Monday, December 28, 2009

By Jimmy Hascup
NJS.com Correspondent

WAYNE -- Sunday night’s affair between Ramsey and St. Peter’s Prep at the Ice Vault featured two ice hockey teams heading in two different directions. For Ramsey, winner of the State Public School Championship last year, there remains only one objective: repeat. But for the Marauders, a team comprised of mainly underclassmen and only five seniors, the rebuilding process takes time and is accompanied with its ups and downs

The matchup against the defending state champion was one of those down moments for St. Peter’s. Fresh off their 4-1 victory against Kinnelon, runner-up to Ramsey in last year’s state final, the Marauders were unable to jumpstart their first winning streak of the season, falling to Ramsey 3-2 in the High School Holiday Classic.

St. Peter’s Coach Joseph Maione understands the importance of being optimistic, especially with a young team.

“You just have to move on,” Maione said. “We were there and we kind of gave a few goals away, we thought. The season’s still young but we’re taking a couple steps forward – we like to think of it as baby steps – progressively get better as the season moves along.”

The beginning of first period saw the Marauders come out of the gate strong, controlling the five-on-five play and winning the defensive battles in the neutral zone. However, a too-many men on the ice penalty against the Marauders provided the perfect opportunity for the Rams to get on the scoring-board first. Thirty seconds into the power play, defenseman Michael Gwon jumped into the play and flicked a wrist shot from just outside the crease over the right shoulder of the Marauders’ goaltender, Nick Bretzger.

After receiving a gift of a goal, Ramsey gave the lead right back 26 seconds later. The Maruaders’ forwards pressured the defense of Ramsey, causing a turnover to forward Will Simson, who simply had to wrist a shot over the falling Matt Braun to tie the game up at one apiece.

One of the messages Ramsey Coach Bob Toy had for his team after the 4-2 loss to Don Bosco – in which they had a 2-1 lead through the early portions of the third period – was for his team to play a complete 45 minute hockey game. Forward Patrick Rutkowski echoed that sentiment, “The message was just never give up and never take a period off,” Rutkowski said. “You take one period off then it can burn you.”

The Rams upped the aggression in the second period, realizing the young St. Peter’s squad would not give up easily. Even though the majority of the period remained scoreless, the effort-level was more evident in the second period. With less than four minutes remaining in the frame, the Rams were able to capitalize on the less-experienced defensive core of St. Peter’s.

Utilizing his exceptional speed, Rams’ forward Tyler Bishop, skated through the Marauders defenders, creating a two-on-one chance for Ramsey. His pass underneath the charging Marauders’ defenseman’s stick hit streaking forward John Kirk, who deked Bretzker by faking forehand to the right and sliding the puck into the net with his backhand to the left – giving Ramsey a 2-1 lead. The shot total after the second period was 12-11 in favor of Ramsey.

The Marauders looked to knot the game up early in the third period with a power play opportunity of their own. However, the work along the boards and the pressure on the St. Peter’s shooters by Rams’ Gwon and Bishop, prevented the Marauders from garnering even a shot on goal.

The hard work translated to a goal with five minutes remaining in the game for the Rams as a pass from Rutkowski at the right corner to forward Jake Fassler – who was stationed in front of the net – set-up a marker that squeaked through Bretzker’s five-hole.

A late tally from St. Peter’s by forward Nick Bilchuk made the final minutes more interesting than Ramsey had hoped for and increased the intensity level from both sides. There were four penalties called, three of them on the Marauders, in the final three minutes of the game.

The lone one by Ramsey, a charging penalty by Bishop with 13 seconds left, negated a power play chance for the Rams and moved the faceoff into Ramsey’s zone. Although the Rams were able to stifle the last second efforts by St. Peter’s, Toy was unsatisfied with his team’s overall performance and especially irked by the careless penalty at the end of the game.

“Today was probably one of our worst games of the year,” Toy said. “St. Pete’s beat us to every puck, every wall battle. We were fortunate to win. Those two goals they scored in front of our net where they crashed the net hard, we picked nobody up. I’m not happy with our performance tonight, but we’re fortunate to get a win.”

For St. Peter’s the relentlessness at the end of the game was a positive sign, but Coach Maione understands his team’s limitations. “We need to score more goals, it’s been a problem,” Maione said. “We’re keeping the goals against down lately, but we have a little trouble offensively. [We have to] just try to keep it simple: take shots, drive to the net, go for those rebounds.”

St. Peter’s will face Pope John in their next game on January 4. Ramsey will attempt to prove that their win against Kinnelon last year was no fluke, as they faceoff against them on Tuesday at the Ice Vault.

The game-plan from Coach Toy is clear. “We’ve got to control pucks on the wall,” Toy said. “We’ve got to get pucks deep in the zone and work our offense from there. And we didn’t do any of that [tonight]. The message is the same, we’ll just see about the execution.”

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