Beyond the Scoresheet

Boston take on Delbarton-CM game

We were all kind of wondering how folks up north would respond to the 5-1 shellacking Delbarton handed out to Catholic Memorial last weekend. I managed to track down a local article on the game, and I was more than a little surprised to see Catholic Memorial coach Bill Hanson – as well-respected a coach as you will find in the high school game – say that Delbarton was flat-out a better team. I was similarly surprised that the article’s author would suggest that New Jersey hockey might be better than Massachusetts hockey.

So give the article a read. There are plenty of things a naysayer could point out, but 10 years ago, a New Jersey school beating the No. 2 school in Massachusetts – and the most storied hockey program, at that – would not be believed. I didn’t even think it could happen this year. Interesting to say the least.

Great night at Mennen

I’ve stuck to my Morris County roots on this trip home, watching games at Mennen Arena both Saturday and Monday. Tonight’s second and third games were further examples of why we all love the sport (and high school sports in general). In less than four hours, I got plenty of entertainment from both games and got to see some great friends from the sport.

On the ice, I was first entertained by a game that saw Roxbury rally from a 4-1 deficit against Mountain Lakes to forge a 5-5 tie in the third period, only to see the Lakers respond with a goal of their own in the final four minutes for a 6-5 win. Roxbury is struggling a lot more than I had anticipated in the Halvorsen Division, although they carried play in the second and third periods. Mountain Lakes struggled in its own zone but seems to know how to finish a high percentage of its chances (see its 7-5 win over Morris Knolls as further evidence).

In the nightcap, we got one of those classic upsets. Mendham kept the game scoreless with Morris Knolls until late in the second period. After killing off a Knolls power play and dodging a bullet when a deflected shot trickled just wide, Mendham forward Chris DiMaio chipped the puck around a defenseman at the blue line and skated in on a bad-angle breakaway, scoring on his forehand with just six seconds left in the period. Knolls goalie Tyler Rideout left the game injured between periods, and Mendham greeted his replacement, Tim Kutnetsov, in the same fashion, as Anthony Santomo found space in the slot to whip in a wrist shot just 41 seconds into the third period. From there, Mendham held on for a 2-0 win.

Senior goalie Troy Herman was outstanding in posting the shutout, as he was credited with 24 saves (on a low night for shot totals at Mennen). I remember seeing Herman starting as an easily rattled freshman and allowing a fluke goal from the far blue line three years ago; tonight he shut out a perennial Public A power.

Hats off to Mendham for the win, but this game only reinforced what previous results had been saying … Morris Knolls just doesn’t have it at the moment. Rideout seemed back in relatively strong form tonight, and Albert Abaunza is an above-average forward, but the Golden Eagles don’t seem to have that jump or crisp offensive moment as they’ve had in the past. It is, however, still early.

That may be all the high school hockey I get to see on this trip home – I’m heading to the Prudential Center for the first time tomorrow night – but tonight certainly came through with some quality hockey.

Opening Day!

This is my second try at writing this post, so forgive some brevity; the first draft got deleted.

Opening Day arrives tomorrow, so here are a few notes and my preseason Top 10.

1. Colonia, JFK Memorial, and Woodbridge seem intent on retaining their JV status for this season despite including several varsity opponents (notably the new Shore C teams) on their schedule. I will be doing my best to keep track of their results, but to the best of my knowledge, games against these teams will NOT count toward teams’ records or state tournament eligibility.

2. Opening Day games to watch: Gloucester Catholic-Paul VI (first game; southern private battle); Howell-Brick Memorial (Howell’s first game); Colonia-Woodbridge (school-district rivalry); Malvern Prep-Bishop Eustace (big-time private game); Mendham-Westfield (Cron Tournament); Ramsey-Fair Lawn (NBIAL Cup rematch); and West Orange-Livingston (teams celebrating 50th anniversary of NJ hockey).

