No trip to finals for MHS hockey
By: Justin Feil
MORRISTOWN The Montgomery High School ice hockey team fought to the very last second to return to the state final.
The 10th-seeded Cougars came three wins short of their goal of returning to Continental Airlines Arena when suffered a 2-1 loss to No. 7 Chatham in the round of 16 Wednesday at Mennen Arena. MHS got its only goal of the game from Mike Papsin with one second remaining in the third period.
"I thought going into this season that we would go to Continental," said MHS head coach Rob Scarpa. "I really did. And for whatever reason, we were lacking in something. We just didn’t get there. It’s not surprising to lose, 2-1. That’s playoff hockey. Chatham is an exceptional program. They always have been. I just thought coming into the season we had the horses to be a little better than a round of 16 team. We were young, but I still thought we had it down."
The Cougars finished their season 14-8-5, a year after reaching the state final. Wednesday’s loss marked another tough way to end a season, but it couldn’t match the ending to last year.
"Last year’s hurt was a much deeper hurt," Scarpa said. "This year, it still hurts, don’t get me wrong especially because a lot of kids from last year’s team are still on the team. But there’s no worse feeling than (losing in) overtime in a championship game. I hope to never have that feeling again. This one hurts too, but that was my first year and the seniors and I were close, as I am with the seniors this year. The emotion of the loss last year was different. It was a much more experienced veteran team.
"This year, that team is pretty much officially over. A lot of the kids coming back now have to re-establish what they want their legacy to be."
Standards won’t be any lower next season though the graduation of four seniors means that MHS has few contributors left from its state final team of a year ago. The Cougars came on strong, with Wednesday’s loss just their second in the last 11 games. That enabled them to overcome an inconsistent start to the season.
"I still think if we play our game, we can play with anybody in the state," Scarpa said. "I’m not saying we’re going to beat them, but we’re definitely competitive. We’ve beaten the No. 3 team. We tied the No. 2. We lost to No. 2 by one. So we got a tough draw but we put ourselves in that position."
MHS still played well enough to win Wednesday, but couldn’t find the back of the net until a second remained in the contest. The Cougars held a 29-17 shot advantage, including a 12-4 edge in the third period.
"I thought we had the opportunities," Scarpa said. "Their goalie played well and he was very good back there. We almost doubled them in shots, but we just couldn’t get anything by him until a second left in the game.
"It wasn’t a traditional thing that we’ve gone through," he added of outshooting an opponent in a loss. "We just didn’t put any pucks in. We put up almost 30 shots, and that’s a good percentage per period. A lot of them were quality chances. I just don’t think the puck bounced our way and we missed a lot of rebound chances. The opportunity was there."
MHS did not allow a goal after the first period despite playing without all-league defenseman Matt Zielinski, who also missed the Cougars’ 5-2 win over Mahwah on Monday. In that win, Mike Yetter, the all-time leading scorer in Cougar history, had a hat trick while Kevin Hover had two assists.
"He has a staph infection and had to have his ankle drained," Scarpa said of Zielinski. "We wish the best of luck to him. He’s an exceptional player, but does he change the outcome of this game, I don’t know. We only gave up two goals defensively. Something tells me we needed to score more."
The Cougars now must think about playing next year without the services of four graduating seniors forwards Yetter, Jeff Cardozo, Tim McMinn and defenseman Nick Esposito. They were part of a group that has elevated MHS’ standards.
"They’ve been enormous to the program," Scarpa said. "They were a huge factor in getting us where we got last year and they were very good this year. We’ll lose our entire first line and one of our defenseman who’s been steady his entire career. We lose four kids off the team that was here tonight and they were all exceptional players."
Scarpa will hold off on assessing next year’s chances until he finds out who will return for the Cougars. MHS put together another strong season, but it didn’t end where it had hoped. That goal remains for next year’s squad.
"I would think we would always want to be better," Scarpa said. "I expect to be an elite eight team every year and have a chance to go to Continental."

