'ENJOY THE JOURNEY': CONCERTED EFFORT BOOSTS SCORING, SUCCESS FOR 18Us

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Not like there was a ton to complain about on the surface for the BK Selects 18U boys team, but some fine-tuning was still in order.

Despite the team ranking in and around the national top 10 throughout this season, head coach David Arduin and his staff felt they could do better.

Namely, they could do better when it comes to putting the puck in the net.

“Coming out of break, we’ve used a lot of our practice time and getting our guys’ brains wrapped around how to score goals and where to score goals,” Arduin said in a recent conversation.

“It’s just about getting them excited to be in these key (scoring) situations and be ready.”

After a three-game NE Pack weekend at home midway through January — a weekend that saw BK Selects go 1-2 with four total goals scored — the 18Us had played 45 games on the season and had netted two goals or fewer in 23 of those.

Since then, the 18Us have gone 9-3 and averaging 3.7 goals per game, not counting shootout-deciding goals. They’ve scored at least three goals eight times in 12 games, including three times in five games against stiff competition at the MacPherson Cup in greater Toronto.

They made the final before falling in overtime against top-ranked Canadian prep team St Andrews, the host school for the annual event.

“We started implementing more scoring drills in our practices,” said Austrian-born forward Konstantin Hutzinger, who leads the team with 34 goals in 57 games.

“I think that helped a lot. An important (thing) in creating offense is to be creative and talk to your teammates on the ice, but the most important thing is to have fun out there.”


Indeed, the offensive improvement plan has been equal parts left-brained and right-brained.

On one hand, Arduin said drilling down to the nitty-gritty details has been eye-opening for his players — like quickly computing the handedness of teammates in a playmaking situation, or recognizing when there’s time to pick a spot on a goalie and when there isn’t.

“I wouldn’t say it’s about ‘structure,’ but more like habits and details,” explained Arduin. “There’s things like ‘ice geography,’ where you know if you get this puck in a certain area of the ice, you’re not gonna have time to look at the goalie so you gotta know which side of the net to shoot at.

“It’s about taking pucks to the post instead of playing on the perimeter, putting more pucks in and around the net at the goalie’s feet, causing second and third chances, things like that.”

On the other hand, all the work done in practice is meant also to inspire players to see themselves as goal-scorers during game situations. The tangible improvements need to produce intangible confidence, in other words.

“These drills have really increased the compete level, energy and pace of our practices,” said forward Blake Graff (Boulder, Colo.). “It’s helped me help me get comfortable shooting and handling the puck in all different situations. In addition, it’s helped me developed a goal-scoring mentality.”

Graff, a third-year BKer, got off to a hot shooting start this season, then battled through a scoring slump before lighting the lamp multiple times in January.

The 6-foot right-handed shooter said he sees it all as part of the improvement process he’s engaged in at BK. On top of his work there, he’s also played in a handful of North American Hockey League (NAHL) games with the Rochester Jr. Americans and recently secured a tender agreement with the Minot (N.D.) Minotauros of that same league.

“Since arriving at BK, I feel like I’ve developed a lot on and off the ice,” Graff said. “On the ice, I’ve developed all my skills like skating, puck protection, shooting. I’ve became a more mature player and found confidence in my game.

“Off the ice, I’ve not only developed physically from workouts, but as a person. Living in dorms has taught me valuable life skills that will stick with me forever.”

His teammate Hutzinger knows all about branching out at a young age, as he moved out of his house at age 12 to train at the Red Bull Hockey Academy in his native Austria.

After four years nurturing his skills there, he decided to make the jump to North America. He said he “adapted pretty quickly,” although he conceded it’s “never easy” to move to a different continent.

Hutzinger added that the renewed spirit of the team since the calendar turned to 2025 has him encouraged.

“We as a team really grew together as a family and developed a lot,” Hutzinger said. “I feel like after the break we were even more focused and ambitious than before.

“We also found our team quote that we live by: ‘Enjoy the journey.’ Enjoying the journey and learning from success and failure makes us, as a team and as individuals, better every day.”

As the NE Pack playoffs in Utica arrive Feb. 7-9, the 18Us’ focus will remain on refining all aspects of their approach — carrying the confidence that comes with recent improvements in lamp-lighting.

Following the strong performance at the MacPherson Cup, the 18Us are 33-17-2 and ranked ninth in the country by MyHockeyRankings.com.

“Our season has been really good so far,” Graff said. “Our team has really bought in, and came together on and off the ice.

“We are looking forward to carrying it into the end of the season.”