Long before anyone on the Bridgewater-Raritan High School ice hockey team was born, the United States Men’s National Ice Hockey Team achieved the impossible.
On Monday afternoon, the Panthers also did what many people thought was unthinkable just a short time ago.
Five years after it finished winless in a 2020-21 season ravaged statewide by the COVID-19 pandemic, No. 11-ranked Bridgewater-Raritan High School (23-3-1) saw sophomore goalie Justin Madison and his defense post a 34-save shutout in the state finals against No. 13-ranked Ridgewood High School (21-5).
Junior Stanley Xenakis netted both of the game’s goals to propel the Panthers to a 2-0 victory in the NJSIAA Public Ice Hockey Tournament title game and their first state championship in program history, Monday, March 9, at the Prudential Center in Newark.
“We all had a bond from the beginning, we took that all the way this year, and it showed,” said after his team’s postgame celebration by Xenakis, who played club hockey last year as a sophomore before completing his breakout return season for Bridgewater-Raritan with his M.V.P. performance in the state finals.
Not only did this result in the Panthers’ first-ever state title, which capped off an improbable five-year journey from rock bottom to New Jersey’s summit under head coach Vincent Arnone, but it also came after his team won just five games in his 2021-22 debut as the Panthers’ skipper.
Xenakis was awarded the Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau Most Valuable Player trophy, which was brought onto the Prudential Center’s ice for a group photo with his team’s state championship trophy and a signed jersey by the host New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League (NHL).
While these were three newly claimed items the Panthers had during their postgame celebration, they also noticeably brought one possession that was the closest to their heavy hearts.
That was the No. 50 jersey worn by Collin Zavoda, who sadly passed away in June 2024 before the end of his freshman year and just before his Panthers’ ice hockey teammate and older brother, Mitchell, graduated from Bridgewater-Raritan High School.
Zavoda’s No. 50 jersey hung above Bridgewater-Raritan’s bench during both the state sectional finals and state championship games, and the Panthers rallied around him.
With members of Bridgewater-Raritan’s squad holding Zavoda’s No. 50 jersey and a trophy donning the Gaudreau brothers’ names in an arena that houses the three-time NHL Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils at center ice, this also completed a beautiful full-circle moment that was showcased to the entire Garden State under New Jersey’s brightest lights.
Even more, this moment had striking similarities to the United States men’s ice hockey team’s recent run to its first gold medal in nearly half of a century: its first since one of the most monumental upsets in sports history.
The Miracle on Ice.
That unimaginable event was the end result of the Olympic ice hockey gold medal game on February 22, 1980 between the United States and the Soviet Union in Lake Placid, New York. In that game, the United States famously rallied from one goal down in the third period to defeat the four-time reigning Olympic champion Soviet Union, 4-3, and win its first gold medal since 1960.
Exactly 46 years after the Miracle on Ice, which was one day before the 2025-26 NJSIAA ice hockey tournament was originally scheduled to begin, history repeated itself for the United States.
A massive blizzard blanketed New Jersey on that day, and this pushed the first round of the state ice hockey tournament for Bridgewater-Raritan back to Thursday, February 26. This proved to be more reason for those in the Garden State on the morning of Sunday, February 22 to join the world in being glued to their television screens.
Three days after the United States women’s ice hockey team defeated Canada in overtime, 2-1, to win its third gold medal, the world watched the United States men’s ice hockey team also take down Canada by an identical result, 2-1 in overtime, to win its third gold medal.
For the first time since the Miracle on Ice, the United States stood alone on the mountaintop of the Olympics after Jack Hughes of the NHL’s New Jersey Devils buried the golden goal to complete his team’s championship run at Milano Santa Giulia Ice Hockey Arena in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
Hughes followed that up with an impactful postgame interview, when he showed his love and appreciation for the U.S.A., which he and his fellow Olympic gold medalists represented in front of a worldwide audience.
Even more, his team’s postgame celebration was also arguably one of the most powerful moments in the history of the Olympics.
When members of the United States’ squad took photos together on the ice with their gold medals after the game, along with their young children, they also brought the No. 13 jersey of the late Johnny Gaudreau, who was a South New Jersey native and played for the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets and Calgary Flames.
Tragically, Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau lost their lives after being struck by a car by an alleged drunk driver while riding their bicycles in August 2024, prior to their sister’s wedding.
Appropriately, in Hughes’ home NHL venue on Monday afternoon of all places, one player from each of Monday afternoon’s four state champions crowned by the NJSIAA was presented with the M.V.P. trophy bearing the names of the Gaudreau brothers. Like the United States men’s ice hockey team did in Milano Santa Giulia Ice Hockey Arena with Johnny Gaudreau’s No. 13 jersey just over two weeks earlier, the Bridgewater-Raritan High School ice hockey team similarly honored Zavoda and his No. 50 jersey.
