Everyone on the Bridgewater-Raritan High School ice hockey team contributed to a historic achievement on Thursday evening, but there was no major celebration afterwards on the ice of William G. Mennen Sports Arena.
After all, the Panthers know that winning their next and final game on Monday afternoon was their primary objective all along.
One symbolic jersey hanging in clear view behind the Panthers’ bench on Thursday evening carried the most meaning for Bridgewater-Raritan – even more than the Panthers’ eventual first state finals berth since 2014.
No. 50.
That number was worn by Collin Zavoda, who played ice hockey as a freshman for Bridgewater-Raritan with his older brother: Mitchell, in 2023-24 during head coach Vincent Arnone’s third season in charge. Tragically, Collin passed away in June 2024 right before the end of his freshman year, which was just before Mitchell and his fellow Bridgewater-Raritan High School Class of 2024 seniors walked across the stage at Rutgers University’s Jersey Mike’s Arena as high-school graduates.
According to Arnone, before the Panthers’ state sectional title game against Middletown High School North on Thursday evening, Mitchell sent Bridgewater-Raritan junior forward Sasha Abolenskiy a wonderful message that led to Bridgewater-Raritan’s powerful tribute.
“Mitchell told Sasha how proud he was of the team and how he didn’t think they would be here this quickly,” Arnone revealed of that message praising the Panthers’ meteoric rise over his five seasons as Bridgewater-Raritan head coach. “Collin should be here and he should be a part of this team.”
“He would have been on that bench and would have been here celebrating with us.”
That is because in addition to the No. 50 jersey worn by Collin, who would have been a junior this year at Bridgewater-Raritan, the Panthers had their biggest trophy to date at center ice after the game’s final horn.
Led by a heroic performance by sophomore goalie Justin Madison (42 saves) and his defense (1.77 goals allowed per game), top-seeded and No. 11 ranked Bridgewater-Raritan (22-3-1) built an early cushion against third-seeded and No. 18 ranked Middletown North (15-7-2), which got on the board with just over 10 minutes to go to make it a one-goal game. But in what has been a season of destiny for the Panthers, Bridgewater-Raritan struck twice in the closing minutes to put the game out of reach.
A breakaway, empty-net goal by Abolenskiy (one goal, one assist) as time expired punctuated Bridgewater-Raritan’s 5-2 victory over Middletown North in the finals of the NJSIAA South New Jersey, Public, Ice Hockey Tournament Thursday, March 5, in Morris Township.
“Collin should have been here,” Abolenskiy said after the victory, which punched Bridgewater-Raritan’s ticket to the state finals against No. 13 ranked Ridgewood High School (21-4) in a showdown that is scheduled for 3:15 p.m. Monday, March 9, at the Prudential Center in Newark.
“We won for our friend, our teammate, and our loved one: No. 50, and he is going to be in our hearts forever.”
Top-seeded Ridgewood was a 4-0 winner in the North, Public sectional finals over sixth-seeded and No. 15 Ramapo High School (15-11) in the nightcap of the doubleheader at William G. Mennen Sports Arena, meaning only the Maroons now stand in the path of Bridgewater-Raritan to New Jersey’s summit. Middletown North, however, proved it belonged at this stage of the season, especially since the Lions were fresh off of a monster upset victory against reigning state champion, second-seeded, and No. 7 ranked Westfield High School, 3-1, on the road Monday evening.
But with Collin Zavoda’s No. 50 jersey behind it in Morris Township on Thursday night, Bridgewater-Raritan was not going to be denied on the way to its South, Public trophy.
“The kids really put it on the line for Collin and gave us everything they got,” Arnone went on to say of the Panthers’ emotional victory. “At the end of the day, I’m so proud of these kids, because I know a lot of these guys were really good friends with him. It means a lot that they were able to do it, and a lot of them were really emotional, especially as kids to be able to take that in and understand that.”
“I thought they did a really good job of laying it out there and playing a hockey game when everything was on the line.”
A hockey game that might as well have been the Panthers by a million with what was on the line and who they were playing for.
Bridgewater-Raritan tallied the game’s first shot against Middletown North senior goalie John Gato (17 saves) just 29 seconds after the opening faceoff, and Madison made his first save for the Panthers with 12:47 left in the first period.
At this point, that one shot each team had on goal quickly turned into a distant memory.
Madison, who did not surrender a single goal in the Panthers’ first three postseason games, quickly found himself on the wrong end of an offensive barrage by the Lions, but he quickly collected seven total saves in just over six minutes. Middletown North’s shot advantage then quickly ballooned to 11-4 with 6:40 left in the first period, but a trio of Panthers’ defensemen: junior James Kramer (one goal), senior Matt Harrison, and sophomore Niklas Dorey, each made key stops in their defensive zone to keep the game scoreless.
