This past July, Centennial High School sent a squad to New York City on a hockey adventure that saw the team take on four East Coast opponents and explore the “Crossroads of the World.” It was the fourth such summer trip for the Cougars since 2014, and it marked the second time that the Cougars have taken a bite out of the Big Apple.

Centennial was headquartered at the Edison Hotel on West 47th Street, in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, a mere one hundred steps from the bleachers in Times Square. The Cougars played four games over the course of their week-long trip, one against the West Chester Express (the program that helped develop NHLers Kevin Shattenkirk, Steven Santini, and Charlie McAvoy), two against the storied New York Apple Core Junior A team, and one against Byram Hills High School.

The Cougars defeated Apple Core 8-2 in their first game, on the back of two goals apiece from Will Francis and Dominik Routhe. Up 2-1 after one period, and 4-1 after two, Centennial added four in the final frame to record their first win of the trip, which came at the end of a long travel day.

The next afternoon, Centennial saw a freshly motivated Apple Core group in a rematch of the previous day’s game. Senior forward Carter Wagner banked a puck in for the only scoring of the first period. Three minutes into the second, senior forward and captain Hayden Brickner finished a 2-on-1 from Wagner to push the Cougar lead to 2-0. Apple Core brought sustained pressure in the third, but it was not enough to crack the Centennial defense or the scoreboard; and senior winger and captain Lucas McGregor closed the scoring with a backdoor power play goal from Brickner and Wagner with three minutes remaining to seal a 3-0 victory.

The Cougars continued their success against a young Byram Hills High School team the next day. Five different players tallied goals in the first period, and a total of different 10 Centennial players scored as the Cougars pounded the Bobcats to extend their record three wins in three games.

The final game of the week matched Centennial against a talented West Chester Express club.  First period power goals from Hayden Brickner and Jack Menne gave Centennial an early 2-0 lead. Early in the second period, Brickner extended the Cougar lead to three on a feed from Will Francis, before the Express clawed a goal back late in that same period. Five minutes into the third, senior forward Andrew Stuart scored from McGregor; and senior forward A.J. Wettstein added an unassisted goal midway through the period to secure a 5-1 win and four-game undefeated trek for the Cougars.

But the games themselves were almost secondary, as the Centennial contingent enjoyed a busy week in the largest city in America. Some of the players took the subway to Brooklyn to see Kendrick Lamar and Travis Scott in concert at a sold-out Barclays Center. Others took to the streets for a 3-on-3 playground ball session that lasted nearly three hours.

The entire team spent a day at the 9/11 Museum and Memorial, followed by a visit to the top of the new World Trade Center, the tallest building in the western hemisphere. The team also trained it to the Bronx to see the New York Yankees defeat the Cincinnati Reds in Yankee Stadium. There were dinners in Little Italy, Times Square and Chinatown; and there was a boat tour of New York Harbor, the East River and the Hudson River, where the team saw the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the Brooklyn Bridge.

The trip was the brainchild of Centennial Assistant Coach Ted Cheesebrough, who has previously led high school hockey trips to Denver, Washington D.C., Helsinki, Torino, and the French Alps. “I want to show our guys other parts of the country, and other parts of the world,” Cheesebrough explained. “Hockey is an excellent – and unique – way to make that happen.”

Centennial head coach Ritch Menne echoed that sentiment. “We are trying to give our guys a memorable high school hockey experience. We want to win games like everybody else, but we know that there’s more to it than that. To be able to do the things that we’ve done for the past several years, and to be successful at the same time, is pretty unreal.”