That was not all.
Not only did the Panthers bring Zavoda’s No. 50 jersey, Xenakis’ M.V.P. trophy named after the Gaudreau brothers, and their first ever state championship trophy onto center ice at the Prudential Center.
Even more symbolically, Bridgewater-Raritan’s tribute occurred just days before anniversary No. 50 of the NJSIAA’s first ever ice hockey final (March 19, 1976 between Chatham Township and Brick) at William G. Mennen Arena in Morris Township, where the Panthers also just won their South, Public, state sectional trophy to set the stage for their ultimate showdown against Ridgewood.
With No. 50 hanging behind Bridgewater-Raritan’s bench in Jack Hughes’ home NHL venue, which plastered the NJSIAA’s 50th anniversary logo all over its rafters and on its Jumbotron, nothing seemed to get in the way of the outcome the Panthers seemed destined to achieve from day one.
Immortality in 2025-26.
“I just miss him so much and I gave it all in that game just for him,” said after the game by Bridgewater-Raritan junior forward Easton Schrage, who held Zavoda’s No. 50 jersey in both of the Panthers’ state sectional title and state championship trophy photos. “I wish he could be here, but I’m proud we got the job done. I know he’s looking over us and I know he’s super proud of us.”
“I just want to say that I love you, Collin.”
Their fitting tribute was punctuated by the Panthers’ masterful state championship performance.
Ridgewood outshot Bridgewater-Raritan, 34-18, but the Panthers’ defense stole the show en route to its third shutout in five playoff games against a Maroons squad that entered Monday afternoon tallying 5.44 goals per game: the fourth best average in all of New Jersey.
They went up against a Bridgewater-Raritan defensive unit spearheaded by Madison, who was the final line of a Panthers’ defense that was the ninth best in New Jersey entering the game with an average of just 1.77 goals allowed per game.
Madison’s counterpart in Ridgewood senior goalie Oliver Grant (16 saves), who had chants of “Oli G.” rain down from a Maroons’ student section that outnumbered Bridgewater-Raritan’s student section by at least four-to-one, also put on a show.
He was able to help keep his team in state championship contention until the game’s final horn, but on Monday afternoon, nothing seemed to get in the way of Bridgewater-Raritan and its state championship that seemed meant to be.
At the end of the day, Madison’s most meaningful shutout of his career (so far) in the state finals was the difference, and his 34 saves poetically matched the No. 34 jersey he will be slated to wear for two more solid years for Bridgewater-Raritan.
“He’s saved us and came up big so many times,” praised Schrage of Madison, who did not surrender a goal in four of his five postseason games this season and finished the year with 765 total saves and a 95.4% save percentage in 2025-26. “He’s only let up two goals this entire postseason.”
“He is the backbone of our team, and he means everything to us.”
Both teams fired two shots in the game’s first three minutes, but with 9:30 left in the first period, junior James Kramer collected a key hit along the wall in the middle of Ridgewood’s defensive zone that pinballed a stick upwards into the second row of the spectator stands.
While no penalty was called on that play, the Panthers were whistled for the game’s first penalty on a cross-check with 5:49 left in the first period. Just under one minute into the Maroons’ resulting five-on-four attack, the unphased Madison made a catch that led to a successful penalty kill.
This finally swung the momentum in Bridgewater-Raritan’s favor.
Bridgewater-Raritan junior forward Sasha Abolenskiy then fired a shot that was saved by Grant, while Ridgewood sophomore forward Will LoSauro appeared to swat away the resulting rebound with 3:13 left in the first period. With 2:22 left in the opening period, Grant denied back-to-back shots by Bridgewater-Raritan, which evened the game at five shots a piece.
Moments later, the Panthers struck first.
Senior captain and forward Alex Kotelnikov (two assists) fired the game’s next shot, but Xenakis cleaned up on the ensuing rebound with 2:10 left in the first period to give Bridgewater-Raritan a 1-0 lead it never relinquished.
In the final minute of the first period, Madison made another big save for Bridgewater-Raritan, while junior Sahil Patel swatted away the resulting rebound to keep it a 1-0 game at the first intermission.
After achieving an 8-7 shot advantage in the first period, Ridgewood followed that up with a 13-8 barrage in the second period, which factored in a quick shot by Bridgewater-Raritan just 26 seconds following the opening faceoff. But in perhaps one of the biggest turning points of the day, Ridgewood’s shot with 13:40 left in the second period bounced off both Madison’s left glove and the goalpost to his left.
Instead of tying the game, Ridgewood still found itself trailing, 1-0.
