USPHL Premier Players Of The Month – October 2022: New England Division

(Summaries by Joshua Boyd)

Forwards 

Scotty Swain, Northern Cyclones

Swain (‘03/Nottingham, Md.) has been the offensive leader for the New England’s most successful of its 10 teams by winning percentage. The Cyclones’ .875 (off a 7-1-0-0 record) puts them at seventh in the 69-team USPHL Premier, and Swain’s 12 points in eight games was leading that Cyclones squad offensively. 

His strongest stretch was between Oct. 23 and 29, when he posted seven of his 12 points over a stretch of three games, all wins by the Cyclones. Swain brought great talent to the Cyclones from also having played last year with the Skipjacks Hockey Club’s USPHL 18U squad. 

Gavin DelFosse, Twin City Thunder

The 2003-born native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has found himself a good home in Auburn, Maine, where he’s become the offensive leader for a Thunder team that keeps picking up key wins in its division, where they have a 7-5-1-1 record. DelFosse has put up five goals and 12 assists for 17 points in his first 14 games this season. 

DelFosse registered six points in his final three October games (1-5-6) to help his team to pull into a three-way tie for first place in points in the New England Division. 

Karim Gayfullin, South Shore Kings

There is a very good chance that the USPHL Premier has seen the last of this 2003-born native of Kazan, Russia. After putting up 13 points in his eight Premier games played through Oct. 20, he was called up to the NCDC Kings, where he went on to post goals in each of his first three games at that level. #USPHLAdvancement in action!

Gayfullin never missed the scoresheet in his eight Premier games, posting five goals and eight assists. There was only one game where he did not post at least one assist – and in that Oct. 5 game against the Boston Junior Bruins, he scored two goals. 

Defense

Luc Fricchione, Springfield Pics

Another shining example of #USPHLAdvancement, Fricchione has come up through the Pics’ USPHL 15U, 16U, Elite and now he has seen lots of individual development success with the Premier team over 56 regular season games to date. 

The 2002-born native of West Springfield, Mass. (also home to the Pics) has put up 12 points in 10 games so far this year, and along the way has helped the team defensively with a +1 ranking and 16 blocked shots. He is also the Pics’ total ice time leader by nearly 50 minutes ahead of his closest teammate. With his two-way game, Fricchione helped the Pics exit October in a three-way tie for first in points in the New England Division with Nationals staples the Northern Cyclones and Islanders Hockey Club. 

James Eyre, Islanders Hockey Club

Eyre (‘04/Morzine, France) has had a fantastic first North American season early on here, registering a point per game through the end of October, with a 1-7-8 line. He has also helped the Islanders to rank in a tie for first in the New England Division with an impressive 6-1-1-1 record at the end of October.

Eyre stands third on the Islanders in plus-minus at +6, and he also has averaged one blocked shot per game so far. He also rang up all of his points in a straight seven-game point streak, which included within that a five-game assist streak. 

Goaltender

Dominik Bovan, Boston Junior Bruins

Bovan (‘03/Bratislava, Slovakia) was outstanding in lifting the Junior Bruins into the top half of the New England Division with a 6-3-0-1 record for the team, while boasting an individual record of 4-1-0-1. 

A Junior Bruins veteran in his second year, Bovan has earned points in all but one of the games he has played while pushing himself into the top 10 of save percentage in the 69-team Premier League with a New England-leading .942 save percentage. He continued a three-game winning streak to end October by extending it to four games at the start of November. 

Note: The October Players of the Month includes stats from September 2022 as well.