Having started the 2007-08 Scholastic Ice Hockey League season in Houston with seven wins in a row, the collection of skaters known as The Wild was stunned by the news that one of their most popular and talented teammates, Nick Pascuzzo, would not finish the season with them.
After only a few months in Houston, the Pascuzzo family had to return to Philadelphia to tend to personal matters. |
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During that brief period Nick had become an integral part of the Wild and a friend to all his teammates, so much so that between them and their parents they donated enough money to bring him back to Texas for the final game of the regular season and the playoffs, which coincided with his spring break.
“The thought was that we started this thing together, let us finish it together,” says team manager Lori Loya. She says the skaters on this Wild team had come together quicker than any she had been around in her son Alex’s six years of playing hockey.
The Wild had to get the permission of the ISHL to play Pascuzzo after he returned to Houston, where he spent two weeks as a guest in the homes of teammates Brian Johnson and Austin Quance.
Nick’s sudden departure, while upsetting to his fellow skaters, did not sidetrack the Wild. Without Nick the team went on to compile the division’s best regular season record, 15-3-0.
With him in their lineup in the playoffs the Wild youngsters won three of four contests and captured the Adams Cup as the champion of the SIHL’s nine-team Adams Prep Division for players age 13-15. (Each SIHL team is a club team comprised of players from several schools.)
The Wild defeated its nemesis, the Avalanche, 4-0 in the title game on March 14 behind Pascuzzo, whose hat trick gave him 33 goals for the season; Alex Loya, the team’s second-leading scorer, who netted the other goal; and goalie Johnson, who notched his seventh shutout of the campaign.
The victory was especially sweet given the return of Pascuzzo and the fact that the Avalanche had dealt the Wild each of its regular-season losses and its lone defeat in the playoffs.
“In Nick’s absence, players like Alex Loya and (captain) Conor Farrell stepped up and took charge of the team,” says Wild coach Al Jaschke. “I do not remember our goal scoring per game suffering at all while he was not with us.”
Says Lori Loya, “It was the bond that these players had with each other that enabled them to play for each other. Hockey is the greatest sport in the world, and every player will eventually hang the skates up. But he will never forget the friendships and memories made along the way.”
The other members of the championship Wild squad were Ross Bowden, Zachary Cart, Ryan Casey, Glen Kelly, Travis Kilpatrick, Steven Kimbrell, Jason Lieberman, Chaz Mazzilli and Avjot Sidhu. The assistant coaches were Don Bennett and Chuck Mazzilli.
In addition to the Adams Cup, the Wild received a trophy for finishing the regular season in first place in its division. Today, that trophy resides in the Pascuzzo home in Philadelphia. |
