Beyond the Scoresheet

Back in Jersey; has it always been this cold?

I have a long-running love affair with the Cron Tournament, always held in the first three weeks of December at Warinanco Rink in Roselle. (For more on our shared history, check out my post from 2006, the first year I missed an edition entirely). Anyway, after missing the last three tournaments, I saw my first Cron action in four years tonight.

The short version is that in the third-place game, Summit and Westfield played to a 0-0, overtime tie that was, to me, exactly what the score reflects: evenly matched teams with trouble scoring. In the final, Morris Knolls reclaimed its title (the Golden Eagles’ six-year winning streak was snapped last year) by pounding Johnson (the team that snapped it) by a 13-4 score. Dillon Garritty won the MVP award for Knolls. More after the jump …

Continue reading Back in Jersey; has it always been this cold?…

Opening Day!

Nothing like the first day of hockey season. My plane landed in Houston around 8:30 CT tonight, and I immediately checked to see if my phone was getting internet service. By some miracle, this is one of the roughly three days per month that the internet was working, so I was able to get a couple of scores right away. I got the smell of a rink yesterday by checking out the skating rink at Penn while in Philadelphia, and now some scores to really kick things off.

As always, first-day scores don’t mean a whole lot, but here’s what I learned from the scores I’ve seen for Tuesday:

• Delbarton is for real. I mean really for real. They were obviously favored to beat Don Bosco Prep, but 10-0? That blew away my expectations. I haven’t talked to Bruce Shatel or Greg Toskos yet, but you have to figure Delbarton is already in great form coming off its pre-season prep tournament in New England. It’ll be interesting to see if they can maintain that for four months. Looking at the scoring report, the Green Wave’s top line of Kenny Agostino, Mike Ambrosia, and Mike Pirovano absolutely lit up the Ironmen, producing four of the first six goals. Matt Gelnaw had two goals and an assist to provide some depth.
• Break up the Shore C! These second-year teams went 4-0 on December 1, including Howell’s 1-0 win over Brick Memorial and Freehold Township’s win over Steinert. There were also wins for Manalapan, 4-3 over WWPS, and Marlboro, 7-4 over Monroe. But the first two are the big two. Howell was the class of the division last year, going 19-4-1, winning the Dowd Cup, and a state playoff game, so they definitely won’t sneak up on anybody this year. But the Rebels lost to Brick Memorial in the Public A Round of 16, so they started off 2009-10 with a little bit of revenge thanks to a third-period power play goal from Eddie Pyskaty and 23 saves from Zack Peras, including some big ones in the final minute. The Freehold Township win may bring even better news for the division, since the Patriots were only 10-10-2 last year, including losses to St. Rose and Toms River South and 0 wins against teams that finished with a .500 or better record. To beat Steinert – nobody’s powerhouse but traditionally a solid public squad – could be an indicator of a very strong division this year. John Talamo netted six goals for Freehold Township. And remember, Shore Conference alignment gets adjusted every two years, so all five Shore C teams and first-year teams Jackson Liberty and Ocean Township are playing for a more competitive division in next year’s standings.
• I was surprised by the 3-3 tie between Montgomery and West Essex. Nothing against Wessex, but I had Montgomery as one of the Public A favorites this year. West Essex jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period, and the Cougars had to rally for a tie. Not the way the Cougars wanted to open, but it is a good sign for West Essex, which could be very competitive in Public B.
• The Halvorsen Division will be close once again. Jefferson eked out a 5-3 win over Mountain Lakes (with the benefit of an empty-netter) to open the schedule tonight, with two goals from Luke Combos and a goal and three assists from Jimmy Stokes. Combos scored the game-winner with just 2:23 left after the Lakers had come back from a 3-1 deficit at the second intermission. John Dagger (great name) made 32 saves to keep Lakes in it. I can’t see very many easy games in that division with these two teams, Mendham, Morristown, and Pequannock. Morristown and Mendham meet on Thursday in a big-time game this early in the season. Pequannock was last year’s whipping boy, but the other four teams all accounted themselves very well in the state tournament, so hopefully they’ll all find a way to qualify again this year despite slugging it out against each other.

Wednesday’s 22 games include some interesting ones like Bishop Eustace-CBA, PDS-Randolph, Chatham-Cranford, Middletown North-Old Bridge, Mendham-Bridgewater, Pope John-Gloucester Catholic, Notre Dame-Hopewell Valley, and Paul VI-St. Joseph Metuchen.

