WW-PS leading scorer Perry will miss state opener
By: Justin Feil
Tyler Boyle’s hands went up, but they weren’t in surrender.
The West Windsor-Plainsboro High South senior thought he had scored the goal that would have tied Notre Dame, 2-2, in the third period. Instead, Notre Dame goaltender Pat Hannigan held the puck under his pads and out of the net.
The Fighting Irish would go on to prevail, 3-1, in a hard-fought Mercer County Tournament final Monday at Mercer County Park for their second straight county title. But it wasn’t without a spirited effort from the second-seeded Pirates, who lost, 8-0, to Notre Dame late in January.
"I couldn’t have asked for more out of the guys," said WW-PS head coach Brian McGurney, whose team fell to 18-3-1 this season heading into Wednesday’s 3 p.m. opening round state tournament game against Millburn at MCP. "Maybe we had one, maybe two, bad games this year, but they’ve come out hard game in and game out. There are 10 other teams waiting at home to read about this game. And we still have some games left in us."
It will be difficult to bounce back from Monday’s emotional loss. McGurney wished his team had more than the one day of rest in between games.
"The guys are down now," he said. "You have to expect that. But the sun will come up tomorrow. I think we still have a lot of hockey left in us. But after a game like this, you almost need a week off. It was a real physical game. It will take them a day to recover, but you’d like as many as you can get."
The teams skated through a scoreless and fairly uneventful first period, as though the teams had not met before and were just feeling each other out. Notre Dame came close to scoring, however, when a harmless looking shot ran down WW-PS goalie Mitch DePace’s stick and off the right post.
Notre Dame got on the board first when a flurry of shots from a scramble in front finally found their mark. Sal Carollo got the go-ahead goal after he rebounded shots from Justin Petrosini and Jason Vico. The Pirates remained just a goal down, 1-0, as they came out of the locker room for the third period. Outshot, 22-13, at that juncture, WW-PS picked up its attack and emotions climbed a bit.
The Pirate aggression played against them four minutes into the period when Notre Dame broke out on a 2-on-1 with Tom Stronski carrying the puck down the left side and Tom Monahan skating alongside, or perhaps a bit in front of him. Though it appeared that Monahan was offsides ahead of the puck entering the Pirate defensive zone, there was no whistle, except the one to indicate a score when Monahan zipped a shot past DePace for a 2-0 lead after Stronski fed him the puck.
WW-PS had its chance for revenge when Stronski first was whistled for holding and then given an extra two minutes for roughing after punching WW-PS’ Steve Kim. Only 29 seconds into the four-minute power play, Kim sent a pass over to Boyle who teed up a drive from the right point. Notre Dame’s Hannigan couldn’t handle the rebound, but WW-PS’ Jimmy Ferriter did, depositing it in the back of the cage with 6:22 to play to cut the Fighting Irish lead to 2-1.
Boyle thought he had the equalizer a minute and a half later when he rushed up ice, sat in front of Hannigan and took a pass from Kim. Everything went great except the puck did not go in. The Pirates, who managed 12 third-period shots to ND’s 13, lost their momentum when the referees gave co-captain Adam Perry a major penalty and controversial game misconduct for a check in the back. It seemed extreme when compared with Stronski’s punch in clear view of the 500 spectators. Moments later, Notre Dame’s Jason Vico added a goal with 1:23 to play to produce the final 3-1 count.
"They get an offsides goal and you saw what happened," McGurney said. "I know it will seem like I’m complaining. It’s a great team we played.
"It hurts to see a game like this when you know guys in the locker room won’t have another chance to play in a Mercer County final. I don’t want to take anything away from Notre Dame though. They’re a great team."
WW-PS proved it’s a pretty good squad as well. And the Pirates intend to continue proving it in the state tournament, though it could be more difficult. New Jersey officials will decide whether Perry misses one or two games for the game misconduct, meaning their leading scorer won’t be around Wednesday and could miss a potential matchup with the state’s No. 1 seed.