Members of the Bridgewater-Raritan High School community are probably familiar with senior Matt Harrison’s voice.
At some point this school year, you may have heard it on the campus’ refurbished loudspeakers right before dismissal, particularly on Friday afternoons.
He is busy with over 2,700 other Bridgewater-Raritan peers in the classroom by day. Notably, most weeks during his senior year have culminated in him getting on the P.A. system to promote the school’s activities and fire up his peers.
“We Are B-R!” is one of his catchphrases, but one that also serves as a familiar battle cry amongst the Panthers’ faithful.
By afternoon and evening this winter, Harrison has been engaged in an extracurricular endeavor of his own during what has been a busy final year at Bridgewater-Raritan.
Assistant captain of the reigning Skyland Cup champion Panthers’ ice hockey team, which is ranked fourth amongst all of New Jersey’s public high schools and No. 12 overall in the state.
As he deservedly bears the corresponding ‘A’ on the front of his No. 16 jersey – a fitting tribute to the letter grades he strives to maintain across the board as a student first and foremost, being the lone senior on the defensive side of the ice essentially gives him another distinction.
Leader of Bridgewater-Raritan’s defense – one that is really good, along with his team overall.
On Senior Night against the Manasquan High School / Point Pleasant Beach High School co-op squad, Harrison and his team’s defense shined in a key victory.
After trailing for a total of 56 seconds against Manasquan / Point Pleasant Beach (13-6-2), Bridgewater-Raritan (16-3-1) shut down the visitors and tallied four consecutive goals despite being outshot by 12 goals in the process. Even though a solid Big Blue Warriors squad out of the Shore Conference made the Panthers work for all 45 minutes, particularly with a one-player advantage twice in the tail end of the third period, Harrison and his fellow defensemen’s blocked shots, coupled with another day in the office by sophomore goalie Justin Madison (36 saves), stole the show.
Symbolically, one final stop of an empty-net onslaught by the visitors as time expired punctuated the Panthers’ 4-2 victory over Manasquan / Point Pleasant Beach on Senior Night Friday, February 13, at Rock Ice Arena in Dunellen.
“Our progress has been amazing,” reflected after the victory by Harrison, who leads a defense that has now surrendered just 33 goals (1.65 goals per game) this season: the best in the entire Skyland Conference.
While these averages have improved from 4.54, to 3.43, to 3.04 goals allowed per game across his first three years in a Panthers uniform, that number of goals allowed (3.04) from last year’s successful season has nearly been cut in half – just during his senior year.
Although it was outshot on Friday afternoon, 38-26, Bridgewater-Raritan made the shots that counted, as senior captain and forward Alex Kotelnikov and junior forward Stanley Xenakis each netted a pair of goals to put the game out of reach. Both of these goal scorers also tallied one assist to lead the Panthers on Senior Night, which also saw sophomore forward Jason Rutkowski (three assists) and junior defenseman James Kramer (two assists) get on the scoreboard.
Also honored with Harrison and Kotelnikov during the Panthers’ pregame ceremony were Ari Fusco, Nicholas Hoff, and Sebastian Raimondi: the latter four players among the Panthers’ five seniors, each a forward for Bridgewater-Raritan.
But four years ago, a successful afternoon like Senior Day would have been tough to foresee, let alone against a fellow state-championship contender in Manasquan / Point Pleasant Beach: a team that will enter its co-op state sectional tournament as a top contender in its own 16-team bracket.
In the second year under now fifth-year head coach Vincent Arnone, who quickly restored the Panthers to a championship contender after taking over for longtime Hall-of-Fame head coach Patrick Alvin in 2021-22, Bridgewater-Raritan’s Class of 2026 seniors made their debuts on December 9, 2022, against arch rival Hillsborough High School. That first game was a frustrating 5-1 loss for the current seniors of Bridgewater-Raritan, who were freshmen at the time, on a night when Raiders fans rained teddy bears onto the ice at the Panthers’ expense.
This began a string of four straight losses to open the current seniors’ careers.
Afterwards, the Panthers offset this with four straight victories before tying reigning state champion Ridge High School, which went on to defend its title.
