Rejuvenated offense leads Wayne Hills past West Milford by Jim McConville special to The Record
WAYNE – For both Wayne Hills and West Milford, Friday night’s matchup at the Ice Vault was all about the state tournament. Both teams were looking to use a win to elevate their hopes and get a winning streak started.
It was the Patriots who skated off with the smiles, earning a 5-2 win over the Highlanders that inched them closer to the .500 mark at 6-8-1. West Milford dropped to 5-10-1 and saw its chances for a berth in the state tournament take a serious hit.
“Right now, it’s pretty much win or else,” WH coach Angelo Serse said. “We can’t afford any more than maybe one loss, and we’ve got four games left right now before the cutoff. We’re trying to find another one if we can.”
What Wayne Hills found was the welcome return of two players to the lineup. Maros Adamec and Daniel Mirman showed how big a difference two more experienced forwards can make.
Adamec, who rejoined the team after the New Year, picked an opportune time to score his first goal of the season, getting the Patriots on the board at 12:32 of the first period. He got a feed from Jimmy Peracchio at the top of the crease and found room on the glove side.
Mirman, back after missing three weeks with a fractured wrist, scored unassisted 2:49 into the second period to give Hills a 2-0 lead.
“Honestly, we thought Danny was out for the season,” Serse said, “but he’s completely healed. Having the extra scorers takes so much pressure off of the other guys. They don’t have to think that they’ve got to score every goal.”
The Highlanders pulled within a goal at 2-1 at the 8:33 mark as Ryan Browne came in on a 2-on-1 and fed Chris Dressler at the left post for the tap-in. That would be as close as they would get, however.
Eric Kruglyak made a nice rush to the left slot and sent one over the glove to make it 3-1 at 11:47 of the second period, and when Dean Hulbert and Kruglyak scored in the opening five minutes of the third period, Wayne Hills was up 5-1.
“I got a good chip on that first goal,” Kruglyak said. “The second one we got a good rush going and (his brother) Eric set up Maros. He shot it and I was there for the rebound.”
Browne got the final West Milford goal, but this day belonged to the Patriots. To a man, they know it is an uphill climb, but with the added depth the objective seems more doable.
“We have to make states,” Kruglyak said. “That’s all we can think about right now. We have to win these next three games.”
INDIAN HILLS 8, RAMAPO 3 – Liam Johnson scored the hat trick in a span of 1:48 midway through the second period as the Braves broke open the game and knocked off the sister school for the third time this season.
Drew Lustig’s first of two goals put Indian Hills (11-3-2) up 1-0 after one period. Josh Schultz had an unassisted goal 51 seconds into the second period before Johnson put together his hat trick.
Both teams scored three goals in a wide-open third period. The Braves outshot the Raiders (3-10-3), 40-19.
NORTHERN HIGHLANDS 4, MORRISTOWN BEARD 3 – The Highlanders (10-4-1) broke a 2-2 tie with goals by James Cerepak and Sean Vlasich 1:05 apart early in the third period, then hung on for a victory that could be very important come state tournament seeding time.
NH’s Joe Konvit and MB’s Isaac Davison traded first-period goals before Dylan Koh put Highlands up 2-1 in the second. Morristown Beard evened it up again on a Gavin Puskar power-play goal with just 26 seconds left in the second.
Puskar scored with 7:44 remaining to get Morristown Beard (10-6) within a goal, but Richard Vincent finished a 20-save game strong and preserved the win.
LAKELAND 4, MAHWAH 0 – The Lancers got three goals from Andrew Heck and one from Chris Wands to improve their record to 12-3-1.
Heck’s first goal came at 2:09 of the first period and his second at 2:32 of the second period. Wands added his goal two minutes later for a 3-0 bulge and Lakeland was able to cruise from there.
Heck completed the hat trick with his 15th of the season late in the third period and Carl Lorenz stopped 19 shots for his second shutout of the year.
RIDGEWOOD 6, ST. JOSEPH 4 – The Maroons have struggled all season, but they put together a strong third period in knocking off the Green Knights (11-4) for just their third win of the season.
Trailing, 2-1, Ridgewood scored twice in a span of 20 seconds to get the lead and ignite a five-goal period. Ryan Carius and Davis Flusche got the goals and J.P. Kelly made it 4-2 with 9:29 remaining.
St. Joseph twice got Dominck Posta third period scores to get back to within a goal, but Carius finished off the upset with an empty net goal with 49 seconds left. The six goals were a season high for the Maroons (3-8-3).
RAMSEY 6, WAYNE VALLEY 1 – The Rams also found their scoring touch, notching their season high to spark their third win of the year.
Thomas Moor and Tyler Botta scored in the first period before Brandon Kirchgessner netted his first goal of the season at 4:35 of the second period. Botta and Chris Matzelle added goals to make it 5-0 after two periods.
Anthony Mazzerina broke up the shutout unassisted before Daniel Halik closed out the Rams’ scoring with an unassisted goal. Brendan McCaskey had 16 saves for the Rams, who won for the first time in eight games (0-6-1).
CLIFTON 10, ORATORY PREP 4 – Karol Vida had a career-high best four goals, including a pair of short-handed tallies, and James Fusaro added three as the Mustangs improved to 9-5-1 on the season.
Clifton was up 4-0 after Vida and Fusaro split the first period goals and increased that lead to 7-0 before Prep was able to dent the scoreboard. Sean Meneghin, Nick Petriella and Jason Finan had the other Mustang goals.
OLD TAPPAN 10, MONROE WOODBURY (N.Y.) 3 – Darren Katz scored five goals to increase his season total to 20, leading the Golden Knights to the triumph that pushes their record to 7-5-2 and improves their chances of earning a state tournament berth.
Katz scored twice in each of the first and second periods as Old Tappan built a 7-2 cushion after two periods. Ryan Travers had a goal and four assists and Jarred Cohen added a goal and three assists for the Golden Knights.