January
20, 2007
WAYNE -- It was a highly anticipated Friday night at the Ice Vault, as Wayne Hills and Wayne Valley squared off for the Mayor’s Cup before a standing room only crowd. When it was all over, everyone was left wanting more.
The teams played to a 1-1 tie through regulation time, after which confusion took over. Initially, the referees called the captains together and explained that there would be a five-minute overtime, and if no one scored, the game would be decided by a shootout.
Because it was a regular season game, there are normally no provisions for an overtime session, and in fact the referees told the official scorer that the game sheet was closed out and it was officially a tie, but for the Cup purposes they would play to a winner.
This had the capacity crowd, which had not left at the final whistle, cheering loudly, and the players and coaches were gung-ho for the extra session as well.
The only problem is that, in a regular season game that is not part of a tournament, you cannot play any extra time under any circumstances. To do so would mean that each player would be disqualified and each school would be placed on probation and obviously be ineligible for the state tournament.
Wayne Hills athletic director Joe Ascolese told the referees from the scorers box that the game could not continue for those reasons, at which point both teams were informed the game was over and the spectators were told over the public address system.
That brought a chorus of boos from the crowd as well as objections from both teams’ players, who wanted to keep going. The chant of “Let them play” rang out for several seconds from the spectators before the teams gathered in center ice and congratulated each other on their now completed game.
“It raises questions for the future about what you can and can’t do,” WV head coach Dan Kilday posed.
The game itself saw both teams play it close to the vest. There were only four penalties (two on each team) and whenever one would seem to be controlling the play, the other would make a play and change the tide.
“Each team a nice job of taking momentum away from the other,” Kilday said. “It was a very back and forth game, exciting for the fans.”
There certainly were chances for both teams to win the game, but the Patriots (4-10-1) kept misfiring and the Indians could not cash in any of three excellent chances in the third period.
“We probably had at least 20 shots miss the net,” WH head coach Darren Amerkanian said. “We sent more off the glass than we did on goal. That’s not going to do anything for you.”
Valley had grabbed the lead 1:36 into the second period when Will DePeri knocked his own rebound past Hills goaltender Ryan Brower for an unassisted tally. That lead was intact until 2:38 of the third period, when the Pats’ Albert Campbell buried his 24th of the season.
Off a faceoff, Kevin Spadaro got the puck to Dan Lane, who nudged it to Campbell in the right circle. He moved across the ice right to left before sending a shot inside the left post at 2:38.
After that, it was the Indians (6-2-5) who had the best chances. The first came at 6:20 on a shot from the right point by Mike Grutzmacher that Brower made a nice stop on. With five minutes to go, Billy Happe was left alone in the slot and had a point blank chance that Brower was able to smother. Brower (21 saves) caught a break at 13:40 as Kevin Geyer had half the net to shoot at and tried for top shelf left only to go over the crossbar with his shot.
“What we come away with is that we played a hard and strong third period,” Kilday commented. “We had scoring opportunities and play strong defense. In other games, we’ve kind of wilted in the third period, so it was a nice progression for us. The mindset was we’re going to go after it, not questioning ourselves.”
For Hills, it was another tough result, one of many that have occurred since the championship game of the Passaic County tournament. The tie snapped a six-game losing streak but still leaves them needing to win their next six in order to qualify for the state tournament.
“It’s been a vicious combination of lack of concentration, lack of desire, missing the net, bad bounces,” Amerkanian said of the recent skid. “We’ve had every single thing happen a multitude of times. It’s very tough to watch these kids work hard and have nothing happening right.”
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