This past weekend in Buffalo, NY three former Long Island Royals made some noise for the Canisius Golden Griff’s.

Daniel Lafontaine and Jimmy Mazza played in their first Division 1 hockey games with Daniel scoring his 1^st colligate hockey career goal for the Griff’s. Canisius College is a member of the Atlantic Hockey Conference.

Nick Hutchinson another former Royal made his decision to continue his hockey career at Canisius where he committed to this past weekend. Nick is currently playing in the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL) for Salmon Arm.

 Smithfield, RI--The first game of the weekend the SQ A team played a short benched NJ Freeze, although they were short on the bench we had control of the game from the drop of the first puck. Their goalie kept them in the game until the end of the second period facing 50 plus shots going into the third. As any team would have reacted fatigue set in but the Royals kept at it opening up the score in the third ending the game 9-1. Their second game was up against the Brewster Bulldogs. Another hard fought game that was back and forth each shift and it reflected in the score as it stayed a 1 goal game until late in the third. A few silly mistakes lead to two quick goals resulting in our loss of 5-2, the end score did not reflect the play throughout the entire game. The third game which arguably was the most exciting game on the weekend was a hard fought battle against East Haven, who had defeated Brewster the afternoon prior. Once again they found themselves in a game which was neck and neck until the third period, with less than 2 minutes left they score a huge rebound goal to tie up the score to bring them into an overtime situation. They controlled the game throughout overtime play which worked the puck to the point who released a shot and finished with another rebound goal to win the game 4-3. Less than two hours later our team stepped on the ice again to play a familiar team the Pro Tech Ducks. We came out slow and a little tired from our first game but by the end of the second period we had a 2 goal lead going into the third period. But like any game things can turn around quick late in the third the Ducks came back and tied the game with under 5 minutes left in the game. Not wasting any time one of our centers Jack Dlugos took control of the play crossed the blue line and took a shot through one of the Ducks defenseman sniping the top right corner which would be the game winning goal ending the game at 5-3. All in all a very successful weekend with a 3-1 turnout, we head back to Long Island for our first game on home ice with a lot of confidence which we will build from.

“From 1-3 in the August showcase to 3-1 in the October showcase, that’s what developmental hockey is all about… progress and results.” Coach Michael Demaio.

Congratulations to the Mite Minor 08 team for their Columbus Day Tournament Championship weekend at Sono Ice Rink in Norwalk, CT.

October 6, 2015 – The Royals U16 National team has enjoyed success of late, including a trip to the finals at the Jr Bruins Shootout where they fell to the #11 ranked Yale Bulldogs. The team has received increasingly positive results as of late, going 9‐2‐1 since the start of league play including wins over district opponents LI Gulls, Suffolk PAL & Aviator. With contributions from everyone on the roster things are certainly moving in the right direction quickly for the team. “We are certainly pleased with the early success we have had, however there is a lot of hockey left and we still have plenty to prove” Head Coach Jack Greig remarked when asked about the early run the team is on. The U16 National team has three games this week; Tuesday Oct. 6th @ Suffolk PAL (7:40pm ‐Rinx), Saturday Oct. 10th v Aviator (6:00pm – Superior) & Sunday Oct. 11th v NJ Devils (4:15pm –Superior). On Saturday Oct 10th & sun Oct 11th the Royals are pleased to welcome the Make‐a‐Wish Foundation to the games as representatives will be on hand to spread the word of their story and the impact we can all have on the life of the Foundation’s children.

Former Long Island Royal, Tage Thompson '97 was named to the 2015 CCM/USAH All-American Prospects Game Roster. The game which is held In Buffalo NY is a collection of USA Hockey's finest young Prospects.

Tage's, dad is Brent Thompson former Midget National Royals Coach and now Head Coach Of the New York Islanders AHL affiliate Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

Tage just recently committed to the University of Connecticut. 

Click Here for Full Article and Roster

The Long Island Royals Organization is pleased to announce that Jonathan De Castro, and the De Castro Goaltending Academy will be the official Goaltender Coach for the 2015-2016 season.

 Jonathan de Castro is the founder of De Castro Goaltending Academy, a goaltending school based in New York City dedicated to providing goaltenders of all ages within the Tri-State area a quality development platform. Jonathan has coached goaltenders from various programs in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, and the D.C. metro area. Every summer, Jonathan coaches alongside goaltending coach Mitch Korn (Washington Capitals - NHL) for his summer camps at various locations in the Northeast.

 We are very excited to have Johnathan join our staff and organization. We feel he will be a great asset to our young developing goaltenders.  He can be reached at personally below if there are any questions.

 e-mail: jonathan@decastrogaoltending.com 

phone: 917.587.5070

KINGS PARK, New York – The Long Island Royals are proud to announce that former defenseman Steven Ruggiero was chosen 178th overall in the sixth round by the Anaheim Ducks at the 2015 NHL Entry Draft this weekend in Sunrise, FL.

Steven played with the LI ROYALS from Mites through Peewee Major.

Ruggiero was a member of USNTDP U-18 team last season.

The Kings Park, N.Y. native finished the 2014-15 season with one goal and 14 assists in 66 games played for the USNTDP U-18 team.

Additionally last season, he was member of the second-place U.S. National Under-18 Team at the U18 Five Nations Tournament in the Czech Republic. Ruggiero also participated in the CCM/USA Hockey All-American Prospects Game in Buffalo, New York.

Ruggiero plans to attend Providence College this upcoming season, which won the 2015 NCAA championship last year.

“Ruggiero is a big, strong and athletic defensive defenseman. We don’t have many guys like him in our system. Even though we were looking away from defensemen after taking Larsson yesterday, we couldn’t pass Ruggiero up. No forward in our mind compared to him at that point in the draft, so he brings something different to our prospect pool,” said Ducks Director of Professional/Amateur Scouting, Martin Madden.

The 6-foot-3 blueliner was also member of the Youngstown Phantoms (‘13-‘14) of the United States Hockey League this past season where he posted six points in 41 games played.  In 2013, the Phantoms selected Ruggiero 9th overall in the USHL Phase 1 Draft. Ruggiero (’97) played in 35 games for the Metro Fighting Moose (MET League) tallying 2 goals and 8 assists during the 2012-13 campaign.  He was an impressive +2 with 59 hits and 21 blocked shots.

The Long Island Royals would like to congratulate Steven on hearing his name called at the 2015 NHL Draft!

Matt Araujo '97- Texas Brahmas

Dustin Rinaldo '97 - Minnesota Magicians

Scott Donahue '96 - New Jersey Titans

The Long Island Royals would like to congratulate James Gobetz ’96 on being selected in the 2015-2016 USHL Draft.  James was selected 6th in Round 6 by Tri-City Storm. The Saint James, NY native currently skates with Salisbury Prep in Connecticut where he has skated the past two seasons of his hockey career. Prior to heading to Salisbury James was on the 2012 Midget U16 Tier 1 AAA National Championship team coached by Pat Lafontaine. Once again the Royals want to wish James all the best in his future hockey endeavors.

The LI ROYALS would like to thank all the players that attended tryouts for our Tier I/AAA teams for the 2015-2016 season. Please click on the links below to see the list of players selected for the team at each level.

Players who were not selected for our Travel teams are welcome and encouraged to attend our Tier III team tryouts.

MITES
SQUIRT MINOR 06
SQUIRT MAJOR 05
PEEWEE MINOR 04
PEEWEE MAJOR 03
SQUIRT A
PEEWEE A
BANTAM MINOR 02
BANTAM MAJOR 01
MIDGET NATIONAL