Ice Hockey: Ramsey 1, Wayne Hills 0

Leave it to Bob Toy, the Ramsey head coach, to put a little levity into a pressure situation.  Reacting to a question, and with a straight face, he said, “Next year I’m going to change the slogan on (the back of) our shirts.  On the workout jerseys it says, ‘one team, one goal.’  I didn’t know they were going to take it literally.”

Coming off a 1-0 win in the Big North Green Cup final against Indian Hills last Friday, the Rams found themselves embroiled in another barn burner on Thursday night at the Ice Vault in their second round game with Wayne Hills.  Familiarity worked against them; the weight of the number one seed in Public B was apparent; about the only thing that went their way was the one bounce they needed to win.

Connor DiTomaso scored from the right slot 1:56 into the third period and Justin Larkin stopped all 22 Patriot shots as Ramsey escaped with a 1-0 win and earned a quarterfinal date with surprising Red Bank Regional on Sunday at 5:00 p.m. at the Ice Vault.  The Rams overcame their own sloppy play and a strong performance by Wayne Hills goalie Peter Petrozza, who had 28 saves.

“Playing a team that you know so well and knows you so well is tough at this time of the year,” Toy said.  “It works against the higher seed, and we did not play a good first two periods.  We were sloppy, we took penalties and we played right into their game.”

Ramsey wasn’t without chances.  Alex Whelan had a mini-breakaway 3:58 into the game, coming down the right side, but his shot got too much of Petrozza and he made the save.  Ryan D’Amato had a mini-breakaway 48 seconds into the second period but his shot from just off the left circle was corralled by Petrozza.

The rest of the first two periods saw Wayne Hills go on four power plays, including a 1:52 stretch in the second period where hey had a two-man advantage.  They could not cash in, but Ramsey was equally inefficient, going 0 for 4 with the man advantage themselves.  The Rams also clanged a crossbar and had another shot from Anthony Pedulla hit off Petrozza and clang the post.

The deadlock finally ended with DiTomaso’s goal, which developed off a dump into the Patriot zone.  Nick Botta and Whelan kept it behind the goal line before Whelan looked to pass it out.  The puck caromed off a player and slid right to DiTomaso in the right slot.

“We were working the puck real well down low,” DiTomaso recalled.  “I really don’t know exactly how the puck came to me.  I had my head down but I just saw it come to me, threw it on net and it went in.”

Armed with the lead, Larkin became the focal point.  The senior goaltender protected the lead along with his defense, making a good stop with six minutes to go.  In the final 90 seconds Wayne Hills was unable to get Petrozza off for an extra skater as Ramsey kept the Pats from controlling the puck.

“This is playoff hockey,” DiTomaso said.  “There are no bad teams, and you’ve seen upsets all over the place so far.  We couldn’t let that happen as the number one seed.  We had to hold our position.  It’s one and done, you just have to keep going until that final whistle.”