3. There will be an update to schedules and whatnot later Sunday afternoon. Any changes/corrections can be emailed to me.
4. HNIB Preseason Top 10 (I had a lot of information but by no means all):

1. Delbarton (27-1-1)
2. Bishop Eustace (15-8-4)
3. Bergen Catholic (12-10-5)
4. CBA (19-4-2)
5. Don Bosco Prep (9-11-5)
6. Ridge (23-4-3)
7. St. Augustine Prep (17-7-3)
8. Seton Hall Prep (7-10-5)
9. Morris Knolls (15-11-1)
10. Red Bank Catholic (21-3-2)

5. So you’re aware, I will be out of the country on vacation from December 7-17 and will not be updating the site during that time. I will do my best to catch up when I return, so please continue sending scores to jty [at] njhockey.org. I will be in New Jersey Dec. 19-26, so I will get to see a few games during that time.

6. Enjoy Opening Day, and here’s wishing all the players, coaches, parents, and fans a safe and happy high school hockey season!

7. Some rules updates, courtesy of the occasionally helpful NJSIAA:

2008-2009 Ice Hockey Rules Modification

Rule 1-4 Goal Crease The NFHS goal crease shall not be required in a rink for a contest to be played. Contests shall be permitted to be played in rinks which have truncated “NHL style” goals creases. Contests played with “NHL Style” goal creases shall utilize the truncated crease for that contest.

Rule 1-9-2 Player’s Bench The number of team personnel permitted to occupy the team bench area shall be unlimited.

Rule 2-4-2 Starting Lineups Teams shall be allowed a one minute warm up skate between periods. During this warm up period, no pucks shall be allowed on the ice.

Rule 3-4-4 Protective Equipment A player who loses his/her dental guard during play shall be permitted to complete his/her playing shift without it. During the next stoppage of play, it shall be the responsibility of the player, and not the referee, to immediately retrieve their dental guard.

Rule 6-35 Start of Game and Periods/Pregame Warm-Up Ice resurfacing shall not be allowed between the pregame warm up and the first period. “Dirty ice” may be utilized for warm up however, the first period shall commence immediately after the conclusion of warm up. For violation of this rule, the offending team(s) shall be assessed a minor penalty and the incident shall be reported to the NJSIAA office.

Rule 6-37-3 Time of Game Upon completion of the second period or, at any time during the third period, if there is a ten goal differential, the game shall end immediately and will be considered complete.

Rule 6-38 Tied Games There shall be no overtime periods except in league playoffs, regular season tournaments, the NJSIAA state tournament or when playing out of state. For games that require a team to advance, a 15 minute overtime and shootout procedure must be used. For final or championship games, a 15 minute overtime must be used. A shootout shall not be allowed.

The CBA situation …

Just a quick word on the CBA situation, which is where the biggest question mark seems to be as we’re just about a month away from practices starting.

The official word from CBA athletic director John Przygocki, via e-mail: “We will compete in both [the Gordon and Shore conferences]. … 16 Gordon games and 8 Shore Divisional games.”

The eight Shore games will be two each against the other Shore A North teams. CBA’s intentions as far as league playoffs is unclear; teams are supposed to play no more than 26 games prior to the state tournament, including the postseason league tournament. 

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.

March of the Champions

I got phone and e-mail updates from Saturday’s state championship tripleheader, and it sounds like I missed something special (yet again). A record crowd, even if it was for three games, and a new arena created an awesome environment and a day three teams and their fans will never forget, even if none of the games quite lived up to their billing.

I’ve been busy with my new job and whatnot, but I’ll see if I can get around to posting some final thoughts for this season and some historical perspective later this week.

For now, my Top 10

FINAL TOP 10

1. Delbarton (27-1-1)
2. St. Augustine Prep (18-7-2)
3. CBA (19-4-2)
4. Bishop Eustace (15-8-4)
5. Bergen Catholic (12-10-5)
6. Seton Hall Prep (6-10-5)
7. Don Bosco Prep (9-11-5)
8. Kinnelon (24-2-2)
9. Ridge (23-4-3)
10. Randolph (15-5-5)

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.