Logan DiScanio has enjoyed uncommon stability in his combined high school and junior hockey careers. Playing for just two teams in the past seven seasons has paid off for the 20-year-old from Troy, New York.
DiScanio led the Eastern Hockey League in scoring in the recently completed regular season, his third with the Vermont Lumberjacks.
“My first year in Vermont, I didn’t think I was going to be there after that year,” DiScanio said. “But, I really fell in love with the organization and the coach and, with all the guys, it just felt like the right environment.
“With the college commits from the league, I just felt like it was the right league for me.”
DiScanio, who will be 21 later this month, is ready for his next stop after committing to the University of Massachusetts-Boston earlier this season.
It has been a productive 2019-20 for DiScanio, who scored 34 goals and tallied 57 assists in 46 games. More than a third of the goals (12) and half the assists (29) came in power play situations. He led the league in total assists, total points, power play assists and power play points.
DiScanio credits linemates Geordan Buffoline, the league’s second-leading scorer with 34 goals and 35 assists, and Austin Marini, who tied for 12th in points with 24 goals and 32 assists, with helping him have such a productive season. Buffoline centers the line with DiScanio on the right and Marini on the left.
Buffoline, from Burnt Hills-Ballston Spa, and DiScanio played together in the Capital Region of New York on youth teams and high school all-star teams as well as going against each other in high school.
“Coach [Jim] Mosso has a lot of trust in me, so coach Mosso and the whole team has huge part in it,” DiScanio said of the scoring title. “… I think we all bring different things. Geordan is more of the fancy player, who makes everything look nice and brings his scoring touch and I think Marini brings the speed to our line and a shot. And, I think I can go in the corners and get the puck out of the corner and make a pass and also shoot at the same time to score.”
They helped Vermont, which opens the postseason Saturday, go 34-11-1 while finishing as the highest scoring of 11 New England Conference teams.
DiScanio hopes to finish his junior career the way he finished his high school days, helping LaSalle capture its first section championship in 13 years with a double overtime win in a game at Union College.
Playing out his high school career, he said, was always the plan.
“My dad played high school hockey and said it was the best time of his life,” DiScanio said. “I had many opportunities to leave high school my junior and senior year, but I just felt like playing in front of my community and with my best friends I had played with my whole life was a little more special.”
DiScanio not only hopes to compete for a championship this season, but wants to contribute in a major way with UMass-Boston once he arrives on campus.
“I knew that if I want to play at a really prestigious school that I wanted to strive for something like UMass-Boston where I would have a chance to play for a national championship in one of my four years there.”
[“source=usahockey”]