February 21, 2018

Hun Boys’ Hockey Wins 5th Straight MCT Title As Freshman Argentina Makes Immediate Impact

DRIVE FOR FIVE: Hun School boys’ hockey player Matt Argentina controls the puck last Friday night in the Mercer County Tournament championship game. Freshman forward Argentina tallied two goals and two assists in the contest to help top-seeded Hun defeat second-seeded Princeton High 9-4 and win its fifth straight county crown. The Raiders finished the season with a 13-8-2 record. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

Matthew Argentina relished the chance to hit the ice last Friday night to play in the Mercer County Tournament boys’ hockey title game.

“I knew it was going to be something special,” said Hun School freshman star forward Argentina.

“It was my first time and it was better than I expected. It was a great atmosphere and all.”

With a jam-packed Mercer Skating Center in an uproar, top-seeded and four-time defending champion Hun skated to a 1-1 stalemate with second-seeded Princeton High through the first period.

At the first intermission, the Hun players found some inspiration in their drive for a fifth title.

“We went into the locker for the ice cut and the boys just got pumped,” said Argentina. “There was something about it, everybody just went off.”

Riding that emotion, the Raiders did go off in the second period, outscoring PHS 4-1 as Argentina tallied a goal and two assists with junior star Kyle Mandleur chipping in two goals and an assist. Hun never looked back on the way to a 9-4 victory.

Argentina has developed a special connection on the ice with Mandleur.

“It has been great playing with Kyle,” said Argentina, who ended the night with two goals and two assists, while Mandleur piled up three goals and four assists. “I just have to set him up and he can score on every shot.”

Winning the title was a very good way for Argentina to cap off his freshman season. “It has been a lot of progress,” said Argentina, who has committed to attend the University of Notre Dame and play for its men’s hockey program.

“I didn’t know what to expect in the high school league. I think it went fairly well. My strengths are puck handling, starting and stopping on the picks, just simple hockey.”

Hun head coach Ian McNally believed that keeping things simple in the second period proved to be the impetus for the Raider outburst.

“In the first period, everybody is excited; their buddies are here yelling their name and both sides were just going 100 miles an hour,” said McNally.

“In the second period, we were able to hang on to the puck a little bit longer to make smarter plays. We caught our breath a little bit.”

The smart play of Argentina with the puck made a difference against PHS.

“Matt is obviously a special talent and that has been identified, as young as he is,” said McNally. “There have probably been two or three games this year when he carries the puck, you are ‘wow’ and tonight was one of them. You can hear the oohs in the crowd when he goes up ice; tonight was one of the more impressive efforts from him.”

Junior star Mandleur is clearly another special talent for the Raiders. “Kyle is incredible, there are probably two games a year where he didn’t score multiple goals,” said McNally, noting that Mandleur scored 45 goals this winter.

“We haven’t had somebody like that come through. We have had some really good players, but not a guy that could score at will like that. Beyond that, that used to be all it was. Now this year, he wears the ‘C’ and it has transformed him. He steals the puck, he set up a couple of plays that we didn’t score on. He led the way for us.”

Seeing the program coming through with a fifth straight county crown was heartening for McNally.

“It is obviously very neat; the first two years I was coaching, I knew what this tournament was but we were in the Independence Hockey League and we couldn’t join,” said McNally.

“I had been to it to watch the final games and I thought it would be really neat to be in this tournament. When we were finally able to move out of that league, it freed us up this week so we said let’s get into Mercer County. Since then it has been a pretty wild run, we haven’t lost here. It is really special.”

In McNally’s view, a neat aspect of this year’s title run was how his players developed deep bonds.

“This was a close group; in the last couple of years we knew who we were and if we played a team we could win against we could win,” said McNally.

“There were five or six games this year where going into it we necessarily weren’t going to win. We gutted it out so there were some fun wins this year. I think that went towards their identity of being a close group and allowed them to dig in.”

Argentina, for his part, had a lot of fun being part of his first county championship team. “Ever since September, the boys have been talking about it,” said Argentina. “It means a lot. It is just amazing, especially for the seniors.”