Even elite defenses are bound to have off nights.
With the postseason looming for reigning Skyland Cup champion Bridgewater-Raritan High School, New Jersey’s No. 11-ranked ice hockey team, it would probably rather have that happen now than in a true win-or-go-home setting.
On Monday night, while Bridgewater-Raritan looked to be in complete control early against Ridge High School before ultimately holding off the Red Devils’ late rally, the Panthers looked to be a runaway winner the third time around against a team they defeated twice by shutout in the regular season.
Of course, expect the unexpected in the Skyland Cup.
Second-seeded Bridgewater-Raritan (17-3-1) erupted for five goals in its first 12 shots on the way to an early four-goal lead over third-seeded Ridge (12-10-1). The Red Devils then surged with four of the game’s final five goals and had a chance to tie the game in the closing minutes of regulation. Bridgewater-Raritan junior defenseman James Kramer then had other ideas, as he helped lodge the puck along the wall behind sophomore goalie Justin Madison (40 saves) to stall out Ridge’s final six-on-five attack.
Despite the Red Devils’ 17-shot advantage over the Panthers, Bridgewater-Raritan escaped with a 6-5 victory over the Red Devils in the Skyland Cup semifinals Monday, February 16, at Bridgewater Sports Arena in Bridgewater.
Second-seeded Bridgewater-Raritan (17-3-1) will now try to defend its Skyland Cup crown in the championship game against top-seeded North Hunterdon Regional High School / Voorhees High School co-op (15-5-1), which handed the Panthers two of their three losses this season. While Bridgewater-Raritan was not at full strength in either of these games, North Hunterdon/Voorhees won 1-0 and 5-3 on December 5 in Dunellen and January 30 in Flemington, respectively.
The title game will be played on Wednesday, February 18, at the Bridgewater Sports Arena at 7 p.m.
This will be a rematch of last season’s Skyland Cup finals, which Bridgewater-Raritan won by a score of 5-2 to hoist its first Skyland Cup championship trophy since 2014-15.
“All of our big guys came to play, especially our junior class,” said Kramer after the game, whose team had surrendered an average of just 1.65 goals per game heading into Monday night, including 2-0 and 3-0 victories over Ridge nine days apart in early January.
“That’s very important in a game like this.”
In a much different meeting the third time around, it took under 17 minutes to exceed the combined scoring output from Bridgewater-Raritan and Ridge’s first two games.
Junior forward Sasha Abolenskiy (three goals, one assist) led the Panthers with a hat trick and a team-high four points, while surging junior Stanley Xenakis (two goals) had a big day in his most high-stakes game to date. Senior captain and forward Alex Kotelnikov (one goal, two assists) netted the remaining goal for Bridgewater-Raritan, which collected one assist each by senior forward Ari Fusco, junior forward Sahil Patel, sophomore forward Jason Rutkowski, and freshman defenseman John Ciesla.
The Panthers’ six goals were tied for their fourth-most scored in a game this season, but while the Panthers tied a season-high in five goals allowed, only two things mattered after the arena’s final horn on Presidents’ Day.
They scored one more goal than their opponent, and Bridgewater-Raritan advanced in the bracket to cap off a wild doubleheader at Bridgewater Sports Arena.
A game where everyone had an impact – regardless of whether or not they found their way into the scorebook.
“Jason was doing well in the face-off dot,” said Kramer, who was directly responsible for running out at least half of Ridge’s final empty-net attack over the game’s final minute and a half. “Alex picked it up and played well, too.”
“[Senior defenseman Matt Harrison] on the back end played very well today.”
Those from Bridgewater-Raritan and Ridge were fortunate to not have a school night, especially given their second leg of the Skyland Cup finals doubleheader started nearly one hour after the originally scheduled 7:10 p.m. puck drop time. There was a good reason for that, along with parking being at a premium outside of Bridgewater Sports Arena at this moment.