A reminder to email confirmed scores to jty [at] njhockey.org.

2009-10 season preview

Welcome in to another season of NJ high school hockey. As always, I’ll be keeping information up-to-date as much as possible at www.njhockey.org and providing my own thoughts and information on this blog as time permits.

To start the season, here’s my preseason top 10 as published in Hockey Night in Boston. Be sure to look for the newspaper at your local rinks.

PRESEASON STATE TOP 10 (last year’s record in parentheses)
1. Delbarton (27-2-1)
2. Bergen Catholic (14-8-1)
3. CBA (22-5-2)
4. Seton Hall Prep (10-10-3)
5. Bishop Eustace (22-6)
6. Don Bosco Prep (10-11-3)
7. Morristown-Beard (22-4-1)
8. St. Augustine Prep (3-19-2)
9. Gloucester Catholic (21-2-1)
10. Ramsey (25-1-2)

SCOUTING REPORT (after the jump)
Continue reading 2009-10 season preview…

09-10 coverage underway

Hey y’all … Things have been and still will be very busy for me at work here in Houston, but I do intend to maintain the information on NJHockey.org this year (I make no promises for the blog) and have started by posting schedules I have seen and the alignment I have detected at the moment on the division-by-division schedule & results document.

Obviously, almost the entire state was affected by realignment. The Gordon will split into National and American conferences. I have not heard how the playoff structure will work, but certainly the American appears to be the ‘A’ league and the National ‘B.’ I don’t know if playoff qualification will reflect that.

Elsewhere, almost all of the teams from Passaic, Hudson, and Bergen counties joined together in the Tri-County Hockey League, split into Passaic and Hudson-Bergen divisions. They made the unfortunate decision to mandate crossover games, which means a whopping NINETEEN league games for those teams, including such mismatches as Fair Lawn and St. Joseph Montvale against Hudson Catholic TWICE. Ouch. I believe there will be two cup tournaments here, not one.

Some of the remaining northern teams (Glen Rock, Paramus Catholic, Tenafly) pulled out of the NJIHL and joined the remnants of the NBIAL in what I’m tentatively calling NBIAL A and NBIAL B – no confirmation on that yet from coaches or administrators. I’ll admit I haven’t had time to reach out to very many yet. Somehow Hackettstown seems to be without a home, so I’m unaware of the situation there. Good to see River Dell back in league play. No idea what the NBIAL will do for a postseason tournament.

The NJIHL is left with some horribly mismatched divisions (Montclair-West Orange, St. Joseph Metuchen-Edison, anybody?) that are a reasonable fit geographically. I guess. And we’ll have two St. Josephs in the same division again! Always exciting.

The Skyland Conference, which I think has ceased to exist in other sports, pulled its teams (except Bernards) into a hockey league, finally pulling Pingry out of the MCSSIHL after more than 20 years. No longer will the Big Blue dream of two county championships in one season. That league ought to be very competitive and have plenty of room for non-conference scheduling.

There were minor adjustments in Morris County (new program Morris Catholic replaces Pingry, four-division set-up) and the CVC (WWPN to the Colonial, Princeton and Robbinsville to the Valley, Hightstown to the Patriot). Union County remained the same.

The Shore appears to have remained the same, which is odd since Howell obviously deserves to move up and there could be as many as three new programs (Colts Neck [now confirmed as staying JV], Jackson Liberty, Ocean Township), although I have not been able to confirm any of those.

Finally, on the independent front, I have no idea of the status (varsity and/or league) for Colonia, East Side, Hackettstown, JFK Memorial [possibly staying JV], Monroe, and Woodbridge [confirmed as varsity, independent]. Maybe they can form their own independent league.

As always, you can keep me posted at jty [at] njhockey.org.

Dynamo highlights from May

The month of May was a good one for us down in Houston. In five games, we went 4-0-1 to run our unbeaten streak to seven games and move up to second place in the Western Conference. We had some great goals to call, too, so here are some of the highlights I got to call in May:

Continue reading Dynamo highlights from May…

What I’ve been doing …

You may have noticed that I haven’t devoted as much time to New Jersey hockey, in terms of blogging or immediate site updates, as in years past. There are a few reasons for that, but the biggest one is that my job with the Houston Dynamo is a huge time commitment and really challenges me all the time in ways that some of my other jobs haven’t.

