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Raiders Seniors To Be Honored

Jack Brinkley

The Jamestown Raiders will honor six senior hockey players on the ice inside Northwest Arena today prior to a 4 p.m. puck drop against East Aurora/Holland.

Jack Brinkley, Josh Brown, Will Turner, Luke Tota, Cooper Spielman and Chase Jones will all be featured in a slideshow set to run at 3 p.m. before the Raiders look to earn their first win of the year against the Blue Devils.

Playing in the Red Division of the Western New York High School Club Hockey League, Jamestown is 11-5-1 overall on the year and 9-3-1 against divisional opponents.

On Nov. 26 the two teams battled to a 2-2 tie, with the Blue Devils earning a one-goal win in nonleague tournament play over the holidays.

Now Jamestown looks to build on recent success.

Josh Brown

“It’s been a fun ride with them,” said head coach Jim Bergman. “Watching them mature, watching their games excel in so many different ways. At this age they become their own men right now and it has been a lot of fun. We have had lots of success, and just have yet to claim that big one. We have been in a couple of state finals.”

This is Bergman’s first season at the helm of the Raiders, but he has served as a coach for a core group of players at lower levels for the past five years.

Jamestown boasts a roster 22 strong, and took some time to get all of the pieces in place at the beginning of the season. The Raiders went 1-2-1 through their first four against stiff competition before rattling off seven league wins in a row through December and early January. The team has claimed eight of its last nine league games.

With a large roster comes the benefit of plenty of coaching options. The Raiders have settled on more consistent offensive line pairings as of late, but feel confident in their ability to score across their top 12 forwards.

“We started off trying different line combinations and defensive partners. It wasn’t the start that we wanted; those losses came from the No. 1 team in the league (Orchard Park). The Christmas tournament a couple of weeks ago helped us change some things. We got our lines set and are happy with them.”

Chase Jones

Declan Brown has spent time at center between Jed Hirliman and Cooper Bergman, and Jamestown has also gotten some chemistry out of Jack Brinkley, Jackob Guimond and Lucian Talbett. With Talbett suffering a recent injury, Alex MacCallum made the transition from defense to forward to help fill out that line.

Spillane (eight goals) and Bergman (seven goals) are currently tied for the team lead in league points with 16, but the Raiders have eight players in double-digit scoring for the year. Spillane has spent time driving his own line at center with different partners.

The Raiders have once again built their identity on a pressure forecheck, looking to force mistakes and points off turnovers.

With plenty of options on offense, Jamestown has shown teams different looks on the power play, often using Jones on an off-wing and in front of the net to take advantage of his size and hands.

“He’s got great hands, great for tips. He is a hard guy to move in front of the net,” said Bergman.

Cooper Spielman

Spielman is often used to drive the Jamestown forecheck and on the penalty kill, and is sitting on a seven-point senior campaign.

“I’ve got coach (Jeremy) Hirliman running the forwards and he is a guy we put out there in situations for a kill. He has small size, but good speed and is very, very aggressive. He likes to cruise in and get the puck to the net and that creates havoc.”

Turner brings a versatile skill set, and has often been used as a defensive forward in his final year, playing against opposing scorers.

Options abound for the Raiders on the back end as well, with Zechariah Padd, Tota, Brown, Devin Wolfe and Brendan Hirliman all playing key roles.

“Shout out to Josh Brown. He is a senior this year who has been playing real tough for us,” Bergman said.

Luke Tota

Jack (Eddie) Yost and Jackson Roth have both seen a good amount of time between the pipes, with the former earning more starts in his junior season and boasting a 2.9 goals-against-average in the league.

“Both have done very well,” Bergman said. “The outcomes have not been from goaltending (issues). They are both doing a great job. Roth is a sophomore who is coming up and playing hard and following in Eddie’s footsteps.”

Despite coming away with a tie in their first game against the Blue Devils, Jamestown got the better of the possession battle.

“I can’t wait to play them. The tie, it was early in the season. We went in and I think we dominated the game, we just were at that point where we couldn’t put the puck in the net. Puck possession time was huge for us. If we can put the puck in the net, I think we’re going to come out on top in this one.”

East Aurora/Holland has the same record as Jamestown with the exception of one more loss with a game in hand.

Will Turner

The team is led by Dominik Zittell with nine goals and 11 assists, while both Chris Keller and Noah Difilippo present offensive challenges as well with 15 and 14 points, respectively.

Jamestown has five regular-season games remaining, including home contests against St. Mary’s (Jan. 26), St. Joe’s (Feb. 2) and St. Francis (Feb. 8).

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