Beyond the Scoresheet

Offseason hockey

If offseason baseball is hot-stove baseball, what is summer hockey talk? Anyway, as you’ve probably seen, I’ve put up preliminary schedules for the 2008-09 season based on schedules I’ve found online and schedules that have been sent to me. A few notes:

1. I just came across this interesting NJSIAA provision and found it interesting enough to move up to No. 1 on my offseason hit list. According to that rule, teams may now play 17-minute periods in out-of-state contests to comply with local rules. Fine. But check out the wording for the second change: “Section 1: Article 3: There shall be no overtime periods, except in playoffs, regular season tournaments, or when playing out of state. Rationale for addition: NJSIAA schools playing in regular season tournaments that require teams to advance need a method to determine a winner. CL: Overtime will only be permitted during the regular season when playing out of state for purposes of complying with host state rules.”

WHAT are they talking about? You can’t make a rule that says overtime periods are allowed in regular season tournaments OR when playing out of state, then clarify that it only applies to out-of-state tournaments. If that’s the case, write the rule that way in the first place! They actually got the rule right the first time – allowing overtime for regular-season tournaments, which anyone will tell you provides some really fun moments – then “clarified” themselves into (a) an inherent contradiction and (b) a poor decision, in my opinion. They provided the rationale – teams need a method to determine a winner – but then decided that it doesn’t need to apply to tournaments held in New Jersey? I could go on and on (they didn’t mention shootouts at all), but the bottom line is, the NJSIAA just does not seem on the ball (or puck) when it comes to hockey.

Okay, back to more standard and less controversial observations.

2. Based on current schedules, CBA has moved from the Gordon Conference to Shore A. However, I’m hearing there is still a chance CBA could find a creative solution to its dilemma. If the Shore is determined to have its way, I feel like it makes the most sense for CBA to play there and just schedule aggressively out of league. But we’ll see what comes of it.

3. I have confirmed that the five Freehold Regional High School District schools are all starting their hockey programs at the varsity level this year and will be in their own Shore Conference division. I took the liberty of referring to it as Shore C – still waiting on official word from the Shore Conference.

4. I cannot figure out what is going on with the Woodbridge Township School District schools. Colonia, JFK Iselin, and Woodbridge have scheduled games with the varsity squads from the Freehold schools, East Side, St. Rose, and some other lower-level teams, but they claim to be playing at the JV level. I think at this point, they might as well go ahead and make it official as varsity squads, if only because it would make my life easier!

5. I have calculated Public A and Public B splits for the season, based on the Woodbridge schools as varsity schools, which gives us 106 varsity public schools, with 53 in each group. I found four changes from last year, namely Paramus, Wayne Valley, and Mount Olive dropping to Public B, and WWPN and Newton (now a co-op with Lenape Valley) moving up to Public A. The cutoff currently falls between Middletown South (1,045) and Wayne Valley (1,041). These could change if the Woodbridge schools are classified asjunior varsity. Of course, the NJSIAA had them listed as varsity teams part of last year, too.

6. I’ve talked with East Side coach Keith Veltre, and he informed me that the Red Raiders (and Hockey in Newark, in general) have been taking advantage of the year-round ice afforded by the Prudential Center, and East Side will play home games at the Prudential Center’s practice rink, which looks pretty cool from the photos on the website. If I’m lucky, I’ll get enough time at home to see an East Side game followed by a Devils game at the new digs.

7. Seven Union County teams broke away from the NJIHL to form their own conference, to be named the Mountain Valley Ice Hockey Conference. From what I hear, there was just too much travel involved (Haddonfield is not particularly close to Union County), so it will be interesting to see how the league fares and if this sets a precedent. I’m banking on a 12-game league schedule, but I have not yet heard details. This also eliminates the Central White, which sets up some interesting divisions elsewhere in the NJIHL.

