Notre Dame High School ice hockey coach Tony Tkaczuk is quite pleased to see other Colonial Valley Conference teams do increasingly well in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association Tournament. Now he just wants his Irish to do better. “I definitely think we can make a statement in our Non-Public state tournament when we get there,” Tkaczuk says as the Irish prepare to embark on his third season.

Notre Dame is the program to emulate in the CVC despite some disappointments in the difficult Non-Public bracket. Last season, the Irish went 22-3-2 and posted the third-most wins in both program and conference history. They won the Mercer County Tournament for the ninth time, captured the Trenton Devils Cup for the fifth straight season and stretched their unbeaten streak against CVC opponents to 50 games. To underscore the difficulty of their state tournament bracket, they were only the 12th seed, losing in the second round.

This season, the Irish hope to continue their dominance of CVC competition, although teams like West Windsor-Plainsboro North (a Public ‘A’ quarterfinalist last season), West Windsor-Plainsboro South and Princeton, figure to continue to close the gap. The Irish have only four seniors after they lost a veteran team that was led by goalie Brandon DeLibero.

“We have a young team this year,” says the 37-year-old Tkaczuk, an ND assistant before he became head coach in2007. “Every year you’re always going to have challenges. You graduate people and you have to build chemistry with new guys along with the returning players.

“There’s a lot of good bonding already.”

The forward lines will have to carry Notre Dame while the defense, which was hit hard by graduation, solidifies. Senior Chris DeAngelo, the leading scorer and lone returnee off last season’s incredibly high-scoring first line, returns as one of the CVC’s top players and will be joined by seniors Tim Hackett and Pete Taylor on the top unit. The second line is young, but quick and skilled with sophomores James Davis and Tyler DeLorenzo, and freshman Connor Corvino.

The two key returning defensemen are junior Schuyler Wilson and sophomore Kellie Gatarz, while sophomore Joe Grabowski has transferred in from Holy Ghost Prep. In goal, freshman Bryan MacAllister and junior Zach Dorfman have the unenviable job of trying to replace DeLibero, who won 50 games during his four-year career.

“It’s just a matter of keeping that level up the entire year,” says Tkaczuk, who preaches a team concept.

“We won the Mercer County Tournament last year. We’re the team that gets a bull’s-eye on our chest now. Everybody is going to come out and try to knock us down early. I don’t think the hardest thing is actually winning the tournament, it’s actually being able to get back there and win it again. It’s definitely hard. And that’s our goal.”

The high school ice hockey season may have snuck up on you like the holidays. The CVC season arrives on Tuesday with two games kicking off play: Steinert High School hosting Freehold Township and West Windsor-Plainsboro South visiting Manalapan.