Northwood Boys’ Prep celebrates their win. Photo provided
The Prep Hockey team headed to Minnesota to compete in the Prep Hockey Conference (PHC) Championship this past weekend at Shattuck St. Mary’s School. It was a long commute to get to the school, flying from Albany and stopping in Chicago before landing in Minnesota. Little did the team know, they would have the hockey weekend of their dreams.
Northwood finished second in the PHC East Conference for the regular season, so we did not have a bye this year into the semis. That meant the team had to play on Friday against the top ranked Canadian school, St. Andrew’s College (SAC) to try make the playoff rounds. This would be the fifth time the two teams competed against each other this season. The last game against SAC was when Northwood beat them at the MacPherson Tournament in January, so they were looking to avenge their loss. The game was extremely tight. There was no score until halfway through the second period when Charles Pigeon ’26 scored with an assist from Patrick McCormick ’26. This would be the lone goal scored in the game. Northwood won 1-0 with goalie Owen MacLean ’26 having a 34-shot shutout and SAC, last year’s PHC champion, was knocked out of the playoff round.
Northwood moved on to the semis on Saturday playing the top ranked team in the USA, Culver Military Academy. PHC East teams had not beaten Culver all season. The closest was a loss in OT during Northwood Senior Weekend in January. Again, there was no score until the second period when Charles Pigeon ’26 and Patrick McCormick ’26 got Northwood on the scoresheet. Soon after, Miles Van Mullen ’27 scored with assists from Hunter Chadbourne ’27 and Charles Pigeon ’26. Culver did come back, and the score was tied in the third period until 3:30 left when Charles Pigeon ’26 got another goal with assists from Cooper Plotts ’26 and Zach Klaich ’26. “I was so hyped after that goal—it was massive for our momentum. After giving up two in the third, getting that one so late gave us all we needed. I knew we would win after that, and I knew that was going to carry into the next day,” said Plotts. Goaltender Adam Sherman ‘26 protected the net and got the win with 47 saves. Northwood was on its way to the PHC final for the third year in a row.
Sunday would be a special day for Lake Placid. It was the 46th anniversary of the 1980 Miracle on Ice. The team got to watch the men’s gold medal game at the Olympics before heading to the arena and see Team USA win their first gold since 1980. Maybe this luck would pass along to another Lake Placid team. “It was really special getting to see that right before the game and I really think that gave a lot of us on the team a little extra boost of confidence for that final,” said Devin Smith ’26.
Northwood was playing Shattuck in the final. Shattuck is currently the second ranked team in the USA and had home ice advantage. Again, there was no score in the first period. But in the second period, Northwood took over with a flurry of goals. Charles Pigeon ’26 had two goals and Zach Klaich ’26 and Parker Thompson ’26 each had a goal. Anton Stackow ’27 had three assists, Kevin Betsch ‘26 had two assists, and Pigeon and Thompson both had an assist to put Northwood up 4-0. The game had taken a real turn and Northwood had control. Shattuck came on extremely hard in the third period but were only able to score a single goal. Stackow got his second goal of the game late in the third period with an assist from Charles Pigeon ’26. Northwood won with a 5-1 score.
This was Northwood’s first time ever winning the PHC Championship. It capped off an amazing weekend where Northwood had to take on the top 3 teams from the USA and Canada to win the championship. It was the hardest schedule possible to get there. The team was the underdog who worked hard together to succeed. This weekend was a little Miracle on Ice for Northwood.