To launch a thrilling Skyland Cup finals doubleheader, top-seeded North Hunterdon / Voorhees Hl and fifth-seeded Hillsborough played to a draw in regulation, and overtime was not enough to decide the Skyland Cup’s first finalist. In the ensuing shootout, North Hunterdon / Voorhees then rallied from behind to escape with a 3-2 victory and seal its return trip to the Skyland Cup finals in its third season of existence.
With Bridgewater-Raritan entering the tail end of the doubleheader favored by seed to defeat Ridge, the stage was set for a Skyland Cup finals rematch, especially given the Panthers looked to be a runaway winner against Ridge in the game’s first 16 and a half minutes.
Rutkowski and Ciesla set up the game’s first goal, which was scored by Kotelnikov just over two minutes after the opening puck drop. Kramer then was whistled for the game’s first penalty with 11:47 left in the first period. As a result of the ensuing power play, Ridge was set up to score for the first time this season against Bridgewater-Raritan, which had not allowed a goal in the Skyland Cup and had a victory by mercy rule, 10-0, over Watchung Hills Regional High School in the opening round.
Just over halfway into being shorthanded, Harrison blocked a shot in his team’s defensive zone, and Xenakis took the puck the distance to double the Panthers’ lead to 2-0 with 10:37 left in the first period.
Ridge senior forward Brody Hansen (one goal, four assists), who led all scorers with five points, then squeaked a pass beyond Kramer on the right side of the Panthers’ defensive zone to set up the Red Devils’ first goal of the game. At the other end of Ridge’s offensive zone, senior defenseman Tucker Daggett (one goal, one assist) finished the job in transition on a shot made at the center of both faceoff circles with 5:49 left in the first period.
As a result, Ridge cut Bridgewater-Raritan’s lead to 2-1.
At the 3:25 timestamp of the first period, Kramer then took a big hit by the scorer’s table that resulted in him briefly heading to the bench, but Bridgewater-Raritan found itself with its first power play of the night. Not only did Kramer return to the ice a short time later, but Kotelnikov dished out an assist to Abolenskiy, who scored to send the Panthers into the 15-minute intermission with a 3-1 lead.
On top of this, Bridgewater-Raritan drew another penalty in the final minute, which gave the Panthers 44 seconds of five-on-four play in its favor to begin the second period.
“It’s everyone on our team collectively,” credited Abolenskiy, who serves as one of the Panthers’ assistant captains.
“Our chemistry all together and in the locker room translates onto the ice, and we’re just an amazing team.”
Bridgewater-Raritan showed why right after the second period’s opening faceoff.
A puck quickly controlled by Kotelnikov then found its way into the stick of Abolenskiy, who extended the Panthers’ lead to 4-1 just 11 seconds into the second period. Bridgewater-Raritan then collected another power play, and with 13:28 left in the second period, Rutkowski and Abolenskiy tallied assists on the second goal by Xenakis, which looked to put Bridgewater-Raritan in cruise control with a 5-1 lead on just 12 shots.
However, 28 and a half minutes still remained, and Ridge took full advantage of every moment.
“We started to play a little looser once we were up 5-1,” revealed Kramer after the game.
“We have to tighten up on defense next time and get pucks deep when they’re getting pucks away.”
Bridgewater-Raritan’s shot advantage ballooned up to as much as 15-6 after Ridge senior goalie Matthew DeMaio (22 saves) held off a quick barrage of three straight shots with 12:17 left in the second period. At this point, the Red Devils started to build momentum. Drawing a power play with 11:10 left in the second period certainly helped along with Hansen and Daggett assisting on a goal by senior forward Jake Gunn (one goal), who cut Bridgewater-Raritan’s lead to 5-2 with 9:42 left in the second period.
Madison then dove on another puck in front of Bridgewater-Raritan’s cage on what ended up being the fourth consecutive shot for Ridge in the last four and a half minutes. Just after Kramer then tallied another blocked shot with 6:34 left in the second period, Hansen and freshman defenseman Danny Yang (one assist) helped senior forward Ryan McNally (two goals) squeak one underneath Madison.
