By: Ken Weingartner
In the baseball film "Bull Durham," eccentric pitcher Ebby Calvin "Nuke" LaLoosh utters the immortal lines: "I love winning, man. It’s like, … better than losing."
A simplistic philosophy, to be sure, but one the South Brunswick High ice hockey team discovered over the past week.
After starting the season 1-7-1, the Vikings took the first steps toward salvaging the campaign by winning 6-2 over Toms River South and rallying for a 5-4 victory against Steinert.
With seven games remaining on the schedule although one, against Monsignor Donovan, was postponed Monday because of the weekend snowstorm - South Brunswick remains in position to qualify for the state public school tournament.
"It was a good week," Vikings coach Mark Kmiec said. "We’re definitely in a must-win situation now. Everyone was healthy, so that’s good, and the kids are really coming around. We’re still hoping to make the state tournament. We definitely have to keep up our winning ways. Either way, we’re still trying to make something out of the season. I’m glad the kids didn’t throw in the towel."
The Vikings might have been tempted to toss the towel after blowing a two-goal lead against Steinert. South Brunswick burst to a 2-0 lead, then trailed 4-2 by midway through the second period. But two power-play goals on a five-minute major penalty tied the score before Richie Stewart’s second tally of the contest gave SB the triumph.
Stewart also had two assists in the game while Vinnie Caputo, Mike Mazzola and Rich Guarini added goals. South Brunswick’s offense was lively, getting off 44 shots.
"Our passing is much better," Kmiec said. "We definitely worked on passing over the last two weeks. It’s much improved. Our power-play passing is what allowed us to tie the game against Steinert.
"I think we’re playing with some confidence now. We came into last week knowing that our only win of the year was against Toms River South, and that gave the kids confidence going into the game. It continued against Steinert. It definitely showed in their play."
Another reason for the Vikings to be confident the toughest part of the schedule is in the past. Of South Brunswick’s final six foes (it plays Toms River East twice), only Monsignor Donovan and Old Bridge have a winning record. And SB blew a third-period lead against Donovan earlier this season.
"We definitely had some tough games early on, but I think every game we play is a tough game," Kmiec said. "But hopefully going into this part of the schedule we’ll be able to get some wins and squeeze into the state tournament. We’re confident and doing our best. We’re going to try to get there. With that goal in mind, the kids are going out and playing hard."
There is little room for error, though. If the Vikings can reschedule the Donovan game prior to the cutoff date, they will need to win six of their final seven contests to finish 9-8-1. If the Donovan game is not re-slated, then SB most likely will need to be perfect.
"The kids are starting to do the things right now that they need to do," Kmiec said. "There’s no excuses for bad play anymore. We’ve cut down on the mistakes we were making at the beginning of the season; it’s been much better the last two weeks than the first four. But the kids know they’ll be watching the game from the bench if that doesn’t happen.
We just have to keep winning and see what happens."
It’s like, better than losing.

