By Sean Moylan, Sports Writer
The Robbinsville High varsity ice hockey team is improving so much it’s even looking good in its losses. In fact, Ravens’ head coach Dan Bergan was very impressed by the hockey his club played in a 5-0 loss to Hopewell Valley December 19 at Mercer County Park.
“What a big difference in one year. Last year they (Hopewell Valley) mercied Robbinsville in two periods and this year the game went the distance and was very competitive despite the final score,” said Bergan, who sees Hopewell Valley as one of the better clubs in the state.
The Ravens played great defense against an outstanding team and allowed just one goal in the first period and kept Hopewell Valley off the scoreboard entirely in the third period.
Louie Owens (18 saves and three goals against) and Ryan DeAngelis (15 saves, two goals against) split the goalkeeping duties for the Ravens. Hopewell Valley goalie Grant Mitchell stopped all 16 Robbinsville shots to earn the win.
“Hopewell Valley has a great team that is well coached. That said, there were two goals that my goalies would like to have back or we have a 3-0 game. There were also a number of wide open nets we couldn’t bury and if you don’t score it doesn’t much matter. In the end we didn’t have enough conditioning to get to the loose puck first. We’ll see what we can do about that. We’re a step closer with a lot of work to do and I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished so far. The best sign is we were very upset this wasn’t a lot closer which tells you expectations have changed,” said Bergan.
Although its offense picked up, Robbinsville was also upset with its 13-5 loss to Steinert at the Lawrenceville Prep School last Thursday.
The Spartans started things off by scoring four unanswered goals, but then Richie Flocco, assisted by Mike Piet and Richie Salava, scored with 5:26 left in the first period to put the Ravens on the scoreboard. Piet also scored a first-period goal for Robbinsville, which, nonetheless saw itself trailing 6-2 after a period. Even with the major improvements the Ravens have made this season, that’s just too many goals to spot a very good hockey team like Steinert.
Moreover, Piet (three goals, two assists), Flocco (two goals and assist) and Salava (three assists) had to do the bulk of the work for Robbinsville.
Ryan McFarlane started for Robbinsville in goal and stopped nine of 14 shots. Owens came in and faced an incredible 35 shots on goal. Nonetheless, he made 27 saves to keep the contest from getting way out of hand.
Despite a recent dry spell in the win column there’s no reason to over-react as the Ravens (4-3) recently completed one of the meatier portions of their schedule and are still over .500. They’re off this week, but the Ravens are scheduled to host West Windsor-Plainsboro North on January 2nd.