While it therefore looked that Bridgewater-Raritan was righting the ship, the Panthers’ opponents had other plans, particularly their rivals within their unforgiving Skyland Conference.
Bridgewater-Raritan then suffered seven straight losses, including a 10-0 setback by mercy rule against Hunterdon Central Regional High School, along with a gut-wrenching 5-4 defeat at Nottingham High School. In that latter game on January 20, 2023, Nottingham rallied from a three-goal deficit in the final 68 seconds of the second period to tie the game before eventually scoring the game-winning goal late in the third period.
Most teams would pack it in after crushing blows like those, especially heading into the final month of the regular season.
Not Bridgewater-Raritan.
“Every game freshman year was a struggle, and we didn’t know how it was going to go,” Harrison reflected on the 2022-23 season. “We lost a lot of games that year and even got [mercy-ruled] one time. It was hard, but we played with heart.”
“That didn’t change with the program for all four years.”
Four victories in five games to end that 2022-23 regular season surged the Panthers back into the state sectional playoffs for the first time under Arnone’s leadership as the No. 11 seed. Even though they fell in their playoff opener to Monroe Township High School, 6-3, it ended Bridgewater-Raritan’s season on a positive note, despite its 8-13-1 record that season.
This proved only to be the beginning of bigger things to come for Bridgewater-Raritan.
After Senior Night, the Panthers now have an impressive 53-15-1 record in the three seasons since, including their first Skyland Cup crown in a decade last year. They are currently two victories away from successfully defending it.
Most importantly, the Panthers will now have four state tournament appearances in four seasons, and Senior Night was just further confirmation that Bridgewater-Raritan is a valid contender to achieve its primary goal of the year.
Hoisting a state championship trophy at the Prudential Center.
In a game where the Panthers’ seniors opened the game on the ice, Madison made four quick saves to quickly send a message to the visitors that scoring was going to be at a premium on Friday afternoon. Navigating around senior goalie James Fogarty (22 saves) and Manasquan / Point Beach’s solid defense also proved to be a tall task for Bridgewater-Raritan, which nearly scored in the game’s first goal just over three minutes in.
The shot clanked off the right post in a game where razor-thin accuracy on offense likely was the deciding factor between two solid defenses that were on full display on Friday afternoon.
During what appeared to be a shift change, Bridgewater-Raritan was called for the game’s first penalty (too many men on the ice) with 5:28 left in the first period, but at the 4:11 timestamp, Kotelnikov and Xenakis found themselves with a shorthanded, breakaway look. Fogarty denied the Panthers from short range, and just as Bridgewater-Raritan returned to full strength with 3:23 left in the period, junior forward Strider Carhart opened the scoring for the Big Blue Warriors.
Junior forward Lucas Titner and senior forward Alexandre Mimaud were each credited with assists, as Manasquan / Beach made those two quick passes just before Bridgewater-Raritan’s fifth skater settled into his team’s defensive zone.
Down 1-0 late in the first period, the Panthers did not flinch after being on the wrong side of a two-goal swing.
Kotelnikov and Rutkowski both set up a quick answer by Xenakis, who skated around the visitors’ defense to tie the game, 1-1, with 2:37 left in the first period and make it a new game at the ensuing intermission.
“I’m just having a lot of fun out there,” said Xenakis after the game, who played ice hockey as a freshman but is back in full force as a junior after not playing his sophomore year.
His two goals against Manasquan / Point Pleasant Beach matched a career-high he also achieved back on December 23 in a massive 6-4 comeback victory for Bridgewater-Raritan against reigning state champion and No. 7-ranked Westfield High School (16-2): New Jersey’s top-ranked public high school. Going back to that game against Westfield, whose lone loss to a public high school this season is to Bridgewater-Raritan, Xenakis has averaged one goal per game and has exploded onto the scene as the Panthers’ third-leading goal scorer this season behind junior forward Sasha Abolenskiy (27 goals, 20 assists) and Kotelnikov (15 goals, 16 assists).
The Panthers’ defensive numbers speak for themselves, but given Bridgewater-Raritan’s offense also tallies an average of 4.2 goals scored per game, its average margin of victory this season is just over two and a half goals.
