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| Crestwood Comets players celebrating another Casey Cup Classic Championship at the Toyota SportsPlex earlier this season. From left to right: Matt Madry, Tanner Kahlau, Austin Orso & Drew Bobynskyj. Photo credit: Ashlee Olenginski. |
The 2015 Crestwood Comets were the first team from northeastern Pennsylvania ever invited to the Flyers Cup and they are making some noise in this year's tournament even as the 19th seed of 19 teams that entered the tournament. According to senior forward Matt Madry there have been previous attempts to get the Comets into the Flyers Cup in past years, but after years of hard work from dedicated parents in the school district the dream of playing on a bigger stage against better competition became a reality.
"Honestly, I'm glad they're finally getting the recognition that they deserve," Matt's mother Carolyn Madry said. "And not even just this year," Carolyn said, adding "The past few years they have had unbelievable teams and it was never really acknowledged, so it's nice to see that and see how excited everyone is," Carolyn said, referring to a scout approaching her son after their recent win at the tournament.
As for the Comets' run in this year's 2015 Flyers Cup, an uneven amount of teams in the tournament forced the #19 Comets into a must-win play-in game vs. #14 Penncrest just to get into the tournament.
"Their jerseys were sick, so I was kind of intimidated" Matt said of Penncrest. "They had like Detroit Red Wings jerseys."
The Comets played arguably their best game of the season in that contest according to Matt, blowing out Penncrest 7-0 behind a strong shutout performance from Comets goaltender, senior Gavin Lewis.
The Comets had a tough task in the opening round of the tournament in #3 Hershey, but Matt saved a big game for a big night on his 18th birthday - tallying a game-high five points (2G-3A) in a 7-5 upset win.
"Hershey was good," Matt said, adding," I heard they were missing a couple of kids. One kid scored off the bat and then after that he got sick and left, so that was a big advantage. Our offense really stepped up that game. Their defense was really good, you could tell they were all AA kids."
The Comets win over Hershey last Wednesday advances them to play #6 seed Garnet Valley tonight at 8:45 p.m. ET in the quarterfinals of the tournament.
"We've never played any of these teams," Matt said, "So every game you don't know what to expect."
Regardless of the outcome of tonight's game, the 2015 senior class will always be able to say they were the first high school hockey team from their area to be invited to a big-time high school hockey tournament in the state.
"We've already accomplished a lot," Matt said, "We were the first [team from northeast PA] to do it and it's pretty awesome to say and think about."
Matt, a straight A's student at Crestwood, excels both on and off the ice. He's looking forward to attending Penn State University in the fall, majoring in engineering and would like to try to play on Penn State's club hockey team.
While several players on the Comets roster are seniors and will be graduating this spring, Matt said to be on the lookout next season for a very talented player in current junior Stefan Krupski.
"His skating ability is off the charts," Matt said of his teammate and friend.
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