Romano a second son to coach

With help of longtime instructor, Bobcats leading scorer

earns scholarship to play hockey for D-I power Cornell

Reprinted with permission of USA Hockey (www.usahockeymagazine.com)

When Aleksey Nikiforov emigrated from Lithuania to Long Island in 1992, he had no choice but to leave his children with their grandparents overseas until he and his wife established U.S. residency. But instead of wasting his time and energy on missing his own kids, Nikiforov used it to train young hockey players like a 3-year-old boy named Tony Romano.

Fourteen years later, Nikiforov is the head coach of the New York Bobcats junior elite team for which Romano stars. And with Nikiforov’s son Vlady having left the Bobcats for the Barrie Colts of the Ontario Hockey League (like his father, Vlady has since become an American citizen), Romano is now the team’s top ’Cat.

The second-leading scorer in the Atlantic Junior Hockey League last season who recently committed to attend perennial national power Cornell, Romano has plenty to prove this season as the Bobcats look to improve upon last year’s AJHL runner-up finish. The 2005-06 campaign marks the first time the 5-11, 180-pound forward will be playing organized hockey without Vlady—the only player in the league to score more points last season—so Romano (47 goals, 55 assists in ’04-05) will be the main focus of opposing teams’ game plans.

“Tony played his entire hockey career with Vlady. When you play with Vlady, you learn a lot. And right now, I expect him to be the top player,” said coach Nikiforov, a former player for the world-famous Dynamo Riga and the youth-level instructor of current NHL players Darius Kasparaitis and Dainius Zubrus. “This year I expect a lot from him, because he has everything—size and skills and game sense—and he gets stronger as games go on.”

Nikiforov knows a thing or two about motivating his players, having groomed a wealth of former, current or future Division I players. The coach’s no-B.S. approach has allowed Romano to understand both the importance of his role on the team and how he must improve.

“I have to step up,” Romano said, “especially with Vlady gone.”

Expect Romano, who has led just about every team on which he has played in scoring, to do just that. He and former Bobcats teammate James Marcou (Waterloo, USHL) played on the U-17 U.S. National Team that competed in Germany in August 2004. He won state championships at both the squirt and midget levels as a member of the Long Island Royals, a team he led in scoring in back-to-back seasons (186 points in 78 games). He played on National Select teams as a 14-, 15- and 16-year-old and led the Atlantic Hockey League with 35 points in 17 games in 2003-04. And he led the Suffolk PAL Midget AAA team in scoring in 2003-04 (71 goals, 88 assists in 70 games).

But Romano’s career highlight to date was his three-goal, five-assist showing in last year’s AJHL semifinal victory the New Jersey Rockets. It came on the heels of his announcement that he had committed to Cornell, where he will put both his book smarts (he has a 4.0 GPA as a senior at St. Anthony’s, the original high school of current Montreal Canadiens Mike Komisarek and Chris Higgins) and innate puckhandling skills to work.

All told, Romano was involved in eight of the Bobcats’ 11 goals against the Rockets, netting each of the first three and either scoring or assisting on seven of the first eight. It was a much-needed showing for a player who led the league in scoring for most of the season but had tailed off his torrid pace over the final two months.

“I felt relieved. There was less pressure to perform well,” Romano said. “I just felt very good. I was very confident going into that game.”

“Every time Tony Romano got on the ice, something happened in [the Rockets’] net,” coach Nikiforov said, “so it was Romano’s day.”

Now Nikiforov is hoping that this is Romano’s year. Romano, 17, is one of 11 Bobcats players (see chart, below) that has committed to, has played for or is currently playing for an NCAA Division I program—a significant total for an organization that is only in its third year of participation at the Junior Elite level after moving up from Junior B. For a complete list of Bobcats’ alumni, go to http://leagueathletics.com/Page.asp?id=5385&snid=512716581&org=NYBOBCATS.COM. 

Name                     Pos.        Hometown        Yrs. w/ team    Current or future team (level, conf.)

Michael Arcieri          F          Northport              2000-02         University of Vermont (D-I, ECAC)

James Brannigan   F          Brooklyn              1995-2002      Colorado College (D-I, CWCHA)

Tim Filangieri           D         N. Massapequa   2002-03         Boston College (D-I, Hockey East) via USHL

Nick Grasso             F/D      Kings Park            2004-05         UMass-Amherst (D-I, H.E.) in '06 via USHL  

Joseph Grimaldi      D         Ronkonkoma       2000-01         Nebraska-Omaha (D-I, CCHA) via NTDP

Bill Keenan               F          Manhattan             2001-03         Harvard (D-I, ECAC) in 2005-06

Louis Liotti                D         Westbury               2000-02         Northeastern (D-I, Hockey East) via USHL

James Marcou         F          Kings Park            2004-05         UMass-Amherst in '06 via USHL & NTDP

Anthony Pellarin       F          N. Merrick              1997-99         Bentley (D-I, Atlantic Hockey)

Tony Romano          F/C      Smithtown             2003-05         Cornell (D-I, ECAC) in 2006-07

Dinos Stamoulis     D         Carle Place           1997-99         Providence College (D-I, Hockey East)