Burnt Hills/Ballston Spa Hockey Hitting Its Stride

BURNT HILLS/BALLSTON SPA— When head coach Jim Buffoline saw his team in the standings with a 1-5 record he knew he had to make some changes. Moving Ian Speck from forward to defense and letting some of the younger players see more ice time has paid dividends for Burnt Hills/Ballston Spa, who have gone 8-3 since the rough start. “There’s no one thing,” said Buffoline, whose team is riding a three-game winning streak. “It’s a total team effort and we’ve been working real hard in practice. We have a lot of young kids on our team and they’ve been buying into our defensive and offensive system. The young guys are playing some big minutes.” Making the change with Speck may have been the biggest move at all, said Buffoline of the talented junior. “That was a huge move for us,” Buffoline said. “After the sixth game of the season, we were 1-5 and we just weren’t scoring enough goals. He’s probably our best all-around player on the team. He has a really high hockey IQ. That was the time when we started playing our younger players (a couple sophomores, four ninth graders and one eighth grader, Sam Swingruber) a little bit more and since then everything has kind of clicked and it’s really been a total team effort from all of our guys.” Amidst the current streak, BH/BS has taken down Niskayuna/Schenectady, 5-1, Glens Falls/Hudson Falls, 1-0, and Bethlehem, 3-1. Since beating Christian Brothers Academy, 2-1, on January 7, BH/BS is 7-2 in their last nine games. A key to that has been goalie Austin Clark. In each of the last five wins, Clark has given up zero goals or one goal, helping drop his goals against average to 2.53 on the season, to go along with 342 saves. “Austin Clark has just been on fire lately,” Buffoline said. Knowing he has a team that needs to grind out a lot of goals, Buffoline harped on the importance of how his team didn’t crumble early, buying into the philosophy and sticking with it. “Stay with it,” Buffoline said. “Stay positive. Believe in our philosophy and our system and it will prove out in the end that we do have a lot of talent on this team. I think when we had a lot of young guys coming from youth hockey, they didn’t have a lot of knowledge of different system work that we try to implement and sometimes our systems are somewhat complicated for the younger guys. Once they get it, it really seems to click for them.” Offensively, junior Trey Swingruber is leading BH/BS with six goals and nine assists, while junior Aaron Thorpe also has six goals. The team is currently on what has been a 13-day break from games. The next matchup for Buffoline and his crew is next Friday at home against Shaker/Colonie on Valentine’s Day. “It’s too bad,” Buffoline said. “I wish we were playing this weekend because we’re on a roll right now. The last thing you want to do it take a weekend off.” The Shaker/Colonie game should be crucial to the Section II playoff picture, as teams are looking to solidify their seed. Heading into Thursday night, Shenendehowa sits atop the league with an 8-0-1 record, while Saratoga is currently the No. 2 seed at 6-1-3 (stats updated as of press time Thursday afternoon before the Shen and Saratoga game that was rescheduled from Wednesday to last night). Burnt Hills/Ballston Spa (6-5) and Shaker/Colonie (5-4) are vying for a No. 3 seed in the league and Buffoline expects a battle on February 14. “What we’re shooting for is to finalize in the top four,” Buffoline said. “That has always been our goal this year so we get home ice advantage in the sectionals. If we finish in the top four, we get to avoid Shen and Saratoga until the finals, so that’s what we’re hoping for.” Niskayuna/Schenectady is following closely at 5-4 heading into tonight’s game against Queensbury. BH/BS’s most recent loss was a 4-0 shutout against La Salle (No. 3 in the conference at 9-4) , who Shaker/Colonie defeated on January 17, 4-3, at the Albany County Hockey Training Facility. After the Shaker/Colonie game, BH/BS plays their Senior Night game against CBA at home at the Schenectady County Recreational Facility to end the season. The Section II playoffs will begin the following week with the Section II quarterfinals starting Wednesday, February 19.