8. A couple of rink changes in addition to East Side … Fair Lawn appears to be playing out of Floyd Hall this year; Nutley may still be splitting time between Floyd Hall and South Mountain; Montgomery has solidified its spot at Protec Ponds, somewhere I still haven’t been; the CVC is amping up its usage of Lawrenceville as a second and third rink; and Wall is going to be a ridiculously busy place with the five Freehold schools playing there.

9. Robbinsville remained the smallest hockey-playing school in the state, but just barely, with an enrolment of 469 compared to defending Public B champion Kinnelon’s 487.

Where does this upset rank?

Obviously, Monday was a huge day for CVC hockey. Nobody picked CVC teams to go 4-0, and the biggest upset of the day came courtesy of Steinert.

Bill James has been telling me all year his team was underrated, but there really wasn’t much to back it up. The Spartans did so in a big way on Wednesday and in a surprising way, upsetting Fair Lawn 9-7. (Recaps: FL | Ste) I was surprised not so much by the result (remember, Steinert lost 4-3 to Randolph last year in this round) but by the score: 9-7.

Fair Lawn has two of the best public goalies in the state in Dan Ivanir and Collin Lemay and plays a sound system. I thought there was no way that could be the correct score. In 24 games, the Cutters had only allowed more than two goals on six occasions, and never more than four goals (that includes games against Portledge, Ramsey and Northern Highlands). So I was shocked to see a 9-7 score.

Now, to look at a question I was asked last night: Is this the biggest upset in state tournament history?

My short answer is no. But let’s look at some of the biggies and make some comparisons. For the sake of this discussion, I’m only going to consider public tournament games played since 1995. This list ended up being way longer than I thought it would be. I’ll address five of the biggies and Monday’s and leave the rest open to your comments and memories:

2000: Semifinals: (4) Summit 3, (1) Brick Twp. 2 – I could go in any order with most of the others, but this is and will always be No. 1 for me. Consider that, entering this game, Brick Township had won 19 consecutive public state tournament games, including 10 of its last 11 by a margin of at least five goals. The Green Dragons had won the public state title in 96, 97, 98 and 99 and won the overall championship in 97. It was a Gordon Conference team that was, in all actuality, a private school team that dominated public minnows without even thinking about it. I can’t tell you how shocking this was for the whole state. To be there at Mennen and watch Summit, its fans and just about everybody else in the state except Brick go berserk was amazing. Hands-down, the most surprising upset.
2003: First Round: (25) Fair Lawn 2, (8) Montclair 1 – I picked this one to represent the three upsets that happened in the same round that year. The Nos. 23, 24 and 25 seeds ALL won their first round games. (23 was Middletown South, 24 was Rumson-Fair Haven, as you can see below), and Fair Lawn wound up in the quarterfinals. Lowest seed ever to get that far.
1998: Quarterfinals: (12) Toms River East 3, (4) Toms River North 2, OT – I don’t know or remember a lot about this one, since I was pretty Morris County-centric at the time, but it sure was an emotional win. I remember watching TRE come to Mennen and get hammered by Brick, but just getting there, and beating TRN in the process, was a huge deal.
2007: Round of 16: (17) Steinert 9, (1) Fair Lawn 7 – A huge surprise because it is the earliest a No. 1 seed has ever lost in the public tournament and because Fair Lawn was so good defensively. Nobody had really seen Steinert step out of South and Central Jersey until the state tournament, but the Spartans pulled it off with back-to-back shorthanded goals in the third period to break a 6-6 tie.
2005: Quarterfinals: (7) Middletown South 4, (2) Ridge 3 – This was one of those seriously legit Ridge teams that failed to win the public state title that continues to elude the Red Devils. South had lost to Bayonne and finished behind Middletown North, so the Eagles weren’t expected to do much. Ridge was riding a long win streak (can’t remember how long), and it was a big surprise.
2000: Round of 16: (14) Ridgewood 3, (3) Montclair 2, OT – I didn’t see this game, but Ridgewood upset TRN in the next round to reach the semifinals at Mennen, where I saw the Maroons lose to Dave Bodson and Bayonne. This was an absolute shocker, because Montclair was still a power and Ridgewood was a nobody.

