that’s success, and that was pretty much the way he thought.”

From the Sidelines

In terms of Branford’s schedule, the Hornets have two games versus SCC/SWC Division II foes in Hand and North Haven with one apiece against Milford, Guilford, Amity, North Branford, Cheshire, New Milford, Watertown-Pomperaug, and East Haven. Adolph Brink’s team also has two contests with non-conference Division II opponent Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe and one against another in Trumbull. Additionally, Branford will twice face a pair of SCC/SWC Division III teams in Masuk and Lyman Hall/Haddam-Killingworth/Coginchaug to go with one versus Newtown, which is also a DIII program in the conference.