The Springfield Pics are proud to announce the commitment of Premier Player Jacob “Jake” Trowt of Wilmington, VT to NCAA Division III Fitchburg State Men’s Hockey for the 2023-2024 season. This is Jake’s first year for the Premier team and in 27 games for the Pics, he has lit the lamp 14 times, and  21 assists.  When asked of his commitment:  “I would like to thank my family for their support and being there for me every step of the way…as well as my teammates and coaches for pushing me to become the player I am today”.

GM and Head Coach Rob Bonneau had this to say: “Jake is a very hard working player who has great offensive abilities.  Jake plays in all situations for us and has been an impact player from day one.  We have been trying to get Jake for 3 years to come play for us and final this season that happened and the wait was worth it.  We wish Jake the best as he will follow in a long line of former Pics players to play at Fitchburg State.“  

“Jake will be joining (3) three PICS Premier alumni next season at NCAA Fitchburg State Men’s Hockey program making (4) four pics hockey alumni in their line up next season.   It will be very exciting to watch at Fitchburg Civic center; they will be a top contender for the MASCAC title”.  Coach Sarno.   

Springfield, Ma:  The Springfield Pics U15 Tier 1 AAA squad who are part of the USPHL’s U15 Division are having the best season to date for the 15’s at the midway mark.  When Head Coach Vern Smith was asked about his squad he had this to say; “overall strongest group we’ve had to date”.  The boys are sitting in first place with 8 wins and 3 losses in league play.  This season has proven the boys to be a league contender facing top level clubs such as IHC (Islanders Hockey Club) as well as Northern Cyclones.  

The offensive push has the team at a plus 50 goal differential…with 75 goals scored on the season.  The boys leading the charge are Ryan Netkovick and Logan Carpenter of South Hadley, MA, Cal Hoyt of Hatfield, Ma and Dom Fiorentino of Wilbraham, MA.  

The growth of the program is starting to show as Coach Vern referenced the newcomers Blake Alibozek from Simsbury, CT and Oliver Pzinski from Salisbury, CT “giving us added scoring depth…and solid contributions from the depth of the rest of the squad making this an exciting group to coach”.  The coaches are starting to see the results of the PICS developmental process.

Team success starts with good team defense and goaltending has been especially strong lead by local net minder Gavin Carpenter of South Hadley as well as Andrew Bezaire of Windsor, Ontario of Canada.      

This puts the U15’s in a position to make a solid run as the top seed at the Divisional Playoffs over the last two months of the season.  You can follow all the action and results on our social media platforms or catch games on LiveBarn when available. All Springfield Pics home games are played at the Olympia Ice Center in West Springfield, Mass.  You can find all the club information at www.springfieldjrpics.com as well as the league's web page at www.usphl.com and for the U15’s and U16’s at https://www.tier1hockeyfederation.com/ 

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Springfield, Ma:  Pics Premier currently stand at 15 wins-10 losses as well as a couple wins via shootout and a thriller of an OT win within league play.  Prior to the annual holiday break the squad was able to pick up nine (9) crucial points with a nice three (3) game winning streak. This has the squad sitting 4th overall in the highly competitive New England Conference of the USPHL.

Heading into the back half of the season seedings for playoff’s start to come into play.  GM and Head Coach Rob Bonneau stated with a good run “they’d like to secure home ice for the first round of the playoffs' “.  The Pics have 5 of their next 6 games in January on home ice Vs. South Shore Kings, Bandits, IHC and the Cyclones before heading north to face New Hampshire Monarchs.  

In order to achieve home ice, the squad will continue to rely on veteran Dom Balboni of West Springfield, MA who has been leading the charge with 19 goals and 19 assists while Jake Trowt of Wilmington VT sits at 14 goals and 18 assists.  The defensive side has pinched in too; returning players Luc Fricchione (4G-18A) also of West Springfield and Josh Tisdell (1G-15A) of Chicopee, MA  have been called on to shut down opponents' top lines, while contributing on the offensive side as well. 

Returning Veteran Ben Zaranck of Deerfield, MA has an impressive record at 10-1-1 with a .941 save percentage and a 2.26GAA placing him in the top 20 of all goalies at number 14 overall in the league (70 teams).  One goalie can’t do it all and so when called upon Landry Laird of Gunter, TX at 1-5-1 has an impressive .925 save percentage and equally as impressive is his 2.68GAA.  

The Pics take the greatest pride in accomplishing the goal of Junior hockey: college placement.  The Premier placed 50% of their roster to college hockey last year.  The success the boys are having on the ice is generating a good deal of attention.  The tradition of the Pics is well known throughout the region and GM Rob Bonneau had this to say; “we are hoping to announce a few college commitments soon”.  

You can follow all the action and results on our social media platforms or catch games on LiveBarn when available. All Springfield Pics home games are played at the Olympia Ice Center in West Springfield, Mass.  You can find all the club information at www.springfieldjrpics.com as well as the league's web page at www.usphl.com 
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Springfield, Ma: The Pics U16 squad is again in position to make a run at the “Banner Season” as they begin the back half of the league schedule.  There are only 11 games left and the Pics after the holiday break are ready to return to the ice and make that run over the next two months. 

The U16’s find themselves with an overall 20-10-8 season.  The showcase style schedule at the start of the season allowed the coaching staff of Head Coaches Anthony and John Sarno to find the right line combinations both offensively and on the defensive side.  They seemed to have found that combination as all three of the top line are leading the USPHL’s U16 Division in points.  This line consists of two local returning veterans of the U16 squad (and NCDC drafted) Devin Niles (Hatfield, Ma) and Aiden Pisano (Springfield, Ma) who are joined by newcomer Tom Smentenko from the Czech Republic.  

When asked about the ability of the defense to help them reach their goal Head Coach John Sarno had this to say; “We have a very sold D core…Barbee (Aidden Barbee of Potomac MD) and Aldi (Algirdas Jarad an 07 from Lithuania) logging big minutes…as well as Matthew Percsi (of Palmer, Ma) who was promoted from last years U15 squad and Adol” (Sylvester Adolfsson from Sweden)...

As for the goalies; Coach Sarno went on to say “all 3 goalies have been very solid and give us a chance to win each time we take the ice…Very reliable”.  In goal the Pics have Matteo Lachance from Connecticut who was promoted from last year's PICS U15 squad, Jack Signorelli from Connecticut as well as rookie Massimo De Vita from San Jose, California.  

You can follow all the action and results on our social media platforms or catch games on LiveBarn when available. All Springfield Pics home games are played at the Olympia Ice Center in West Springfield, Mass.  You can find all the club information at www.springfieldjrpics.com as well as the league's web page at www.usphl.com and for the U15’s and U16’s at https://www.tier1hockeyfederation.com/ 

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Stay up to date by following Springfield Pics’ on Twitter, “Liking” the Official Springfield Pics’ Facebook page