Best of the rest, chronologically:
1996: Round of 16: (14) Roxbury 4, (3) Bayonne 3, OT
1996: Round of 16: (12) West Essex 2, (5) Clifton 1, OT
1997: First Round: (20) Old Bridge 2, (13) West Essex 1
1997: Round of 16: (12) Hightstown 4, (5) Roxbury 3, OT – Joel Kulina, anybody?
1997: Semifinals: (6) Brick Memorial 7, (2) Bayonne 6 – Unbelievable game with Kiernan in goal for BM.
2000: First Round: (22) Livingston 4, (11) Hopewell Valley 2
2001: Round of 16: (21) Chatham 2, (5) Paramus 1, OT – At-large Cougars reached the quarterfinals.
2001: Semifinals: (6) Clifton 3, (2) Brick Township 1 – Beating Brick was still a huge deal.
2001: Semifinals: (4) Bayonne 2, (1) Toms River North 0 – Year of the Upset, and TRN was legit.
2002: Round of 16: (19) Brick Memorial 3, (3) Clifton 2
2002: Round of 16: (13) Paramus 3, (4) Bayonne 2
2003: First Round: (23) Middletown South 8, (10) Paramus 3
2003: First Round: (24) Rumson-Fair Haven 4, (9) Hopewell Valley 3, OT
2003: Quarterfinals: (7) Brick Memorial 3, (2) Brick Township 2 – Brick as defending champ again, AND a rivalry.
2004: First Round: (22) Fair Lawn 3, (11) Chatham 1
2005: Round of 16: (22) Tenafly 3, (6) Bayonne 3, OT (Ten 4-3 SO)
2006: Round of 16: (13) Clifton 3, (4) Chatham 2

Chime in here with your thoughts on these games or other memorable public state tournament upsets.

Big Wednesday

Lot of action tonight. Let’s see if we can put it in historical context.

MKA 6, Scotch Plains-Fanwood 6
Red Bank Catholic 6, Morris Knolls 5

Okay, not a lot to write home about there. Good tune-up for RBC and Knolls.

Pingry 9, Paul VI 0 – Big Blue win just their second state game in the last eight years, beating Paul VI in its first state tournament appearance ever.
Gloucester Catholic 2, Pope John 1 – First state win in team history for Gloucester, and the winning goal came with just three minutes remaining.
Brick 10, Toms River South 1 – Green Dragons’ first actual win (not counting shootouts) in the state tournament since 2003.
Johnson 9, Robbinsville 3 – Johnson also had not won a state game since 2003 and will now aim for a true first – the team has never won two games in the state tournament. Robbinsville was making its first appearance in the state tournament.
Wall 3, Passaic Valley 2, OT – The Crimson Knights won a preliminary game for the third straight year. They have never won two state tournament games. PV is 0-3 in its state tournament history. Also the first overtime game of this year’s tournaments. There were 12 last year.
St. Joseph Metuchen 4, DePaul Catholic 1 – Can’t come up with too much for this one. DPC dropped to 0-2 in the state tournament all time, while St. Joseph Metuchen has not earned consecutive state tournament wins in the modern (1995) era.

PDS 1, Hun 0
Hopewell Valley 4, WWPN 3

PDS, playing in the Mercer County Tournament for the first time in a good while, will face Hopewell Valley in the final. The Bulldogs have not reached the final since 1999. In 22 years of MCT history, 11.5 titles have been won by private schools and 10.5 by publics … can Hopewell even the score for the publics?

Dramatic start to cup week

One of the best weeks of the season, the week of the various ice cups, kicked off with a bang Monday, as six of the 25 scheduled playoff games went to overtime. Cranford, Lakeland, Hunterdon Central, Monsignor Donovan and Montclair Kimberley all won overtime contests to advance to their respective semifinals. All this after Tenafly’s OT win last night.
The Gordon Cup quarterfinals went mostly as planned, with easy wins for this year’s big three of Delbarton, CBA and St. Augustine Prep, while Bergen Catholic won on the road at Bishop Eustace to round out the semifinals.