“We’re just so grateful to have him in,” Schrage went on to say of Madison, who has 1,367 saves just halfway into what is slated to be a superstar four-year career.
“When he makes those big saves, it just lifts us all up and makes us more excited.”
With 11:30 left in the second period, sophomore defenseman Niklas Dorey then blocked a key shot from Will LoSauro. The Maroons countered with a save by Grant on a rip from Bridgewater-Raritan sophomore forward Jason Rutkowski at the 10:06 timestamp. Both goalies continued their resilient fights to keep their teams within striking distance, but with Bridgewater-Raritan clinging to its 1-0 lead, Madison made another diving save with 8:59 left in the second period.
Somehow, he got his right foot on the puck before the net dislodged from play in heavy traffic – much to the dismay of Ridgewood’s packed student section that was directly behind Madison’s side of the ice during the second period.
Bridgewater-Raritan found itself with a nice transition opportunity courtesy of both Kotelnikov and Abolenskiy, but Ridgewood junior forward Sam Sherman dove in between both players near Grant’s crease to block the ensuing shot with 6:06 left in the second period. Madison responded with back-to-back saves just under one minute later before catching a shot rocketed from the blue line of the Panthers’ defensive zone by Will LoSauro with 4:03 left in the second period.
Freshman defenseman John Ciesla then produced a clutch blocked shot for Bridgewater-Raritan near Madison’s crease with 3:18 left in the second period. One minute later, Kramer followed that up with a hit in the faceoff circle directly to the right of Grant.
On a pass by Kotelnikov with 1:15 left in the second period, Bridgewater-Raritan finally cashed in, as Xenakis’ second goal of the day audibly silenced Ridgewood’s massive student section and all but sealed his M.V.P. award.
While Kramer was whistled for a penalty 34 seconds before the game’s second intermission, Bridgewater-Raritan had plenty of breathing room with a 2-0 lead, especially with Madison fittingly making a stop as time expired in the second period.
“It was the best feeling ever,” said of that moment by the surging Xenakis, whose two-goal afternoon was his fifth multi-goal game in a Bridgewater-Raritan uniform and his third alone since February 13.
“That was my favorite moment of my life, and I don’t think I’ll be able to relive that again.”
Bridgewater-Raritan ultimately erased the final 1:26 of Ridgewood’s power play to launch the third period, and time was running out for the Maroons with the Panthers still ahead by a score of 2-0. Ridgewood ultimately outshot the Panthers, 13-3, in the third period before emptying its net late in regulation for one last six-on-five attack.
Bridgewater-Raritan held on to put an exclamation point on its shutout victory, which resulted in the Panthers hoisting their first state championship trophy after coming up short in their previous three trips to the state finals.
“If we keep working hard, I don’t see a problem with us coming back here,” revealed afterwards by Xenakis, who is one of seven juniors, along with a whopping eight sophomores and four freshmen projected to return for Bridgewater-Raritan in the 2026-27 season.
“This is probably the best moment we can have as a high school team.”
The Panthers fell in their first state finals appearance in 2007 in overtime, 5-4, after Randolph rallied from a two-goal deficit late in regulation. Bridgewater-Raritan lost again to Randolph, 4-1, in 2013, before Morris Knolls beat the Panthers the following year, 3-0, in 2014.
Monday afternoon marked Ridgewood’s second state finals appearance after it made its Prudential Center debut last season in 2025, when the Maroons fell 5-2 to Westfield High School on this stage one year ago.
Westfield was dethroned in upset fashion by Middletown High School North, 3-1, in the South, Public sectional semifinals before Bridgewater-Raritan won its state sectional title over Middletown North, 5-2, at William G. Mennen Arena in Morris Township on Thursday evening.
And then most fittingly, its first state title on anniversary No. 50 of the NJSIAA’s first ice hockey state finals with the late Zavoda’s No. 50 jersey in its possession.
With only five seniors graduating, including the Panthers’ second leading scorer in Kotelnikov (24 points, 23 assists) and their defensive leader in assistant captain Matt Harrison, Bridgewater-Raritan now will have its sights set on defending its crown.
This time, no longer as underdogs, but as the team to beat in New Jersey.
“I’m just so grateful for all of our seniors and everything they taught me,” Schrage concluded of Kotelnikov, Harrison, Ari Fusco, Nicholas Hoff, and Sebastian Raimondi, who will all head into the sunset as state champions, state sectional champions, and back-to-back Skyland Cup champions to go with a four-year record of 68-28-2, including a staggering 45-7-1 mark over the past two seasons alone. “I’m just going to try and take what I learned from them and keep going with it.”
“We’re going to be a super good team next year, so let’s see if we can do it again.”