Suddenly, Ridge’s deficit was just 5-3 with 6:06 left in the second period, and not only did the Red Devils take this score into the locker room.
After its nine-shot deficit against the Panthers early in the second period, Ridge found itself with the game’s shot advantage, 22-19, via 16 of the next 20 shots over the final 12:17 of the period.
That momentum was quickly squashed by Abolenskiy to begin the third period, as he clinched his hat trick with 13:33 remaining in regulation, and this cushioned Bridgewater-Raritan’s lead to 6-3.
Harrison was then whistled for a penalty to give Ridge a quick chance to get that goal back, but the Panthers’ defense capped off a penalty kill with a catch by Madison in front of his net with 10:50 remaining.
Despite it being a three-goal game, this set up a memorable finale for those in attendance.
“We put everything on the line that we had in those last 10 minutes,” Abolenskiy said. “It was a very exciting game, and Ridge is a really good team.”
“We just came out on top and pulled it out.”
With 9:12 remaining, McNally scored on a puck that was on the verge of stopping right at Madison’s goal crease. When Madison got up after his preceding dive, it appeared his left skate behind him kicked in the puck, which cut Bridgewater-Raritan’s lead to 6-4 and gave Hansen and senior defenseman Brennan Ward (one assist) an assist for Ridge.
Sophomore defenseman Quinn Standing (one assist) then fired another shot for Ridge, but on the ensuing rebound with 5:32 to go, Hansen lit the lamp for the first time after tallying four assists up until that point.
Ridge suddenly trailed just 6-5, but Bridgewater-Raritan’s defense shined when it mattered the most, especially its youngest playmakers.
“They are all making good plays and playing like upperclassmen,” praised Kramer of his defensemen who are freshmen or sophomores, who make up two-thirds of the Panthers’ defense. “I was here last year with the graduating seniors, and it’s very important that they’re filling these roles.”
“I am happy with that for sure.”
Shortly after a timeout with 1:52 to go, DeMaio exited Ridge’s cage to set up the Red Devils’ resulting six-on-five advantage in the final minute and a half of regulation. On two separate occasions that had to have felt like an eternity for Ridge, Kramer appeared to lodge his stick between one skate and the puck, which was pinned against the wall directly behind Madison.
While Kotelnikov was eventually called for a penalty, Ridge only had 8.9 seconds left to work with and failed to get another shot off after rallying to a final shot advantage of 45-28.
Fittingly, it was Bridgewater-Raritan that got the game’s final shot off as time expired to seal the Panthers’ return trip to the Skyland Cup finals.
One year after graduating 10 seniors and finishing with a 22-4 record, for the second straight season, Bridgewater-Raritan was awarded the No. 1 seed in next week’s NJSIAA South New Jersey, Public School, Ice Hockey Tournament. This would give the Panthers home-ice advantage for the first three rounds of the state sectional playoffs, with the fourth and final round contested at a neutral site before the state finals at the Prudential Center in Newark.
After the Skyland Cup finals, the Panthers will launch their bid to win a state championship at home against No. 16-seeded Central Regional High School (5-14) on a date and time to be determined next week. The winner of this matchup will advance to the state sectional quarterfinals against either eighth-seeded Hunterdon Central Regional High School (10-10) or ninth-seeded Manalapan High School (12-10): the latter team being crowned state sectional champion two seasons ago.
Bridgewater-Raritan swept its two regular-season meetings against Hunterdon Central by scores of 5-1 and 4-1 on January 2 in Dunellen and January 23 in Flemington, respectively.
“The only thing we control is what’s in our locker room, and we have controlled it very well this season,” concluded Abolenskiy of what lies ahead for the Panthers. “Heading into this season, we weren’t sure where we were going to be after losing a lot of our graduating seniors.”
“But we are thriving now, and we look to continue thriving in the Skyland Cup final and states.”