Blake Echternacht won a team trophy and an individual award as tournament MVP after the Hopewell-Montgomery co-op ice hockey team won the inaugural Colonial Valley Conference Tournament championship.
But as far as the HVCHS senior was concerned, they were both team honors.
“It’s great (being named MVP) but everyone on our team contributed, not only in the tournament but the whole season, whether it was on or off the ice,” the standout goalie said. “Everyone bought in. And my defense has done a great job all season.”
Individual awards aside, Echternacht said, “I really just care about that big (Puchalik Cup) trophy for the team.”
“It was just awesome to win it,” he continued. “This group of seniors has worked hard together for so many years. We’ve been through a lot of tough losses. We lost in the (Mercer County Tournament) finals two years ago and the semifinals last year, both in overtime. It was great to just finally win after everything we’ve been through.”
Hopewell-Montgomery is having a historic season, carrying a program-record 23-2 mark and No. 13 state ranking into its Feb. 24 state tournament opener. It took a 4-1 win over Notre Dame in the Feb. 14 Puchalik Cup final, and Echternacht won his award after making 63 saves on 65 shots in the semifinals and finals.
“I wouldn’t even say he raised his play to another level, he just kept it to the level that he was playing at all year,” coach Jeff Radice said. “It’s really more about consistency. That’s the key when you’re doing the things that you love to do.
“It’s repeating the highest level you can; doing rep after rep with no mistakes. He’s a high-pressure kid and that helps him in tournaments in high-pressure situations. When the pressure is there, he can see a little more clearly.”
What makes Echternacht’s hockey success so amazing, is that his focus is on baseball. He’s a standout player with a three-year varsity career ERA of 2.62 and batting average of .318. He hopes to play on a college diamond next year.
But that has taken nothing away from his dedication to hockey.
“Blake is just a different type of athlete,” Radice said. “He’s extremely driven, focused and mature. He wanted (the CVCT title) more than any athlete I’ve ever seen want this before. It’s really nice to see where hard work actually does pay off. It’s such a good lesson to learn.
“Hockey is a cruel sport sometimes, but for the most part it pays the people who play the game the right way. He never cheated it once and it’s really rewarding to see him be able to win the tournament MVP and also win the championship, which he cared way more about.”
Echternacht seemed destined for HVCHS athletic success. His dad, Aaron, was a 1991 graduate after a career as an All-American shot-putter. He was inducted into Hopewell Valley’s second Hall of Fame class in 2002 and held nine school records at the time. He will be inducted into this year’s Mercer County T&F Hall of Fame.
Asked if he tries to emulate his dad, Blake said “I try not to think about it too much. He obviously had a big impact here. I just try to do all I can.”
Echternacht started playing club hockey with Nassau and Lawrence after Aaron flipped on a Devils game one day.
“I was like five years old and I saw Marty Brodeur out there and decided I wanted to play hockey and wanted to play goalie,” he said. “I started as a player a little bit. As I watched more, I wanted to be the goalie.
“It was definitely a little nerve wracking at first. But as I kept playing it just got more fun. You’re always the one who’s in the most control.”
But as baseball took control of his desires, Echternacht quit club to focus on that. Prior to high school, Matthew Greenspoon, a senior on last year’s team, “was kind of egging me to play for the high school team, so I did.”
Blake made 213 saves in eight games as a freshman, forging a save percentage of .914 with one shutout.
“He came in pretty polished and by the end of the season ended up playing a lot of the minutes,” Radice said.
He became the regular netminder as a sophomore and had a .934 save percentage with 438 saves and three shutouts. The percentage slipped to .913 last season but the saves increased to .493.
This season, Echtnernacht has shared duties with impressive junior Ethan Nau and has a staggering .953 save percentage with 386 saves and three shutouts.
“It’s been little by little for him,” Radice said. “He’s sacrificed a lot. When he showed up his focus was definitely on baseball. He loves hockey so much, he was like ‘I just can’t put this sport down.’
