The Prep Team celebrating a recent win. Photo provided.
The Prep hockey team at Northwood has been off to a good start in 2025, with a productive month of January. The team started with a Game Sheet Cup tournament win and followed that up with a Northwood tournament win.
After that, the team headed to Minnesota for three league games, where they beat Saint Andrews and Shattuck St. Mary’s for critical points in the Prep Hockey Conference. Their most recent weekend was spent in Saint Andrews for the annual Macpherson tournament, where they lost in the semi-finals. Even though that wasn’t the result they wanted, some players did get acknowledged for great performance. Henry Kress was named to the all-tournament team as one of the best players for that weekend. Jake Shingles was recognized for having the highest save percentage in the whole tournament, which was very impressive for such a competitive tournament. “I’m just trying to do my job, the team in front of me has been so helpful and made it much easier,” Shingles said when asked about his impressive play.
Hopefully, these players and the whole prep team can continue to build on a productive January as they move into a huge month for the team. The month of February is strictly focused on the league. Their first games are at South Kent, which is the first seed in the East, for two games. Northwood is only 4 points behind South Kent, so this weekend will be a great opportunity for Northwood to make up some ground in the standings. The following weekend is two more league games at Mount St. Charles in Rhode Island. Earlier in the year, Northwood lost both games to them at home so this will be a great chance to make up for that and get some revenge.
Both these league weekends will be a great chance to generate some momentum for the following weekend, which is the playoffs at Culver in Indiana. The Prep team always wants to win the league and after just coming up short last year, they seem even more motivated to be the first Northwood team to be PHC champions. This is going to be a huge month for the school and Northwood knows this is when they need to be at their best. Henry Kress has been heating up personally and is pumped for the upcoming schedule. “We have a chance to do something really special and I know it’s all we have been thinking about recently,” Henry said.