Given that the numbers in 2022-23 were 3.5 goals scored per game and 4.54 goals allowed per game, the Panthers have successfully improved their margin of victory by a whopping 3.5 goals over the course of this four-season span.
“It’s awesome that we now have everybody here to support us,” Xenakis went on to say.
“It makes us play harder for the people up there.”
Those people were the Panthers’ supporters, who covered the entirety of Rock Ice Arena’s upper rafters on Senior Night, including a couple of fans who even had posters and large cutout heads of multiple seniors as a further gesture of support.
Just 12 seconds into the second period, Bridgewater-Raritan then drew a power-play opportunity before quickly making everyone in those rafters erupt.
With 13:46 remaining in the second period, Kotelnikov found an opening on the resulting power play on dishes by Rutkowski and Kramer for the go-ahead goal. Just under three minutes later, Xenakis doubled Bridgewater-Raritan’s lead to what felt like an insurmountable 3-1 with the breathing room their defense now suddenly gained. Although both defenses still kept the game’s outcome far from determined, Bridgewater-Raritan and its young defensemen made some key plays to preserve their 3-1 lead at the second intermission.
On a transition look by the Big Blue Warriors just over halfway into the second period, Kramer got his stick in front of the shot attempt right in front of Madison at the Panthers’ crease. With 4:02 left in the second period, when the visitors found themselves with what appeared to be another path towards the cage, Harrison and freshman defenseman John Ciesla converged in time to tag-team on another blocked shot at this location.
And of course, don’t forget about Madison himself.
He ended the day with 1,150 career saves with his sophomore campaign still far from over, and this did not include a leaping catch over his net two and a half minutes before the end of the second period while also sticking the landing on his skates within his blue crease.
A gut-punch for Manasquan / Point Pleasant Beach’s offense (4.38 goals scored per game), which found itself in a 3-1 hole after two periods and scoreless over the last 18:23 at that point.
While Kotelnikov then extended Bridgewater-Raritan’s lead to three goals after scoring on a puck rebounded off of Fogarty, Manasquan / Point Pleasant Beach quickly got that point back by Nicholas Demarco just 16 seconds later to keep the visitors within 4-2. Neither team scored again, but in a game far from over, Xenakis and Kotelnikov continued to help Bridgewater-Raritan fire at will to put the game away.
After a quick attack by the aforementioned Bridgewater-Raritan duo, Manasquan / Point Pleasant Beach junior defenseman Matthew Lopes made a key swarming stop behind Fogarty’s cage with 10:19 remaining to keep the Big Blue Warriors’ deficit at two goals.
With 7:10 to go, Harrison was called for a penalty, which cracked the door open for Manasquan/Point Pleasant Beach.
Although Harrison could only watch from the penalty box as his young defenders had to stop the visitors’ ensuing five-on-four attack, Bridgewater-Raritan did not back down, continued to be in the right places at the correct times, and successfully collected a penalty kill.
Much to the approval of their defense leader.
Perhaps it served as a brief glimpse of the future Harrison and his fellow seniors will leave behind after graduation, especially given that a sophomore forward in Rutkowski had two of Bridgewater-Raritan’s three clears. His classmate in Madison snatched another puck in front of his cage as the two-minute penalty expired.
As a result, Harrison was able to come back in with just over five minutes left to help preserve his team’s two-goal lead: the same advantage his team had two minutes earlier.
“Our coaches have to be excited about this team’s future,” praised Harrison of the Panthers’ underclassmen. “[John Ciesla and sophomore defenseman Niklas Dorey] are playing with kids much older than them, and they are performing very well. That’s my favorite part of this – connecting with all of our underclassmen, being there to show them my experience, and help them grow into the players I know that they can be.”
“They’re only going to get better from here, and they’re really great kids who work hard.”
With 2:48 to go, Bridgewater-Raritan got another similar glance into the crystal ball when Fogarty exited the ice to set up a six-on-five attack by the visitors to end the game.
To cap off the game and the empty-net situation, the Panthers escaped unharmed and not only sealed their 4-2 victory on Senior Night.
Even though there is still plenty at stake before the state tournament begins, Bridgewater-Raritan vaulted back up to the No. 1 spot in the NJSIAA South New Jersey, Public School, Ice Hockey Tournament power points standings as of the Valentine’s Day cutoff date for games played towards state tournament seeding.
