CCYHA won USA Hockey New England District Tournament championships on the 16U and 15 Only level and received at at-large bid for the 18U tournament for its high national ranking.

The 18U and 16U teams are headed to West Chester, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, while the 15 Only team is off to Plymouth, Michigan, for the April 5-10 nationals.

The 16U team is back after going 2-1 at last year’s nationals with the only loss coming in pool play, 6-5, against eventual champion Compuware. It features many players from the 15 Only team that lost in the 2017 district semifinals in overtime to the eventual national champion Yale Bulldogs.

In this season’s November rematch for the district title, CCYHA won, 2-0, behind strong special teams play, getting a power-play goal in the first period and a short-handed goal in the second before relying on the penalty kill to protect the lead throughout much of the third period.

“We had a focused group that remembered from the year before and wanted to show what they were and how good they are,” hockey program director and 16U coach Devin Rask said in a telephone interview. “They really performed well and did not give up a lot against a really good Yale team, a lot of them who had won that national championship.”

The 15 Only team also had to overcome a loss to Yale. It won the Nov. 12 championship game, 4-1, just a day after losing to the Bulldogs, 4-3, in round-robin play at the district tournament.

The 18U team did not make it through a loaded New England District, getting knocked out during state play. It then had to keep proving its worthiness throughout the prep school winter season, leading to the national berth.

CCYHA is 43-10-1, including a current nine-game winning streak in which it outscored the opposition, 65-8.

“It was almost not a reality for us back in November,” 18U coach Matt Plante said of the fourth nationals berth in five years, according to a story on the school website, “but through their efforts, resolve, and perseverance of these 21 young men, they made it happen.”

All three teams feature five players who have already committed to Division I programs.

Kyle Haskins, who led the team with three assists in three games at 16U nationals last season, is headed to Michigan State. He is part of this season’s 18U team with Zachary Jones and Ryan Sullivan, who are headed to UMass-Amherst, as well as Conner Hutchison who is going to Vermont and Shane Pinto who is committed to North Dakota.

The 16U team has P.J. Fletcher and Ethan Phillips going to Quinnipiac, Josh Lawrence headed to Boston University, Ruben Rafkin to Denver and Jack Robilotti to Holy Cross.

The 15 Only commitments are Austin Cook (Vermont), Charlie Desroches and Jack Williams (Northeastern), Victor Czernecki Anair (Quinnipiac) and Nick DeSantis (Miami).

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