By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Six games into the season the Hun School ice hockey team wasn’t thinking about repeating as Mercer County Tournament champions.
At that point in mid-December the Raiders were just thinking about getting themselves heading in the right direction.
“We started off the season 1-4-1 and then wound up winning the Purple Puck tournament and that turned our season around,’ Hun junior Jon Bendorf said. “We were able to win there and come back from winter vacation with new life. We were able to run with it and get on a good win streak.”
After opening the season 1-4-1, the Raiders won 10 of their next 11 games before falling to Princeton Day School in the state prep tournament semifinals. After a loss to Bergen Catholic in its next game, Hun won six in a row, capturing a third straight MCT title along the way with a 6-2 win over Notre Dame last week.
“We have been there before and we wanted to win it again,” said Bendorf, who scored two goals and assisted on three others in the win. “We wanted to win not just for the seniors, but the kids coming up that are freshmen and sophomore and also some of the juniors that haven’t been on the team. We wanted to make sure we continued the streak.”
The Raiders topped Paul VI to open the tournament and then knocked off Robbinsville, 6-3, in the semifinals. That set up a third straight showdown with Notre Dame in the finals and for the third straight year the Raiders prevailed.
“I know Hun and Notre Dame don’t always like it each when it comes to sports,” Bendorf said. “It was great to play them in the championship. It was a great game and a good crowd. It is always a lot of fun.”
Blake Brown scored three goals and Kyle Mandleur added the other for the Raiders. Frank Virtucci had a pair of assists. Due to injuries and inexperience, Bendorf and Virtucci spent a lot of the season back on defense for the Raiders, but were able to move forward for the MCT and the offense clicked.
“We had some injuries so Frank and I wound up back on defense,” Bendorf said. “We were able to go back on the forward line for the MCT and we were successful up there. And the back end played well.”
Hun also played its first season in the Mid-Atlantic Hockey League, going 4-2 in league games. The team finished 16-8-3 overall this season.
“We started out not too well,” Bendorf said. “We lost to LaSalle and PDS but we were able to get on a roll and win our last four in the league. And we beat the team that went on to win the championship, Hill, this past Saturday. That was a big win for our program. To start out 4-2 in our first year in the league was nice for us.
“We came into the season and we still had a good amount of guys from my freshman and sophomore years. But we also had a lot of new kids who hockey was not necessarily their No. 1 sport. But they played their role and we were able to become a great team. This was one of best teams I have every played with in terms of guys getting along and playing their roles.”