In the 10th minute, Harrison blocked another Lions shot on the faceoff circle to the right of Madison, who then caught a long-range rip from dead center with 5:17 left in the first period.
On a lucky bounce in Bridgewater-Raritan’s offensive zone just over one minute later, the Panthers capitalized.
A puck that appeared to pinball off of the wall bounced upwards and onto the open ice directly between Middletown North’s two defensive faceoff circles. Kramer then fired a shot with plenty of time and space to spare with 4:00 left in the first period.
His resulting goal proved to be all of the breathing room that Bridgewater-Raritan needed, as the Panthers took the lead for good at this moment.
With his team up 1-0 with 1:25 left in the first period, Kramer was then called for a tripping penalty, and Middletown North found itself with the game’s first power play. While the Lions produced seven of the next eight shots leading up to the 15-minute Zamboni intermission en route to a 21-6 first period shot advantage, the difference for Bridgewater-Raritan was the ‘0’ tallied by Madison.
“All of the shots they made just gave me an opportunity to come up big, because pressure is a privilege,” said of being under the bright lights by Madison, who eclipsed the 700-save milestone for the season and now sits at a whopping 731 saves in 768 shots on goal (95.2% save percentage). “When we got into the locker room, our coaches told us not to look up at the scoreboard and their shots didn’t matter. It’s about our next shift and our next play.”
“We had to just keep going forward, and we did just that.”
Freshman defenseman John Ciesla also particularly applied that same mindset, especially on a Panthers team that last trailed in a game just over three weeks ago, when Bridgewater-Raritan rallied from down late in the second period on the way to an overtime victory, 6-5, in the Skyland Cup finals against North Hunterdon Regional High School / Voorhees High School.
An understandable situation that bodes well for Bridgewater-Raritan, especially since North Hunterdon / Voorhees also punched its ticket to the Prudential Center after winning the South, Public Co-Op title on Thursday evening with zero goals allowed in the postseason [so far] on the way to its state sectional title in its third year of existence.
To begin the second period against Middletown North, neither team allowed a shot in the remaining 35 seconds of the Lions’ power play to open the second period, and Bridgewater-Raritan capitalized.
Madison’s first save of the second period came just 1:10 after the intermission, and with 13:05 left in the second period, Kramer blocked another shot by the Lions. Ciesla then forced another wide shot by Middletown North near Madison’s crease, and he ultimately made the Lions pay the price.
The ensuing bounce slid right in front of Bridgewater-Raritan senior forward Alex Kotelnikov (two goals), who found himself with a clear path to the Lions’ net in transition from his team’s defensive zone. While Gato and Middletown North’s defense did a phenomenal job in keeping Bridgewater-Raritan’s offense in check all evening despite what the final scoreboard indicated, Kotelnikov scored on the equivalent of a fastbreak layup with plenty of space around him.
Gato’s valiant attempt at a stop fell short despite the low-probability save situation he was in, and with 11:48 left in the second period, Bridgewater-Raritan found itself in control with a 2-0 lead.
“I feel like he gets every shot from the outside,” said of Madison by Ciesla. “Having Jimmy in the back running the power play puts so much confidence in me that we can win every game and let up no more than two goals per game.”
“Having them helps me make these plays with more confidence, because I feel like I don’t have any pressure on me.”
Now with all of the momentum, Bridgewater-Raritan looked to be in line for another breakaway goal by Kotelnikov, but tripping was called just before he was able to unwind on the potential dagger shot. Instead, Middletown North found itself with another power play that halted the Panthers’ offense with 10:58 left in the second period. Just over one minute into Bridgewater-Raritan’s penalty-kill attempt, Kramer blocked another shot in the middle of his defensive zone’s faceoff circles.
This time, the Lions were called for a penalty on another breakaway look by Kotelnikov to make it an even four-on-four on the ice and briefly halt Middletown North’s threat.
With 9:34 left in the second period, despite just eight total shots by both teams in the new period up to that moment, Bridgewater-Raritan drew a power play to give it a brief four-on-three advantage.
Although the Panthers came up empty the rest of the period, another save by Madison with 8:50 left in the second period triggered another penalty against Middletown North, which found themselves on the wrong side of a five-on-three power play. Bridgewater-Raritan was then whistled for a penalty to limit the resulting man-up, but leading 2-0, the Panthers’ breathing room proved to be key.
On what looked to be an uncontested breakaway goal by sophomore Paul Goins for Middletown North with 7:58 left in the second period, Kramer made up the distance in transition en route to blocking the shorthanded shot. The Lions ultimately finished with a 29-15 shot advantage after two periods, but Bridgewater-Raritan’s shutdown defense spearheaded by Madison’s 165 consecutive minutes of shutout ice hockey to launch the postseason kept it ahead, 2-0.