So I expect that in the future, I will try to keep running the site as is, with as up-to-date game schedules and results as possible, and continue writing for HNIB, but rankings and blog posts on here will come less often than in the past.

It’s an inevitable consequence of growing up, I suppose. At any rate, after the jump, I’m going to give a few updates on my work life, so if you’re curious, read on.

Continue reading What I’ve been doing ……

Projected seeds, 2009

OK, it’s time for my annual thoughts on state tournament seeding. I haven’t looked at anyone else’s rankings (as you may have noticed, I haven’t had much time to devote to the site in the last two weeks), but I have consulted with a number of coaches from around the state.

The general consensus is that the public brackets are pretty cluttered – there are a lot more conflicting head-to-head results than in some years, which favors people who can see the games in person and know the stories behind them, which I obviously cannot do. I’d say 3-15 Public A and 3-10 Public B were the toughest portions to rank. But here are my picks:

 

Private

1. Delbarton – Gordon regular season winner, beat BE and CBA down the stretch.

2. Bishop Eustace – Gordon regular season co-champ

3. CBA – Could have gotten No. 2 but for recent loss to BC

4. Bergen Catholic – Win over CBA helped them earn home ice for a possible quarterfinal

5. Gloucester Catholic – Despite unbeaten record, schedule not strong enough to pass BC

6. Don Bosco Prep – Finished ahead of SHP on wins and head-to-head goal differential

7. Seton Hall Prep – Easy choice.

8. St. Peter’s Prep – Here’s where it gets tough. Unbeaten non-league record helps.

9. Morristown-Beard – Beat SA, narrowly lost to SPP, 1-1 vs. Pin (won 2/16 game)

10. Pingry – Finished behind MB after splitting season series

11. Red Bank Catholic – Beat PJ, ND; tied DBP; lost to MK, SPP, Ran down the stretch, thus locking them behind MB/Pin

12. Notre Dame – Beat SJV, PJ; tied DBP; lost 5-0 to RBC

13. Pope John – Beat SJV, SJMont; lost to RBC, ND

14. St. John Vianney – Lost to ND, Ran, PJ; split with RBC; beat MD

15. Monsignor Donovan – Lost to RBC, SJV, GC

16. St. Augustine Prep – 2-0 vs. SPP offset by 0-1-1 vs. PJ, loss to MB

17. DePaul Catholic – 2nd Northern White; beat PcV twice by combined 22-3; beat Cli

18. St. Joseph Montvale – 2nd Northern Red; 1-0-1 vs. Cli; beat PcV 5-0; lost to PJ, DBP (11-1)

19. Paramus Catholic – 0-1-1 vs. SJMont; needed OT to beat IH

 

Public A

1. Ridge – Top public all year long; 1-0-1 vs. Mtgry; tied MK

2. Montgomery – 10-1-2 vs. publics; tied Rid, Kin

3. Randolph – It gets tough here. 1-0-1 vs. Kin, MK; beat SJV, RBC, Jef; lost to BM, Rmpo; 5-1-1 record vs. MK, BM, SJV, RBC, Jef, Cha (common opps.)

4. Morris Knolls – Wins over Bri, RBC, Jef; tie vs. Ran, Rid; 4-1-2 record vs. Ran, Bri, RBC, Jef, Cha, Rid (common opps.)

5. Brick Memorial – Beat SJV, Ran; lost to RBC, Jef, Rid; tied Cha; 3-3-2 record vs. Ran, Bri, SJV, RBC, Jef, Cha, Rid (common opps.)

