Friday,
January 23, 2015
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Joe Verboys' breakaway goal with at 10:54 of the third period proved the game-winner as Don Bosco Prep won its fourth straight Bergen County title with a 2-1 win over Ramsey. |
WAYNE – There were no goals scored through the first 26 minutes of Thursday night's Bergen County Ice Hockey Tournament final and there were some crazy moments in the third period. There was a penalty shot awarded to a team that was short-handed and two goals scored in the span of 20 seconds in front of a packed house at the Ice Vault that saw fans lined up three deep in some places around glass. But to find the real turning point in the game, look no further than a 12-second span inside the first minute-and-a-half of the second period.
With Ramsey still fresh coming off the five-minute between periods break and on the first power play of the night, the Rams were oh-so-close to scoring to game's first goal and really grabbing the momentum against Don Bosco Prep, the top-seed, the defending champion and the only program ever to win a Bergen County title in the three previous years that the event has been contested.
It was in those 12 seconds that Bosco really needed Alexei Masanko, a player that head coach Greg Toskos describes as “The best goalie in the state and that is what kept us in the game.”
Masanko made five saves including three in a row as the puck rattled around on the doorstep, to keep the game scoreless. Bosco got a goal from Ryan McLinsky at 10:47 of the second period and some insurance that it would turn out to need courtesy of a Joe Verboys breakaway four minutes from the final horn to secure a 2-1 win and a fourth straight Bergen County championship.
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Ramsey goalkeeper Tyler Harmon made a ton of big saves, including a stop of a third period penalty shot. |
“You basically just try to find the puck and cover it. There were a lot of shots, but it is my job to make sure none of them went in the net” said Masanko, of the flurry of shots on that second period power play. “I started training when I was four. My dad was a goalie, he got me into it and once I played it I loved it, especially in games like this.”
The game was not as much back-and-forth as it was your-turn, my-turn. Both teams had extended periods of possession before the other could clear the zone and set up shop on the other end. Shots were pretty close to even most of the way, but they came in bunches for each side before balancing back out. It ended with Ramsey taking 33 and Don Bosco with 32, three of them on the sequence that led to the opening goal.
Tyler Harmon, the Ramsey goaltender who was equally as tough to break down as Masanko, stopped the initial shot of Michael Jordan and the rebound attempt off the stick of Chris Mazzella, but McLinsky had hustled himself into the perfect spot. He was hanging out on the back post and flipped the third opportunity into the open left side of the net for the game's first goal with 4:13 left in the second.
“Both sides knew coming in that this was going to be a one-goal game. We both know each other inside and out, the kids play with each other in club hockey all over the place and we knew it was going to be tight,” said Toskos. “And whoever scores first is going to have the advantage and, luckily, it was us.”
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Bosco goaltender Alexei Masanko made 5 saves in a 12-second span to help kill a second period power play. |
But that lead was almost wiped out at 1:10 of the final period, before Masanko robbed Ramsey sniper Alex Whalen at the left post to set up what was a crazy final eight minutes.
The second penalty of the game sent Bosco's Michael Scott to the box for interference at 7:06 of the third and, what what should have been an opportunity for Ramsey almost turned into a complete nightmare. Mazzella stole the puck in the middle of the rink just and, with his speed, there is no catching him from behind. Mazzella went in alone for a short-handed breakaway attempt before being hooked in desperation.
Mazzella fought through it and still got off a shot, but when Harmon saved it, the whistle blew and he was awarded a penalty shot with a free run from center ice. And Harmon saved that one, too.
“I wasn't worried. I had every bit of confidence in Tyler. We practice that all the time, his club team practices that all the time and he is well-versed in it,” said Ramsey head coach Bob Toy. “I had complete confidence that Tyler would keep us in it.”
He did and it might have been a turning point, but the Ironmen killed off the rest of Ramsey's man advantage and then went a man up themselves at 9:19. Bosco evened it out the numbers by taking a penalty of its own, but it was in that four-a-side situation with the extra open ice that Verboys got ahead of the field to score what turned into the game-winning goal at 10:54.
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Alex Whelan had the goal for Ramsey, which hung right with Don Bosco in the Bergen County final for the second straight year. |
The two-goal advantage lasted just 20 seconds as Whalen banged in the second rebound after Masanko saved shots by Justin Nicholson and Nick Botta, which gave Ramsey the incentive to charge hard over the final 3:46, but it was not to be for the Rams, Bergen County's top public school program which fell just short against Bergen County's top non-public for the second straight season in hotly contested county finals.
“I told our guys that I was proud of them. We played a heckuva hockey game. We had a couple of chances that we just didn't bury early. We had a breakaway early and that scrum scrum on the power play early in the second. One of those has to drop and maybe it is different,” said Toy. “I told you before that this was going to be a heavyweight fight, it was going to be toe-to-toe and that one bounce or one goal was going to decide this and I wasn't wrong.”
Bosco still reigns as the lone Bergen County Tournament champion and lifting the trophy on Thursday night was the first of what they hope will be a series of three similar photo ops.
“Our goal last year and the year before as we finally had teams that could really compete was to win this one, the league and the states. Last year we got [two] of them, but we got upset in the state tournament,” said Toskos. “The league playoffs are a real grind and then you turn right around with the same five or six teams in the state [title]. It's not easy, so when you can win something you have to take that opportunity and I am happy that we were able to do it tonight.”
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