“He’s had an 11-out-of-10 performance in these playoffs,” praised Abolenskiy of Madison. “All season long, he’s just been amazing and has really been carrying us. We try to help him as much as possible, but sometimes, we get a lot of stuff thrown at us.”
“He’s our backbone who keeps us in the game.”
In the third period, Bridgewater-Raritan’s offense stepped up even more when Middletown North looked like it came back to life.
Remarkably, it took until 10:42 remained in the third period of the state sectional finals for Madison to surrender his first goal of the postseason, when junior Samuel Noone got the Lions on the board after transition passes from sophomore Kellen Harris and senior Landon Hopwood. With Middletown North’s deficit now just 2-1, the four spirit buses of Lions’ faithful that made the trip from the Jersey Shore to Morris Township erupted to a deafening level in its section, which was about 80% full.
Although Bridgewater-Raritan did not bring spirit buses, their section was about two-thirds full with Panthers fans on the opposite end of the arena.
They also responded along with the team they were watching.
Clinging to a one-goal lead, Bridgewater-Raritan did not allow another shot on goal until two minutes later, when Madison made the resulting catch above his shoulders. With the Lions’ crowd roaring, however, Middletown North was called for a slashing penalty with 7:30 to go to give the Panthers a much-needed power play.
Although Bridgewater-Raritan came up empty, Kramer fired a shot towards Gato 35 seconds before the penalty expired. Gato then made a save to end the power play, but Bridgewater-Raritan spent a little over a minute and a half of its power play inside of its offensive zone.
This created extra pressure on the Lions’ busy defense, but most importantly, time was running out for Middletown North with 5:29 to go.
The clock became even closer to midnight for the underdog Lions when Kotelnikov collected his second goal with 5:01 to go, which cushioned the Panthers’ late lead back to 3-1. Junior Greg Bonczek then blocked another Bridgewater-Raritan shot with 3:51 remaining, but on a transition look just 58 seconds later, junior Sahil Patel (one assist) navigated around the Lions’ defense and found classmate Stanley Xenakis (one goal, one assist).
Xenakis’ resulting goal with 2:51 to go extended Bridgewater-Raritan’s lead to an insurmountable advantage of 4-1, and the Panthers could practically taste the ice of the Prudential Center from this moment onward.
“It’s awesome and amazing to watch,” Madison said of his team’s offense, which outscored its opponents, 27-3, in the South, Public state sectional playoffs. “Those guys are buying in, and I think we have something special here.”
“I hope we can get it done.”
Senior Brendan Costello scored on assists from seniors Dominiks Marnauza and Lucas Laranjeiro to get Middletown North within 4-2 and give the Lions’ an empty-net attack to work with over the final two minutes of regulation.
By then, the damage was already done.
Bridgewater-Raritan thwarted the Lions’ final bid for a comeback, and Abolenskiy’s coast-to-coast goal as time expired put an exclamation point on the Panthers’ total team effort.
“It was difficult, but it was feasible,” Abolenskiy reflected. “We knew coming in that we had a scouting report all set. We knew what to do, went out there, and we did it. That’s why we’ve been so great this season. We keep doing it on and on, and our coaches do a great job of keeping us locked in. Nobody yapped when they got hit. Kudos to [Middletown North], because they played really hard.”
“At the end of the day, we just were the better team today.”
Bridgewater-Raritan’s 22 victories in 2025-26 matches the amount produced by each of the 2012-13, 2014-15, and 2024-25 Panthers’ teams. The last two times the Panthers accomplished this feat, they were upset at home in the second round of the state playoffs, including as the No. 1 seed last year in overtime, 3-2, against eighth-seeded Monroe Township High School.
That result only was the beginning of Bridgewater-Raritan’s journey to redemption.
In 2012-13, Bridgewater-Raritan also made the state finals before losing to Randolph High School, 4-1, at the Prudential Center on March 9, 2013. On March 9, 2014, Bridgewater-Raritan also fell in the state finals, 3-0, to Morris Knolls High School in this same venue, which serves as the home of the National Hockey League’s New Jersey Devils.
Ironically, it is March 9 of the current calendar year that serves as the date of Bridgewater-Raritan’s first return to the Prudential Center since then.
This time, the Panthers hope for a different outcome.
A ride back to Somerset County as state champions.
“I was at that game last year when we lost against Monroe,” revealed Ciesla, who was an eighth grader in the stands of Rock Ice Arena last year when Monroe ended Bridgewater-Raritan’s season in heartbreaking fashion. “It kind of set a fire in my heart to get further. Now that I’m on the team, being a big part of it is amazing, and I’m so honored to get these minutes. Today was a team effort, but the job is not finished.”
“At the end of the day, we’re going for a state title, and that’s all that matters.”