6. Brick Township – lost to MK, RBC, SJV; only quality win vs. MidN; 0-4-1 record vs. MK, BM, SJV, RBC (common opps.)

7. Montclair – Could be higher. 15-game unbeaten streak. No marquee wins or ties in weak Northern Red.

8. Clifton – Weak division, no marquee wins, but 12-2-3 and 7-0 down the stretch

9. West Milford – Lost to Lak; Split with Hksck, Nut but won division; key win over ML to place ahead of Halvorsen

10. Morristown – Lost last 5 gms.; wins vs. Cha, Jef; tie vs. MK; no losses to bad teams

11. Howell – Beat TRN, Wall; no losses to bad teams; weak schedule

12. Fair Lawn – Tough call. Tied Rox and lost to Cha, thus below Mor; also lost to Mah; beat RBC; tied TRN

13. Toms River North – Beat SJV; tied FL; lost to How; inconsistent throughout

14. Jackson Memorial – 16-game unbeaten streak and win vs. WWPN. Weak schedule dropped them.

15. WWPN – Tough call here. Beat BM in December but lost to JkMem, HV, Pri since.

16. Wayne Valley – 5th Northern White; 2-0 vs. Ber; Lost to WM; tied Cli

17. Hunterdon Central – Dominated bad division; beat Ber 1-0; beat WWPS 2-1

18. WWPS – Beat BR, Wall, Ten but lost to HntC, Rbville

19. Hackensack – 3rd in Northern Blue; no good non-league wins; lost to Rbville

20. Marlboro – Beat Wall, Liv; 2nd to How in Shore C; lost 8-2 to MidN

21. Toms River South – Split with JkMem, Wall; 3rd in Shore B; lost to TRN

22. Old Bridge – Lost to RBR in only non-league test; lost 4-1 to HntC

23. Park Regional – Beat West, Ten; tied Nut, GL; lost to IH, Mtville (7-1)

24. Westfield – Lost to ML, Reg, HV, Men; 1 win vs. non-Union team

25. Livingston – 3rd Central Blue; lost to Ham

26. South Brunswick – 4th Central Blue; no non-league games

27. Manalapan – Los t to Sum, TRN, MidS; best win vs. Bay

 

Public B

1. Kinnelon – 2nd Mennen; split series vs. MB, MK; tied Mtgry

2. Ramsey – Big win vs. DBP but strength of schedule hurts

3. West Essex – I’m told No. 3 is too high, but 2-0 vs. GR is big; tied Nut; lost to Cha

4. Glen Rock – beat John, NH; OT loss to Rmsy; 0-2 vs. WE

5. Northern Highlands – 2nd NBIAL; 2-0 vs. Rmpo; tied Rmsy, John; lost to GR, Ran

6. Ramapo – 3rd NBIAL; beat Ran; tied Rmsy; 0-2 vs. NH

7. Verona – 1st Northern White; Beat Mclr, Men, Nut; split with Lak; lost to Para

8. Johnson – Beat MK, Hboro, Mtville; tied NH; only loss to GR but weak schedule

9. Lakeland – Split vs. Vero; 0-2 vs. Spa; beat WM

10. Mendham – lead Halvorsen; beat Pin, Ran, MK; 1-0-1 vs. ML; lost to Vero, Rbville

11. Mountain Lakes – Beat MK, GL; 0-1-1 vs. Men

12. Jefferson – Beat BM, GL, Pin, Men, Cha (2x); sub-.500 in lg. play

13. Wall – 1st Shore B; 1-1 vs. TRS; lost to BM, WWPS, How, Mboro

14. Chatham (*at-large recommendation*) – Too good not to let in; beat WE, Sum; lost to Halvorsen

15. Sparta – 4th Northern White; 2-0 vs. Lak; tied Sum

16. Hopewell Valley – Beat Cra, WWPN, Rbville, West; lost to Rox

17. Governor Livingston – 2nd UCIHL; 0-4 vs. MCSSIHL A/B

18. Summit – 4th UCIHL; beat MidS; tied Spa, Cli; lost to Cha

19. Rumson-Fair Haven – 4th Shore B; 1-4 non-league; lost to MidS

20. Nutley – 2nd Northern Blue; beat BR; tied WE; 1-1 vs. WM, HPt; lost to Vero, Rox

21. Madison – lead Haas; 1-0-1 vs. Mtville; lost to GL, Vero

22. Montville – 2nd Haas; beat Rbville; 0-1-1 vs. Mtville; lost to Sum, John, GL, ML

23. Robbinsville – Beat Men, Hksck; lost to Mtville, Pri, Ham

24. Dumont – Beat Hksck; 1-0-1 vs. HPt; 0-1-1, close vs. Ten

25. Old Tappan – Best wins vs. PkV, IH; lost 7-0 to Ten (though I’m hearing their actual record may be sub-.500)

26. High Point – 0-1-1 vs. Dmnt; lost to Spa