PRINCETON: Inman’s goals lift PDS to prep hockey final

Panthers to face Mo-Beard for championship

By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
   HAMILTON — John Inman’s ice hockey future isn’t clear, so the Princeton Day School center is making the most of his senior season.
   Inman had a pair of goals and an assist to help the Panthers prolong their season with a 4-3 win over The Hun School on Monday in the Prep B state tournament semifinals.
   ”I really don’t want it to end,” Inman said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do from here. I might PG at a prep school up north. I’m not sure yet. It might be my last season playing on an actual hockey team, or I could keep going on.”
   As long as Inman plays the way he did Monday, the Panthers season will continue. They open the Mercer County Tournament on Monday and will face Morristown-Beard in the state final on a date to be determined.
   ”Him and Nick (Jabs) are the heart and soul of the team,” said PDS coach Scott Bertoli. “If either of them are gone, we’re not beating anybody. If you take John away from that game, then they’re winning that game. He’s arguably the best kid on the ice against any team we play.”
   When the Raiders beat PDS earlier this season, 4-1, they wore down Inman and an undermanned Panthers squad. This time, PDS had their full squad while Hun was without Brendan Gallagher. Hun jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a goal by Harry Blackburn, but Inman answered right back. PDS took its first lead on Max Popkin’s first goal of the game.
   Sam Rosenberg tied it, 2-2, to start the second period, but Inman answered again and Hun never tied it again. Popkin added his second goal near the end of the second period before Blackburn made it exciting with a goal three minutes into the third period before PDS held on to advance to the finals. Jabs made 23 saves for the Panthers, who improved to 9-11-1 by avenging their earlier loss to Hun.
   ”It was really good,” Inman said. “We had a lot of fans this time. We didn’t have any fans last time. It was good to have support. There was a lot more energy in this game. It’s a good win for us. Even though we didn’t play our best, it was a good win because this was one of the bigger games for us this year.”
   The Panthers improved to 7-2-1 in their last 10 games since opening the year 2-9. Playing a challenging schedule to start the season is paying off.
   ”During the beginning of the year, we played some really good hockey teams,” Inman said. “And we also matured a little bit and we’ve started to gel. It takes a team a while to click sometimes. I think we’re finally starting to click.”
   It was one of their recent losses, a 3-1 loss to state power St. Augustine, that showed the most how far the Panthers have come this season. Against Hun, they were able to sustain pressure in the Raiders zone, another thing that has been problematic at times this season.
   ”We are playing a lot better now and a lot of that has to do with being more confident and going out and winning a few games and feeling good about ourselves and doing the right things,” Bertoli said. He saw plenty of changes in Monday’s win against Hun compared to the earlier season loss to the Raiders.
   ”We have Nick in net, who just his presence alone has a calming influence on us,” Bertoli said. “I think our team plays more confident, we tend to take more chances in the offensive zone and sustain offense. That’s something we need to do is create more opportunities. We didn’t do enough of that, and have enough quality chances the first time around. Against a goaltender like (Hun’s Travis Potts), you can’t expect to just throw pucks at anywhere and score goals.”
   PDS will carry a similar mindset into next week’s MCT. They will try to build early leads and ride them to a return to the finals. The win over Hun was a good starting point for the county tournament environment.
   ”I think it’ll give us confidence going in,” Inman said. “We had a good game against Notre Dame last week. I honestly think we should have won. It was 3-1. I think we can compete with all the teams, and I think we’re a top-two team in Mercer County and hopefully we’ll make it to the finals and give a good game. It was disappointing last year when we lost.”
   Inman will do everything in his power to keep the Panthers’ season going. And there’s plenty the high-scoring forward can do.
   ”He’s the type of player that can turn games around by himself,” Bertoli said. “He can beat one or two guys on a rush and create his own offense. He’s that good. In this area, I don’t know if there’s a better player around here. And his wingers are learning to play with him and complement him.
   ”He does a great job. Instead of taking the puck today, he pulls up and finds Max in the high slot. Max picked his head up and it was a good shot to beat a good goaltender. Those are the kinds of things we need.”
   The Panthers will need more of the same from the likes of Inman when they face Mo-Beard in the state final. He is looking forward to the rematch, and potentially his final scholastic game.
   ”We played them earlier,” Inman said. “We only lost to them by one goal. They’re a good team. They have a couple of really good defensemen. We’re going to have to play really well. We have to play our best game of the year. We lost to them the last two years in a row, so we deserve to beat them this year.”