“He continued to devote his time, effort and energy. It’s something he wanted so bad, he sacrificed a lot in doing so. He was on the fence about even playing his freshman year but from the first tryout he got there through the Mercer County Tournament final, he never stopped working.”
Echternacht even returned to short-season club hockey last year, but it was H-M that kept him lacing up the skates.
“It’s just this group of guys I’ve been with for four years, and the coaches, there’s something about it,” he said. “There’s the competition, playing against the people I played with when I was little, it really gets me pumped.”
In assessing what makes Echternacht such a great goalie, Radice says “he’s a freak athlete” with a long frame that he is able to shift and move deftly in the crease.
“It’s kind of rare when you have someone that size doing what he does,” the coach said. “It can be difficult for a six-foot-plus human being to bend the way he can; and find pucks low on the ice with his feet the way he can. He can look big and not give up any of his athleticism. His leg strength is second to none, and he’s able to track the puck through traffic.”
He also has superb concentration.
“As a goalie you can play perfect 95 percent of the time and still lose the hockey game,” Radice said. “It’s about managing your mistakes and having that level of focus. He’s mastered that and really dialed it in to where he can be nearly perfect.”
But even a nearly perfect goalie can’t do it all, as Hopewell-Montgomery’s success has been due to a complete team effort.
“His teammates are supposed to be there for him when he falters, which they have been,” Radice said. “It’s easier for a goalie when your team is playing the way they are in front of him. It takes a little pressure off you, and lets you not be as afraid to make mistakes.”
Echnernacht said that when all hell is breaking loose around him and pucks are coming from all angles, it’s faith in his teammates that sustains him.
“I just believe my guys in front of me are gonna do everything they can to help keep that puck out of the net,” he said. “I try to do everything to keep it out. I believe in myself and I believe in my guys.”
Those guys include senior defensemen Dylan Yasher, Connor Batcha, Brenden Riewe and Wes Mitchell, freshman Will Chess and sophomore Ayvan Dharia.
“They’ve been incredible all year, we have leaned on them tremendously,” Radice said. “They’ve definitely been the backbone of the team. The seniors have brought the underclassmen along. It’s the biggest difference between this year and last year, that they wanted to play the right way to win.”
The forwards have also done a stellar job of coming back to defend, which can be equally important and is a big reason why H-M had a 1.40 goals against average entering the states.
“It’s really been the whole team defense,” Radice said. “It’s hard for high schoolers to buy into defensive, grind- it-out kind of hockey. There’s two ways to play hockey. It can be beautiful, you can get ooohs and aaahs from the crowd, or you could win. You could play shutdown, lockdown, responsible, smart hockey and they chose to win this year.”
Forwards also must score, of course, and H-M has plenty of snipers. Senior Evan Jacobs led the way with 32 goals; followed by senior Gavin Nau (24), sophomore Jack Riewe (20), senior Logan Camilleri (15) and sophomore Owen Thedinga (11). The Riewe brothers have been top playmakers as Brenden has 33 assists and Jack 24, while Gavin Nau set up 27 goals.
Gavin Nau and Matthew Cudmore have led the way as captains.
“They’ve handled the inner politics of a very senior-heavy group with such class,” Radice said. “It’s not easy sometimes when you’re trying to lead a group of peers who are the same age; but they have proven time and time again to be the right guys for the job. I think it was tough for a lot of the seniors to know they weren’t gonna be the captain but 100 percent credit to them. They took it with grace and said ‘We’ll follow these guys.’ They did their job too.”
Echternacht said he could see the program building to this point as each season played out.
“We’ve grown as a group together,” he said. “A lot of us started off as freshmen on the varsity. Each year we kept building, we could feel ourselves getting closer. This year we put it all together and got it done.”
The goalie made no prediction entering the states but hoped that H-M could make the CVC proud in a tournament where it hasn’t had a ton of success.
“We gotta take it one game at a time,” he said. “I believe in this group. We’ve worked hard in the off-season and throughout this season. We’ll keep working well as a team and take it game by game.”
And hopefully ride a hot guy between the pipes before he trades in his skates for baseball spikes.
