Beating the same team three times in one season is difficult enough.
Now try doing so for a fourth time in the regular venue of your arch-rival with their state championship banners draped behind your bench.
With a trip to the state sectional finals on the line on top of this, leave it to the Bridgewater-Raritan High School ice hockey team to accomplish what once was thought to be impossible against Ridge High School just a few years ago.
Top-seeded and No. 11-ranked Bridgewater-Raritan (21-3-1) collected a pair of shutout victories over fourth-seeded Ridge (14-11-1) in the regular season, but the Panthers clearly wanted to make amends for a much closer one-goal victory over the Red Devils two weeks earlier. After seeing Ridge erupt for 39 of the game’s final 52 shots and nearly rally from a four-goal deficit in the Skyland Cup semifinals, the Panthers’ lethal defense not only answered the call with its third shutout of the Red Devils on a whopping 44 saves from sophomore goalie Justin Madison.
Four different goal scorers helped Bridgewater-Raritan leave no doubt on Monday afternoon to complete a historic four-game sweep of Ridge, and the Panthers cruised into the state sectional finals with a 5-0 victory over the Red Devils in the semifinals of the NJSIAA South, Public tournament on Monday, March 2, at Bridgewater Sports Arena in Bridgewater.
Hours after top-seeded Bridgewater-Raritan (21-3-1) punched its ticket to the state sectional finals, third-seeded and No. 18-ranked Middletown High School North (15-6-2) shook up the state tournament in a day filled with upsets. The Lions dethroned reigning state champion, second-seeded, and No. 7-ranked Westfield High School (18-4): New Jersey’s top-ranked squad from a public high school, after a 3-1 victory in Monday evening’s other state sectional semifinals game at Warinanco Park in Roselle.
Bridgewater-Raritan and Middletown North will square off next in the South Public championship game at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 5, to launch a doubleheader at the Mennen Sports Arena in Morris Township. Afterwards, the North Public championship game will take place between the top-seeded and No. 13-ranked Ridgewood High School (20-4) and the sixth-seeded and No. 15-ranked Ramapo High School (15-10).
“We actually really learned from that game,” revealed about the aftermath of the Skyland Cup semifinals by Bridgewater-Raritan junior defenseman James Kramer (one goal), whose team held on for a 6-5 victory against Ridge back on February 16 on the way to winning back-to-back Skyland Cup crowns for the first time in program history. “We made it easy for them to score at the end of the game last time, but we got a big lead today and we were able to stick to our game plan. We kept getting pucks deep, and we made it hard for them at the end of the game. We can give up that lead if we really want to give it away, so we just have to keep playing our game.”
“That’s what we did today.”
Ridge was not the only familiar foe in the Panthers’ path to the sectional finals.
After rolling to an 11-1 victory over Central Regional High School in the opening round of the state tournament, Bridgewater-Raritan drew its third matchup of the year against Hunterdon Central Regional High School, which entered the state sectional playoffs as the No. 8 seed in the Panthers’ bracket. All four teams from this conference in the South, Public bracket: Bridgewater-Raritan, Hunterdon Central, Ridge, and fifth-seeded Hillsborough High School, not only won their first-round games.
They each ended up in the top half of this bracket.
To cap off a three-game sweep of Hunterdon Central, Bridgewater-Raritan rolled to a 6-0 victory on Saturday night en route to winning its first two games in the state tournament for the first time since 2013-14. Ridge edged Hillsborough, 2-1, in the other second-round matchup to set the stage for the Panthers’ fourth and final meeting with the Red Devils: the one that mattered the most.
“A lot of the [Skyland Conference] coaches did not like the way they broke things up,” revealed Bridgewater-Raritan head coach Vincent Arnone about the final 16-team state sectional playoff bracket, which was created by the NJSIAA’s ice hockey seeding committee. “I wondered why we had to go through each other again in the state tournament, because they could have made the brackets differently. But I put out a report for each game, and our kids are reading it, sticking to it, and they’re really stepping up to a playoff level.”
“Our kids have really locked it down.”
North Hunterdon Regional High School / Voorhees High School co-op, which fell to Bridgewater-Raritan, 6-5, in the Skyland Cup finals after defeating the Panthers twice in the regular season, advanced to the state sectional finals without surrendering a single goal in its first three postseason games. As the No. 4 seed in its South, Public Co-Op bracket, the Lions/Vikings upset top-seeded Toms River High School East / South / North tri-op in overtime, 1-0, on Monday evening in Toms River.