While the NJSIAA’s seeding committee will determine its final spot, this could give Bridgewater-Raritan (16-3-1) a viable case for the No. 1 seed in its section. After all, the Panthers are the only team from a public high school to defeat reigning state champion Westfield, which currently has the No. 3 spot in this section with Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School in between at No. 2.
“Our freshman and sophomore years for me and Alex were about developing our confidence, and it’s been gradual,” explained Harrison, whose team could potentially earn home-ice advantage through the first three rounds of the state playoffs for a second straight season. “We had a big [Class of 2025 senior class] last year that also helped with this a lot, and it kind of established us as a top contender again. Our program had been pretty dormant, and we weren’t really competitive.”
“Now, we are back at that point where we can compete year in and year out.”
Two of Bridgewater-Raritan’s three losses this season came against the North Hunterdon Regional High School / Voorhees High School co-op squad, and its remaining loss came in overtime, 4-3, at home against a Morristown High School that served a stint amongst New Jersey’s top-20 squads for most of the season.
But after last year, the Panthers will head into the state playoffs with added motivation and firsthand awareness of one thing.
Anything can happen in ice hockey’s ruthless postseason.
After winning the Skyland Cup over the North Hunterdon / Voorhees last year, 5-2, then-top-seeded Bridgewater-Raritan ultimately was upset in overtime, 3-2, by eighth-seeded Monroe Township High School in the quarterfinal round of the state sectional playoffs. That crushing loss abruptly ended the Panthers’ dream season with a 22-4 record, and Bridgewater-Raritan was the lone ice hockey team from a single public school (non-co-op or non-tri-op) to fail to reach the state sectional semifinals.
However, the time has finally come for Bridgewater-Raritan to try to make amends.
In what will be a Skyland Cup semifinals doubleheader, top-seeded North Hunterdon / Voorhees (14-5-1) will square off against fifth-seeded Hillsborough High School (12-9-2) at 5:10 p.m. Monday, February 16, at Bridgewater Sports Arena in Bridgewater. The winner of this game will advance to the Skyland Cup finals against either second-seeded Bridgewater-Raritan (16-3-1) or third-seeded Ridge High School (12-9-1), which will both play immediately afterwards.
Barring an overtime situation, the initial puck drop between Bridgewater-Raritan and Ridge in the Skyland Cup semifinals will be at 7:10 p.m. Monday, February 16, in Bridgewater.
“We love to do this, and we don’t want to disappoint,” declared Xenakis of the following tasks for Bridgewater-Raritan, which swept its two-game regular-season series with Ridge in games played on January 7 and January 16. “We know what our goal is, and Ridge is a great team that is easily right behind us. We play them more competitively than anybody else, especially whenever our full team is there. Ridge brings a great group of people to the game, so it’s hard to play against them, but ending with a Skyland Cup doesn’t fully matter.”
“Our main goal is to win states.”
Bridgewater-Raritan also collected one victory along with its lone tie of the year against Hillsborough. Still, in their two meetings against North Hunterdon/Voorhees, when they were each missing key pieces of their lineup, the Panthers dropped both regular-season games.
The Skyland Cup finals are scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, February 18, at Bridgewater Sports Arena, between the two semifinalists who win on Monday night.
According to the NJSIAA’s website, rounds one, two, and three of the boys’ public state sectional playoffs have projected play-by dates of February 23, February 26, and March 2, at the higher-seeded team's venue. The South, Public state sectional finals are scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Thursday, March 5, at Mennen Sports Arena in Morris Township, the North Public state sectional finals will follow suit afterwards at 7 p.m. in this venue.
The public state championship game, which will pit the North and South state sectional champions against one another on the biggest of stages, is scheduled for 3:15 p.m. Monday, March 9, at the Prudential Center in Newark: the home of the National Hockey League’s three-time Stanley Cup Champion New Jersey Devils.
“We come to every single practice and game wanting to perform our best, but also going out and having fun, and it’s hard work that got us here,” concluded Harrison.
“Now, we’re going to show everyone what we can do.”