Lucas Punkari
After his Bantam Tier I team at Shattuck-St. Mary’s was ousted in the quarter-finals of last year’s USA hockey championships in Hackensack, N.J., local goalie Mark Loveday is anxious to have another shot at a national title.
The 15-year-old will be travelling to Buffalo with the rest of his Sabres’ teammates at month’s end for the U16 nationals, where the main goal of the core of this year’s squad is to improve on their finish from a year ago.
“We saw what happened last year when you get too confident in yourself, and we also saw what it takes to win games there,” Loveday noted.
“In the game that we lost [to the Cleveland Barons], we were up 3-1 in the last five minutes and ended up losing that game in overtime,” he recalled.
“This year, we are feeling more confident when we are out on the ice, especially from where we were at the start of the year, as we have all four of our lines playing and our three defensive parings have become a lot stronger.”
After a sweep of the Madison Capitols two weekends ago, the U16 Sabres sport an overall record of 26-13-11 heading into the national tournament, with the Faribault, Mn.-based team having become stronger of late.
“We finally got everything figured out lately,” said Loveday, who is in Grade 10.
“At the beginning of the year, we were struggling a little bit with trying to get the new kids used to everybody and we ended up being really inconsistent, especially on defence, where we were struggling,” he admitted.
“We would beat a team by a score of 6-2 or 4-2 and then lose to them 4-1, which was pretty frustrating.
“But we’ve become a lot more consistent after the Christmas break, and we have been playing a lot of good games lately,” Loveday added.
That consistency also is something that’s been noticed by the team’s coaching staff led by Christian Bragnalo.
“One of the things that Coach Bragnalo has told us this year is that to win at nationals, we will have to win six games,” Loveday noted.
“Our focus is always on how consistent we can be during a six-game stretch, and as of late we have been doing really good with that.”
As for Loveday, in his third season at Shattuck, his play between the pipes also has improved, having an overall record of 9-10-7 and a GAA of 3.69.
“We were all struggling at the start of the year,” he reiterated. “But after the [U.S.] Thanksgiving break, I started to play well and I have been playing really good since we got back from Christmas break.
“It was tough at the start of the year with the defensive lapses as we would be facing a ton of breakaways and 2-on-0 rushes,” Loveday recalled.
“And if myself or my partner [Blake Weyrick] wanted to win, we both had to play really good.
“We have both kept playing good, though, and now the team is starting to help us out,” he noted.
“With my own play, I’ve been able to make a lot of the big saves when my team needs it.
“And I’ve also been making sure that I’m getting to the pucks on the scrambles in front and I’ve been reading the plays well a lot lately.”
One of the key games for Loveday and the U16 Sabres during their second-half turnaround came at a showcase tournament in Chicago last month, when they battled Detroit Honeybaked to a 3-3 tie.
“They are one of the top teams in the country along with Belle Tire, and they will both have to play each other just to get into the nationals,” Loveday noted.
“At those showcase events, our goal is to obviously win,” he stressed. “But those are good tests for us, and it shows everyone just how good our style of hockey is and how well we can play.
“In that game, we came back and tied it up at three, which was a really good feeling not just for me but for our entire team,” he enthused.
With the national tournament, which runs from March 28-April 1, marking the end of the season for the U16 Sabres, Loveday then will start to look ahead towards next season as he tries to attain his goal of playing NCAA Division I hockey.
“I have a good idea of what I want to do next year,” Loveday said.
“I want to come back to Shattuck for another year and play for the prep team, and I hope to get drafted by a team in the USHL this May, and after my junior year go and play in that league.
“But if that happens is an entirely different story,” he conceded.
In addition to being eligible for the USHL draft, Loveday also can be drafted in next month’s OHL priority selection, which gives the 15-year-old a few different possibilities to ponder over for his hockey future.
However, that road is not one Loveday is looking to travel down at this point.
“Major junior hockey is a good route, but it’s just not really what I’m looking for right now,” he reasoned.
“The OHL is a good league, and there’s nothing wrong with it, but my goal is to play in the [U.S.] college ranks and my eligibility in NCAA is done once I go to the OHL.
“The USHL is pretty much a developmental league for college hockey and for the scouts to look at you, and that’s part of why I want to go there,” added Loveday, who attended a USHL combine in Chicago last August.
