| Section 1 Ice Hockey 2010-11 Season | ||||
| The 2010-11 season saw the loss of many of the recent stars of the WRPDIIHL through both graduation and players cutting their high school careers short in order to focus on playing juniors. But along with that came the rise of many new stars to fill their skates.
The geographical leagues and shortened regular season continued in an effort to cut costs, and while not much else changed, the down economy did spur on the loss of two storied teams in Section 1 when Clarkstown North and Clarkstown Sourth merged into one team. Parity continued to be a running story throughout the year as it seemed that on any given night most any team could beat most any other. We even had a few of the teams who sat at the bottom of the standings for the past few seasons pull out some wins making for a promising future. The playoffs saw 26 of the 28 teams qualify and we were treated to many close games including a 4OT thriller between Lakeland/Panas and Clarkstown at the Palisades Mall and New Rochelle's quarterfinal upset over Mamaroneck at the Hommocks. We also saw the return of Horace Greeley to the playoffs after a couple of down years and Nyack/Tappan Zee's first trip to the playoffs as a merged team (as separate schools, this was Nyack's first trip to the post season in six years and TZ's in five). The section finals took place at West Point once again, and the double-header did not disappoint with two well-played, hard-fought games that crowned Suffern and Pelham as our section champions. Both the Mounties and the Pelicans represented our section well in the state tournament after taking very different paths to get there. Pelham started the year 0-5 and were sitting at 1-6-1 before turning their season around and going 13-5 the rest of the way. Meanwhile Suffern was a juggernaut from the opening face-off, sitting at 11-0-1 before being handed their first defeat and only losing three games all season, each by one goal. Both teams claimed victories over the Section 9 champions to earn their trip to the Final Four up in Utica only to have their seasons come to a close in the state semi-finals. Suffern fell to eventual D1 state champion Williamsville North 3-2 after coming within inches of tying the game up in the closing seconds, and Pelham lost to D2 state runner-up Williamsville East on a highly controversial goal in the second overtime. Once again, the future looks bright for all 28 teams in Section 1. Below are the details of the 2010-11 season. Enjoy! | ||||
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Team Recaps: | ||||
