This past weekend, the Northwood Prep team played 5 games as part of Northwood’s annual invitational tournament, hosted at home, in the Olympic center. This was a huge weekend for the Prep team for many reasons. The first was that Prep hadn’t won the tournament in the past 3 years, which is considered a longer drought for the team that needed to change. Also, many players had family come as it was a big weekend for Northwood and one of the only home weekends, so many families tried to watch. Lastly, the Prep team had their senior night on Saturday, a big event for the team as they celebrated 15 seniors this year.
The Prep hockey team celebrates winning the championship at he Northwood Invitational Hockey Tournament on January 20, 2025. Photo provided.
Prep was also coming off a weekend where they went 3-0 and won a tournament so it was crucial that they kept their momentum and built off that leading up to this tournament. They had their first game of the weekend Saturday morning against Blyth Academy from Ottawa. Northwood won this game, and Drew Donatello ‘25 got his first prep shutout. “I can’t thank the team enough; they have been nothing but supportive all year, and it helps in moments like this,” Drew mentioned when talking about the game and weekend.
The following game was senior night against Nichol’s school out of Buffalo. The team had a ceremony to honor the seniors before the puck drop, then went on to win 3-1 in a fast and physical game. Sunday morning was the last game before the semis were determined, this was against Ridley College. Northwood controlled most of the game but was down 1 with 4 minutes left. Nick Palmer ‘25 scored from the blue line with a great shot; then Will Schneid ’25 scored right after to go up 2-1 in the final minutes of that game.
The first semifinal game was against N.Y. Dynamo, whom Northwood had already played twice this year. Northwood previously had two good games against the Dynamo, winning one 3-1 and one in overtime. Northwood was ready to play in this matchup and dominated, winning 6-0, allowing them to advance to the finals where they would play Nichols again. Nichols went up 1-0 early in the game, but Northwood picked it up, scoring 4 in a row and winning the championship 4-1. “Winning this tournament was one of our goals last year and this year, so making sure we won one before I have to leave Northwood means a lot,” Gavin Carr ‘25, a second-year prep player mentioned.
This was a great weekend for the team, which is now on an eight-game win streak and approaching the heart of its season. Hopefully, the team will keep building on this as it heads to Minnesota next for an important league weekend.
