Hockey Night in Boston is an annual summer tournament now being played at Merrimack's rink. It features some of
the best talent in the nation. There are nine Massachusetts teams as well as nine from across the country as well
as northern and southern New England. There is also a Canadian Maritime squad.
 
I saw the Northern New England (NNE) team take it to the Conneticut team on Friday night. NNE looks quite
formidable and I read that they also edged out the North Shore team on saturday night (8-7).
 
Leading NNE are two very talented skaters, Michael Maturo (Belmont Hills/Manchester, N.H.) and Jeff Giuliano (St.
Paul's/Nashua, N.H.). Maturo and Giuliano look very impressive, skating on seperate lines with good supporting
casts.
 
Giuliano looked to be more the game-breaker with great acceleration and speed. He looked to be even more
dangerous after being prodded by the vocal NNE coach Charlie Corey of Lawrence Academy. Corey was trying to
encourage Giuliano to just grab the puck "and go! Make them stop you! Use your speed!" Giuliano was in the top-ten
in scoring even though NNE had played two goames to some teams five game totals. He had posted 4 goals in 3
assists in his first two games and added several more points when I saw him.
 
Maturo seemed a little less inclined to be a speed-demon, yet his savvy stick-handling and great body moves
clearly made him nearly impossible to stop. Looking much bigger than his 5'10" 175 stats, his moves were strong
and held his ground like a larger forward.
 
Another NNE forward worth mentioning is Chris Samson (Salisbury/York, Me.) Samson showed tremendous
tenacity
and spunk. He didn't hesitate to mix it up and his persistent digging led to a goal. He also made a nice cross-crease
feed
on a power play that was put home for another score.
 
Trying to be a little better on analysis of defensive prowess, I was trying to pay better attention to the
defensemen's
defensive abilities as opposed to measuring them solely on their ability to rush up ice and boom powerful shots
from the
point. One NNE defenseman that stood out for me was Peter Connor (KUA/Bridgeport,VT.). A big kid at 6'3", he
skated real well yet didn't have great puck control ... which can be crucial to making the good play before being
inundated with pesky forechecking forwards. His play around his own net was strong and he handled the bodies
well.
 
Connor's defensive partner was a smaller kid, Mike Ziolkowski( Bishop Guertin/Hudson, N.H.) Ziolkowski had good
speed also with better puck-handling skills as well as better clearing passes. These two did work together well,
needing
little back-checking help to thwart offensive attacks by Conn.
 
Speaking of Conneticut (if I had more time, I'd write more), one player I have to mention is Brendan Tuohy
(Canterbury/Ridgefield). The program only lists him with 1 goal and 5 assists for the last year, but that must have
been
due to an injury because this kid can definitely play hockey. He looked to be a good playmaker with great
puck-control
and a really decent shot. Other forward teamates that looked good were Sotheby Chung (Jr. Whalers/Cos Cob),
John
Longo (Taft/Trumbull) and Chris Migliore (Avon/Hamden). Chung and Tuohy were the most prolific, demonstrating
great
acceleration and rushing ability. Chung showed a fantastic wrist shot to go with his strong skating.
 
 
Paul Gentile ... [log in to unmask]
 
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