Given that they cannot meet in the postseason, if Bridgewater-Raritan and North Hunterdon/Voorhees both win their next games, the Skyland Conference would have two state sectional champions.
A further testament to the depth of the Skyland Conference in 2025-26 is that it has certainly prepared Bridgewater-Raritan for its chief objective: winning a state championship.
Even though the Panthers have looked like strong contenders to achieve this goal this postseason, they know nothing is guaranteed at this stage of the state tournament.
Despite what the final scoreboard indicated, the fourth time around for Bridgewater-Raritan against Ridge, which entered Monday afternoon determined to finally solve the puzzle that has been the Panthers’ defense, it was anyone’s game for the majority of the afternoon.
It took 90 seconds for the game’s first of 86 total shots to be logged, but Madison jumped on that initial look by Ridge to begin his busy day. Ridge senior Jake Gunn, who produced a power-play goal with his team down four goals to fuel the Red Devils’ comeback bid against the Panthers two weeks ago, then fired a long-range puck towards Madison with 11:38 left in the first period. Madison stopped that shot along with another key opportunity by senior Ryan McNally, who stole a puck near Bridgewater-Raritan’s crease and fired the Red Devils’ fifth shot with 9:43 left in the first period.
Madison, who has yet to allow a goal in the postseason as the Panthers’ starting goalie, kept Ridge off the board.
On Ridge’s side of the ice, sophomore Jason Rutkowski (one goal) then won the ensuing faceoff for Bridgewater-Raritan, which fired its first shot courtesy of senior forward Alex Kotelnikov (one goal). While senior goalie Matt DeMaio (37 saves) made the stop for Ridge, this began a burst of six shots in one minute for the Panthers.
At this point, Bridgewater-Raritan’s offense began to settle in and tried to break the game’s scoreless tie.
The Red Devils had other ideas, however, as Gunn rocketed another long-range shot for Ridge, but Madison gloved the resulting puck to deny the Red Devils again with 6:42 left in the first period. Within the next minute, Kramer then tallied a key blocked shot against Ridge senior forward Brody Hansen, who netted a game-high five points for the Red Devils against the Panthers two weeks earlier and had that game’s final goal.
Madison’s resulting save with 5:49 left in the first period kept the game scoreless, and at this moment, both teams were even in shots, 7-7.
One minute later, Kramer delivered a deep look towards Ridge’s net in the far corner of Bridgewater-Raritan’s offensive zone. The shot and rebound were both saved by DeMaio, who then caught another puck sprung towards him by Rutkowski with 4:37 left in the second period.
While the Panthers came up empty on their first 12 shots, the 13th time was finally the charm.
Junior forward Stanley Xenakis (two assists) produced a hit along the wall of the Panthers’ defensive zone by its faceoff circle. This resulted in a pass towards center ice to a wide-open senior forward Ari Fusco (one assist), who skated towards his team’s offensive zone on the opposite corner of the ice with only two Ridge defenders in his path towards DeMaio and the Red Devils’ net.
Fusco drew Ridge sophomore defenseman Quinn Standing, who skated in his direction. Fusco countered with a quick pass to Abolenskiy, who found himself directly in between Standing and Ridge senior defenseman Brennan Ward. Abolenskiy only had a split second to get off a one-timer, which was a top-shelf bullseye that threaded the gap above DeMaio’s right shoulder with 2:37 left in the first period.
This gave Bridgewater-Raritan a 1-0 lead after one period, but Standing’s blocked shot by Ridge, followed by another save by DeMaio at the horn, limited the damage before the 15-minute intermission.
Using this momentum out of the locker room, Ridge quickly threatened to equalize the score in the opening minute of the second period, but the Red Devils’ first shot, bounce, and rebound were all saved by Madison.
“Everybody obviously sees what he does on the ice, and it’s amazing, but he’s a great kid,” praised Madison by Bridgewater-Raritan senior defenseman Matt Harrison, who has captained the Panthers’ defense towards an average of just 1.76 goals allowed in 25 games. “He is the backbone of our team, and I can’t believe he is only a sophomore. He’s going to do amazing things. His work talks wonders, and he deserves all of it.”
“We have the best goalie in the league,” added Kramer of Madison in between.
Although Madison is the one directly credited with his team’s saves, the defenders in front of him have also continued to steal the show for a Bridgewater-Raritan squad that is now one of the final four ice hockey teams from standalone public schools still standing.
