Milana scorches nets, opponents for Indians

 

By STEVEN MOORE

Over the last two seasons, Matt Milana has made an enormous impact on the Unionville hockey program.
This season, Milana had an impact on every other team in the Indians’ way.
And next season, the 16-year-old hockey star hopes to make an impact 220 miles and four hours away -- and make his dream come true.
The Unionville sophomore will take his incredible scoring touch and gaudy numbers to a Connecticut prep school next season in hopes of fulfilling his dream to play Division I ice hockey.
He will also take with him the title of Daily Local News All-Area Ice Hockey Player of the Year.
Milana led all area players with 48 goals and 68 points this season, as he helped Unionville rebound from a sub-par season in 2006-07 to earn the 13th seed in the Flyers Cup before falling to No. 3 Hershey in overtime.
“Last year we only won five games, so to turn around and be over .500 was definitely a huge improvement,” said Milana, who was a DLN first-teamer in 2007 with 24 points and 37 assists. “We had big wins over Perk Valley and (West Chester) Henderson, and our biggest rival, Kennett. Those wins were huge, it was definitely a great improvement over last year.”
That improvement had a lot to do with maturing talent up and down the Unionville roster, but it had even more to do with Milana’s ability to take over a game by himself.
Seven times this season, Milana either matched or exceeded the Indians’ opponent on the scoreboard -- all by himself. That included an 8-5 win over Perkiomen Valley in January, in which Milana scored seven goals as the Indians’ took it to a team that went on to earn the No. 2 seed in the Flyers Cup.
“He’s a complete hockey player, he plays at both ends of the ice, and he plays well defensively, and he’s just a pleasure to coach,” said Unionville coach John Donovan. “The other kids get better playing with him as well.
“I haven’t seen a high school player like him since I was younger in Massachusetts, and saw Tommy Glavine play,” said Donovan, referring to the future hall of fame pitcher who was a high school hockey legend at Billerica High in the early ’80s.
But Milana’s days of embarassing goalies in Chester County appear to be over. The budding star has decided to head north to The Gunnery, a prep school in Western Connecticut with an enrollment of just under 300 students. Milana will take his hockey skills -- and his nearly 4.0 grade point average -- to the Nutmeg State, where he hopes to garner attention from a Division I college program -- possibly in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference -- while finishing his high school career.
“Seeing those games up there and the level of competition, it’s a whole new level of play,” Milana said. “It’s definitely been in the back of my head for a few years now.
“Some of the ECAC schools are really interesting to me, places like Yale, Princeton, Clarkson,” Milana said. “Those schools have a lot of interest in my mind, not only for hockey, but for great academics and something I could be proud of when it comes to my diploma.”
Donovan and Unionville will be saddened to see Milana go -- but it’s safe to say the rest of the area’s coaches won’t miss him too much.