CAPITAL REGION — CP Dynamo’s 15U team, local boys travel ice hockey, is headed to Buffalo to compete in the state tournament this weekend against nationally ranked teams.
CP Dynamo hasn’t been to the NY State Tournament for the past two years due to COVID, but this weekend they are tournament bound, where they will play Friday against the Buffalo Regals and Saturday against the Bishop Kearney (or BK) Selects and the Syracuse Nationals. The BK Selects are ranked at #3 in the nation, while CP Dynamo’s rank recently increased to #43; playing teams like the BK Selects brings more experience to the players and more exposure to the program.
CP Dynamo draws players from a 2-hour radius around Clifton Park and billets players from across the US and abroad: defenseman Caeden Herington is from Vermont, goaltender John Nanos is from Nebraska, and defenseman Canaan Li is from Beijing, China.
“A majority of kids on the team are from the Capital Area, playing whole teams that are billeted or coming from all over the country or different countries,” said Head Coach of the CP Dynamo 15U team, Brad Shaver. “They do exceptionally well against some of the best players in the country at their age level.”
Just last weekend CP Dynamo played the #1 nationally ranked team, Rhode Island’s Mount St. Charles Hockey Academy, and lost the second game by a close 2-1 final score.
The team also traveled to the University of Notre Dame recently for the 2022 Notre Dame CCC ShootOut Tournament where they played teams from Anaheim, St. Louis, Indianapolis, and Colorado to place 5th out of 20. They frequently travel far to play, also visiting Penn State in past years, and already have a game lined up for next season in Chicago.
“I coached one of the players that is a senior at Notre Dame who took the team through locker room,” said Coach Shaver. “It was a great experience for them.”
CP Dynamo’s 8-month season starts with their training camp the last week of August. As they near the end of the 2021-22 season with the state tournament and nationals, Coach Shaver plans to push them hard on the ice to get ready to face the competition.
“The strategy is that we have to play together. We don’t have a team that is deep, but the players we have are very good. So, the strategy is to understand the system,” said Coach Shaver. “We know what we have to do, how to read and react to the game, and to make quick changes. When these guys can do that, they are really successful.”
The team’s season ends after nationals, and the CP Dynamo organization is already planning tryouts for the 2022-23 season in April. Including 15U, the organization also has 14U, 16U, and 18U teams. The teams are hoping to recruit more kids from outside the area for next season.
“Next year, the players [on the 15U team] will move up to 16U. After 16U they all go different places, and some will go to junior hockey,” said Coach Shaver. “But that’s the goal for next year. We want to get these kids to the highest level.”
More information about CP Dynamo and their April tryouts can be found on their website, www.cpdynamo.com.