Clinging to a 1-0 lead five minutes into the second period, the Panthers were set up for the knockout punch, but Ridge freshman defenseman Danny Yang tallied a blocked shot at DeMaio’s crease in heavy traffic with 9:50 to go in the second period. Junior forward Reed Greenstein then spun around the Red Devils’ crease to block another shot that was one puck length away from crossing the plane into the back of the net with 8:13 to go in the second period.
Of course, it was only a matter of time before Bridgewater-Raritan broke through again.
Ward blocked another shot at the Ridge crease that pinballed along the corner of the rink backwards towards Harrison, who slap-shotted the puck from the wall close to the edge of the Panthers’ offensive zone. The resulting shot was redirected into the net by Rutkowski, who extended Bridgewater-Raritan’s lead to 2-0 with 4:31 left in the second period.
In arguably the game’s turning point, Ridge not only drew the game’s first power play in the Panthers’ crease with 3:56 left in the second period. Harrison served the resulting penalty time, and Kramer was then sent to the penalty box despite what appeared to be a clean block in extreme traffic during Ridge’s five-on-four barrage with 3:07 left in the second period.
With Bridgewater-Raritan now briefly on the shorthanded side of a five-on-three attack, Ridge appeared to have its best chance to get on the scoreboard.
After returning to the ice, Harrison was determined to stop that.
On a breakaway attempt by Ridge, the unphased Harrison blocked the resulting shot attempt, which resulted in a shorthanded opportunity in transition by Bridgewater-Raritan on the resulting ricochet. This killed the resulting five-on-three penalty before the Panthers escaped the overall power play unharmed.
To cap what was essentially a two-goal swing, Kotelnikov scored with 11.1 seconds left in the second period to send Bridgewater-Raritan back into the locker room in complete control with a 3-0 lead.
“That’s just grit that helps you get through moments like that,” revealed Harrison afterwards of the penalty kill. “Our whole mentality was to just keep going strong. We kept working hard and got the job done in the end. It’s what we come here to do and we want to win.”
“We’re going to keep pushing.”
With 13:47 remaining, Abolenskiy netted his second goal, and Kramer scored just 48 seconds left to balloon Bridgewater-Raritan’s lead to 5-0 and put the game out of reach early in the third period.
“Ari gave me a nice pass on a two-on-one, and I just buried it far-side,” described Kramer of his goal, which was his fourth of the season overall but his second this postseason alone.
“It’s a lot of fun just being involved in our offense, because we have to play both ways, but I thought I played pretty responsibly today.”
At that point, it was mainly a question of whether or not the Panthers would win by shutout. However, a flurry of late penalties merely delayed the inevitable, as Madison completed his sixth shutout of the season and his third of the year against the Red Devils alone.
Five years after the Panthers won just five games in 2021-22 during Arnone’s first season in charge, Bridgewater-Raritan is now just one victory away from hoisting a state sectional championship trophy as the day’s first finalist from the South, Public bracket.
“I told the kids to be patient when I first took over this program five years ago, that we would be back, and that we would make Bridgewater-Raritan relevant again,” reflected Arnone, who served as a longtime assistant to Hall-of-Fame Pat Alvin before taking over for the Panthers in 2021-22. “It started off slow, with hard work, and with having our kids believe. To my credit, I’ve had a lot of good kids over the last couple of years who have helped me develop this program, and I’ve had good coaches with me. [Assistant coach] Steve Diamond has been with me for eons, and [assistant coach] Carl Miexsell the last two years to ride the success. It’s a help from everyone, and it takes a full team to really do it, but it takes the kids believing in it and really sticking to it. They believe in the program, and that’s what we’ve had here. We’ve become a destination where kids want to play and are excited to play at. The last time we were in the finals, I had no gray in my beard, so it’s been a long time and it feels good to be relevant again.”
“However, we still have two wins to go.”
Regardless of what happens over the final week of the season, there will be a new state champion crowned at the Prudential Center next Monday.
Elsewhere in the North, Public state sectional playoff bracket, Ridgewood eliminated fourth-seeded and No. 12-ranked Northern Highlands Regional High School (14-10-1) courtesy of a 4-1 semifinal victory Monday evening at the Ice House in Hackensack. Ramapo then shocked second-seeded, and No. 8-ranked Livingston High School (20-4) with a 3-1 result Monday evening at Richard J. Codey Arena in West Orange.
The South, Public champion and North, Public champion will then face off for the overall Public ice hockey state championship at 3:15 p.m. Monday, March 9, at the Prudential Center in Newark.
“All we are focused on is the next one up,” previewed Harrison of Thursday evening’s state sectional championship game.
“We’re just thinking about what’s next and conquering that.”