Ocean County may have history and tradition on its side, but on Aug. 3, it wasn’t enough to beat the best Monmouth County has to offer in an all-star hockey game.
The top high school hockey players from the two neighboring counties met up once again in the sixth annual Shore All-Star Hockey Game at the Red Bank Armory, with the Monmouth County squad emerging with a 6-3 win to even the series at 3-3. It marked the second win in a row for Monmouth following last year’s 9-4 win.
The series, which was started by former New Jersey Devil and current Minnesota Wild player Jim Dowd (a Brick native), has grown in popularity since its inception, and continues to raise funds for local youth hockey programs throughout the Shore.
Pete Lindner of CBA opened the scoring for Monmouth after just a minute of play. Vic Scotto of RBC and Chris Holmes of CBA assisted.
Ocean tied the game three minutes later on an unassisted goal by Jeff Bamond of Brick Memorial.
Kevin Craig of St. John Vianney gave Monmouth the lead 23 seconds into the second with a power play goal, assisted by Mitch Morgan of SJV. Two minutes later, John Wong of SJV made it 3-1, assisted by Morgan and Craig.
The all-SJV line of Craig, Morgan and Wong combined for five points in the game.
Ocean pulled within one with six minutes remaining in the second period on another unassisted goal, this time by Steve Shapiro of Toms River South.
Two minutes later, Monmouth MVP John Peratta of Middletown North scored the first of his two goals, assisted by Brendan Smith of Rumson-Fair Haven and Jaime Zimmel of Middletown South, last year’s MVP.
Only seconds later, Peratta scored the second goal on the same shift, again assisted by Smith. Ocean made it 5-3 in the final minute of the second period on a fluke goal, which went in off a skate. Bamond was credited with his second goal of the game, assisted by Tim Fogerty of Brick.
In the third, Monmouth made it 6-3 on an unassisted goal by Scotto.
There were only two penalties (one for each team) through two periods. But in the third period the teams combined for six penalties (five roughing and one slashing), and Monmouth withstood four power-play opportunities to shut the Ocean team down.
Monmouth outshot Ocean, 35-30, for the game.
For Monmouth, Peratta, Smith, Scotto and Craig all finished with two points each, while Ocean MVP Bamond was their only multiple-point scorer.