15O BOYS FEELING 'POSITIVE MOMENTUM' AFTER PRE-HOLIDAY TURNAROUND

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Straight up, the first month of the 2024-25 season didn’t go the way the BK Selects 15O boys would’ve preferred.

 

After winning their first four games here in Rochester on opening weekend, the 15Os lost their next eight in a row — with the final six games of that slump coming against NE Pack league competition.

 

But starting with a 7-1 win over Buffalo Regals on Oct. 8, head coach Ben McManama’s team reeled off 12 wins in a 14-game stretch, with one of the two losses coming in overtime.

 

Quite the rebound, and all before the holiday season, even.

 

“The kids came together,” McManama said recently. “With our hockey academy model, it’s about getting used to it. The kids are starting to understand how to live in this environment. It’s all part of the learning process.”

 

That reality goes for any player new to the BK Selects experience, but especially for this year’s 15O squad, which features 11 players new to the program.

 

McNanama said coaches of the two younger boys teams expect there to be a challenge off the ice as much, if not more so, than on the ice early in a given season.

 

“There are many things that can be difficult (for young players),” McManama said. “Getting more freedom, but managing that freedom off the ice. Getting enough rest and sleep and taking care of your body.

 

“With the (14Us), it’s the same thing. They kind of underachieve at the beginning, but once it clicks, their production starts to go up.”

 

Forward Robbie Matson (Binghamton, N.Y.) projected to be one of the offensive leaders for the 15Os, after scoring 60 points (25 goals) in 56 games for the 14Us last season. After the NE Pack weekend in Pittsburgh from Nov. 22-24, he’s one of three 15O skaters averaging over one point per game, along with Karter Lundmark (West Brandywine, Pa.) and Miles Jinman (Sion, Switzerland).

 

Matson, who had 14 goals and 13 assists in the first 26 games, said there’s no doubt the “supporting” atmosphere at BK has allowed the many newcomers to assimilate and get the team’s collective arrow pointed upward.

 

“I think we have all just gotten closer as a team and are starting to build that bond that wins championships,” Matson said. “At this point of the season, the (new) players are settled in. I would say we have a good team culture.”

 

Defender Michael Bonkov (North Babylon, N.Y.) is one of those fresh faces, as he skated last season for one of BK’s NE Pack rivals in the Long Island Gulls. 

 

This season, Bonkov is the 15Os’ top-scoring blueliner with 20 points (3 goals). He said he’s noticed a few specific improvements in the team’s game, which ties directly into habits they’re hammering in practice settings.

 

“I think the team has been moving the puck way better,” Bonkov said. “We’re first on pucks and playing our (defensive) zone way better as a whole. We have been working really hard in practice and that translates to the game.”

 

The fact that new arrivals like Bonkov and Hungarian-born twins Bence and Csaba Kovács can step in and contribute is a credit to what’s been built, but it’s just as much a feather in the cap of the players who buy in to what coaches are preaching.

 

“It’s hard at this level to be that great at systems, but I think our basic shape, how we play, it looks good,” McManama said. “Now it’s time to focus on situational things. We changed our systems to better fit the type of kids we have, and I think that helped.”

 

The recent NE Pack weekend in Pittsburgh didn’t go as planned for the 15Os, with losses to New Jersey Rockets, Mount St. Charles and Penguins Elite, the last of which was decided in sudden-death OT. The team sits at 16-13 and ranked 16th in the nation going into the annual trip to Ontario for the International Silver Stick tournament on Thanksgiving weekend. 

 

Regardless of the ups and downs, McManama feels there’s been enough progress to fuel the team through the middle of the competitive schedule. 

 

“It’s important for the kids to see positive momentum through the season,” he said. “It’s about getting those little wins. Confidence is a big thing when you’re 14, 15 years old.”