No longer is the ice a friendly and easy fun skate when opponents face Arlington high-school club ice hockey teams.
When first starting, the Washington-Liberty Generals and Yorktown Patriots teams weren’t much competition as the Arlington youth ice hockey leagues were just getting started as well. There were many novice skaters on the ice for the two squads.
But over time, the situation began to change as the younger Arlington skaters became more experienced and began significantly improving, eventually joining the high-schools squads.
For the last few winter seasons, including this season’s campaign, W-L and Yorktown have evolved into perennial powers in the Northern Virginia Hockey School League and the Capital Scholastic Hockey League.
This season, Washington-Liberty won its second straight CSHL tournament championship and third in four years. Yorktown finished the regular season undefeated at 10-0 in the NVHSL, then lost in a first-round playoff game, via a shootout, when the Patriots were missing eight key players in a tough-luck situation.
In regular-season play, Yorktown shut out eventual league tournament champion Langley.
So ice hockey has drastically changed in Arlington. Now, when teams skate against W-L and Yorktown, it’s not an easy and fun time at all anymore.
– Dave Facinoli
dfacinoli@sungazette.net