SWAMPSCOTT — A slow start to the season turned out to be costly for the Swampscott boys hockey team last winter. The Big Blue stumbled out of the gate before picking up steam to close the regular season at 8-8-3, good for the No. 11 seed in the Division 3 North state tournament. Swampscott was eliminated for the postseason after a 5-3 loss to No. 6 Shawsheen in the first round.
“We were fairly young last year so we have a lot of guys returning with experience,” Swampscott coach Gino Faia said. “We’re hoping they can build off that, get back to the playoffs and hopefully advance a little further this time.”
The Big Blue graduated four key seniors from last season’s team in Zach Elwell, Casey Williamson, Louis Pilotte and Viktor Kratik. Elwell engineered Swampscott’s first line and Kratik was the starting goalie.
“Zach had a big year offensively,” Faia said. “He had 48 points for us. That’s going to be missed. Casey was just a good, gritty, hard two-way forward.”
At forward, Swampscott returns seniors Drew Olivieri and Conor Donovan.
“Those two are just really explosive offensive players,” Faia said. “They play hard both ways. I think they’re two of the top forwards in the Northeastern Conference. That’s always good to have on your team. But we’re going to need secondary scoring. Last year we relied on them too much. We’re hoping other guys step up and we can get points from other positions.”
Returning defenseman include seniors Chris Barnes and Tyler Seller, and juniors Griffin Bruhm, Liam Locke and Chris Henriquez.
“This is where we’ve been lacking in the past,” Faia said. “This year we have a veteran core back there, which we feel will help tremendously. You always want to start from the goalie and defense out. We think we’re going to be a lot stronger defensively this year.”
At goalie, replacing Kratik won’t be easy. But the Big Blue have two netminders ready to step up to the challenge in freshman Jack Russo and junior Ian Roddie. They’re currently competing for the starting role.
“We haven’t decided on starting goalie yet,” Faia said. “Both are looking really good. We have a nice little competition going. We feel confident with either goalie.”
This year’s co-captains are Barnes, Donovan and Olivieri.
“I think they’re great leaders,” Faia said. “They’re motivated, they’re committed. They’re going to be great leaders for the team. Guys look up to them. They’re all about the team. They don’t worry about the individual stuff. They play hard and practice hard. You can’t ask for anything more.”
Faia foresees a challenging and competitive NEC this season. A balanced NEC South gives Swampscott both a solid chance to emerge as the division’s top team and a string of wire-to-wire division games.
“I think it’s going to be a good battle,” Faia said. “It’s going to be competitive. We play everyone in the South twice and everyone in the North once. I think all teams in the South are going to be pretty even. We look forward to the challenge.”
Swampscott opens the new season Saturday (12:30) when the Big Blue host Saugus at Salem State’s Rockett Arena.
“The team’s excited,” Faia said. “They’re ready to go. We’ve had a weird week to start the preseason. The guys have worked really hard during the offseason. I think they’re excited and ready to get going.”
