Bad bounce eliminates Raiders from hockey playoffs

First loss in 14 games ends great year

By: John Beisser
   
   WEST ORANGE – In a hotly-contested, nearly dead-even battle of wills that featured acrobatic saves and loud, crunching checks, it was Bridgewater-Raritan which had just enough luck on its side to eke out a 3-1 thriller over Hillsborough on Saturday night in the quarterfinals of the NJSIAA/Devils Public Schools Ice Hockey Tournament at Richard E. Codey Arena in West Orange.
   When two teams are evenly matched in talent, often times a game is decided by the team that has a bit of good fortune go its way and that was the case for third-seeded Bridgewater-Raritan, which punched its ticket to Friday night’s semifinals at the Continental Airlines Arena. Sixth-seeded Hillsborough, which ended its season with a 17-6-3 mark, was 10-0-3 in its previous 13 contests entering Saturday night’s game, dating back to a 3-3 tie against these same Bridgewater Panthers back on Jan. 17.
   Tied at 1-1, it appeared the Skyland Conference rivals were destined for overtime when the critical sequence in the game came with 4:51 left in the third period. Bridgewater’s James Fernandez fired a slapshot that slammed off the facemask of Hillsborough goaltender Eric Visnovsky. The puck then bounced straight up into the air and spun behind Visnovsky and into the goalmouth, despite the efforts of defenseman Chris MacPhee, who valiantly dove head first into the net to try to prevent the puck from entering. Fernandez added an empty net goal with 33 seconds left in the game to shape the two-goal margin but by every other definition, this game as close as one could possibly be.
   Hillsborough applied offensive pressure throughout in out-shooting the Panthers 31-23. While Visnovsky was brilliant in recording 21 saves, Bridgewater goaltender Gary Briggs was one step closer to perfection, swatting away 30 shots in keying the victory.
   "A bad bounce is kind of what went against us today," said Raider head coach Pat Verney, with a composure and maturity that belie the fact he is just 26 years old and in his first year as a head coach. "I’m not taking anything away from Gary Biggs who was terrific today and nothing against their team, they’re a terrific hockey team. Bridgewater was terrific today and I think they’re going to do really well in the next round, I believe that. We caught a bad bounce. The cycle kind of went and turned today, that’s how I feel. It was just a goofy bounce."
   For the first third of the season or so, it seemed that Hillsborough could not catch a break or a fortuitous bounce of the puck. When things started to click and the Raiders began to hit their stride, executing Verney’s new systems, the breaks started to go Hillsborough’s way. But against Bridgewater, form seemed to revert back to the early season.
   "It’s some type of goofy irony to it in that we started the season 4-4 and felt like we hadn’t gotten our bounces," Verney said. "We kept telling the guys, ‘let’s keep working hard and we’ll get our bounces.’ Well, we kept working hard and we got the bounces during the last stretch (of the season). This was a game where I really felt we had the better of play. They’re a great team and the Skyland Conference is as tough as it gets for public school hockey."
   Hillsborough found itself trailing in a game for the first time in recent memory when Jimmy Bregartner gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead on a power play goal with 2:24 left in the first period. The Raiders countered with 4:19 left in the second period, benefiting from a 5-on-3 power play advantage as Matt Janos notched the equalizer off assists from Eric Psihoules and Joe Kubrak. The score remained 1-1 until Fernandez’s pivotal slap shot ricocheted off of Visnovsky’s mask late in the third period.
   "They got some traffic in front and had one breakaway early but other than that, I thought we really limited their odd-man rushes, which is what we wanted to do," Verney said. "Obviously they are a skilled team in transition, that’s one of their strengths. We wanted to run our forecheck game, 1-1-3 has been our identity all season long. I believe it worked perfectly. I couldn’t have asked them to execute any better. This was a great group to coach and they were a great group to coach because they were so coachable all season long. I felt we executed great today. We just ran into a goalie who was great and we ran into kind of a goofy bounce."
   "We all just played our hearts out, we really did," added an emotional Janos, the Raiders’ captain and leading scorer in the hallway outside the Raider locker room. "We played our systems right, we just didn’t get the bounces today. There were a lot of emotions on both sides throughout the entire game. The entire game was up in the air. Both teams worked their butts off. It just came down to a bounce, there’s nothing you can really do."
   In just its second year of varsity status and third season overall, Hillsborough should be commended for coming to within an eyelash of attaining a coveted berth in the state semifinals at the Meadowlands.