After nightmare start, SBHS hockey team dreams of state berth
By: Ken Weingartner
Winning can be cleansing.
For the South Brunswick ice hockey team, it has virtually erased the first six weeks of the season. The Vikings continued their remarkable turnaround Monday with a 3-1 win over Rumson-Fair Haven, giving South Brunswick its seventh consecutive victory.
With the triumph, the Vikings improved to 8-7-1 and needed just one win in their remaining two games (Wednesday against Old Bridge or today against Toms River East) to qualify for the state public school tournament. Anton Rassadkin, Mike Bowser and Chris Guarini scored goals for South Brunswick in its victory over Rumson-Fair Haven.
The Vikings, who started the campaign 1-7-1, last lost Jan. 14 to undefeated Notre Dame, ranked No. 14 in New Jersey. They have outscored their opponents 34-18 during their win streak.
"It’s really satisfying," junior Vinnie Fedele said. "It’s like we’ve got a whole new chance at our season now. We’ve washed away our seven losses. It’s really special."
If there was a turning point, it most likely was the Vikings’ come-from-behind win at Steinert, the second game of their streak. South Brunswick trailed 4-2 midway through the second period, but took advantage of power play chances to rally for a 5-4 victory. Steinert is 11-5-2 this season.
"That really gave us a lot of confidence," said Bowser, a senior. "I think we just clicked; I think that’s really what happened. I think we just gained a lot of confidence and started to put up a lot of points. People are scoring now that we didn’t see scoring in the first half of the season."
Following the Steinert win, the Vikings blanked Toms River East 4-0, knocked off No. 18 Monsignor Donovan 4-3 and rallied for a 7-5 victory over Johnson. Last week, they beat Pennington, 5-3.
"There wasn’t a point where we were ready to give up," said Fedele, who has nine goals this season. "Even when we started out by losing seven of our first nine, I don’t think anybody was going to give up. We looked it right in the eye. We buckled down and started our streak.
"You can definitely see the difference. People aren’t stressed or worrying. It’s fun playing together. Winning changes a lot of things. We’ve been working together more as a group to get the job done. We realize not one person can do it; everybody has got to fill his role."
A number of factors contributed to South Brunswick’s slow start. The Vikings lost most of their scoring punch from last season because of graduation and battled the injury bug in December and early January. The schedule was loaded with top teams in the first half with five opponents in the state’s Top 20.
In addition, mental mistakes and poor passing undid the Vikings. Those two areas have improved dramatically in recent weeks.
"We did have a tough schedule the first half of the year, but there still could have been some wins," Bowser said. "I think we lucked out that we have an easier schedule now, but we’re really playing better. It’s not like we’re playing teams that we could beat the way we were playing earlier in the year.
"Before, you could see the frustration in all of us. Now, we’ve started to get more focused before games and we’re staying focused through games."
If the Vikings can complete their turnaround and reach the state tourney, where they advanced to the quarterfinals a year ago, they might be poised to make more noise.
"I’m always confident," Fedele said. "I think we could be contenders. I’m optimistic. We could surprise teams. We look forward to playing some of those teams that think they can roll over us. I think we’re a different team than we were at the beginning of the season."
In addition, the Vikings will have the Southern Conference White Division playoffs in the next couple weeks. South Brunswick is fourth in the division with a 5-5-1 record.
"It’s just like starting over, I think; like it’s the start of a new season," Bowser said. "We just have to keep working on the basics and keep the mentality we’ve had when we’ve been winning. I’m really proud of what we’ve done. We could have easily been out of the states by now. We really turned the season around.
"The past few games have shown that, coming from behind to beat teams like Steinert and Johnson. We just weren’t ready to give up. Basically, that’s the story of our season we’re not ready to give up yet."