In the Central Red, Ridge stands out as the lone public school competing with St. Joseph Metuchen, Gloucester Catholic and MKA for the McInnis Cup title.

Cranford and Hunterdon Central pulled out overtime wins over Summit and Johnson, respectively, in closely contested games between local rivals. Watchung Hills and Paul VI also reached the Van Cott Cup semifinals.

Ramapo pulled off an upset with a 4-1 win over Indian Hills in NBIAL Cup play, joining the big three of Fair Lawn, Ramsey and Northern Highlands in Wednesday’s semifinals. You can check out all the NBIAL cup action here.
Brick beat rival Brick Memorial 5-1 in a game surprising not so much for the result as the score; the teams tied 3-3 a week ago, and I did not expect either team to win by four. In the other Shore A first-round game, Wall took heavy favorite Monsignor Donovan to overtime before losing 6-5. Shore B favorite Rumson-Fair Haven advanced to the final with a 6-2 win over Red Bank Regional. Bob Badders has Shore coverage here.
The seeding meeting for the state tournaments is Wednesday afternoon. Can’t wait to see what the public split tourney brings us. Additionally, Wednesday will have a ton of semifinal games that ought to be entertaining.

Shore seeds

The Shore Conference does things its own way, and I think it worked out pretty well in this case. I have the criteria for seeding in the Shore A and Shore B tournaments … lo and behold, the Shore counted all 17 or 19 league games. Unbelievable. After the number kept getting downgraded all year, from all Shore games to all Shore A or Shore B games to division games only, they ended up using the whole lot.

According to tournament director Brian Wilkinson, the criteria were:

1. Shore Conference record (all games)
2. head to head
3. common opponents (they’re all common opponents, so I’m not sure how this would work)

Shore A
1. St. John Vianney 15-0-2 (32 pts)
2. Red Bank Catholic 14-1-2 (30 pts)
3. Monsignor Donovan 14-2-1 (29 pts)
4. Brick Memorial 10-5-2 (22 pts)
5. Brick Township 10-5-2 (22 pts)
6. Wall 8-7-2 (18 pts)
————————–
7. Middletown North 8-8-1 (17 pts)
8. Toms River East 7-10-1 (15 pts)
9. Toms River North 5-12-0 (10 pts)
10. Middletown South 1-15-1 (3 pts)

Shore B
1. Rumson-Fair Haven 12-5-2 (26 pts)
2. Toms River South 10-8-1 (21 pts)
3. Manasquan 9-8-2 (20 pts)
4. Red Bank Regional 8-8-3 (19 pts)
—————————–
5. Jackson Memorial 7-9-3 (17 pts)
6. Point Pleasant 6-12-1 (13 pts)
7. Southern Regional 4-15-0 (8 pts)
8. St. Rose 0-19-0 (0 pts)

The most interesting note is that Rumson-Fair Haven would have finished third in Shore B North if only division games were counted but won Shore B handily (five points) when using the overall method. It is important to note that the schedule was not balanced – A teams played two games against division opponents, while all crossover games were aligned geographically. The Bricks, therefore, had a slight advantage over Middletown North and Wall by having to face less private schools, and Shore A south teams probably had a slight advantage as well.

The criteria also meant that Wall got in ahead of Middletown North by a single point, while North was one point ahead in the division-only standings. I think the Lions might be pretty peeved by that. Next year, this criteria should be publicized and codified in November, if not earlier, so teams know what they’re dealing with.
Still haven’t heard word on names for the cups.

Projecting seeds, Part III

Public B got tough near the end, but the top is certainly mouth-watering. Wouldn’t things be fun if we had one tournament? Maybe we’ll get to that scenario later. For now, here are my Public B projections:

Continue reading Projecting seeds, Part III…

Projecting seeds, Part II

Public A has some question marks while we wait for at-large teams to be selected and announced. So we’ll adjust as necessary, but for now, here’s how it lines up:

Continue reading Projecting seeds, Part II…