Goaltending aids boys ice hockey in win over PHS
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
The West Windsor-Plainsboro High South and Princeton High ice hockey teams are going to play plenty of close games this season.
The Pirates started the season with two of them, dropping a 4-3 decision to Manasquan before bouncing back to beat Princeton, 2-1, last Thursday night. The loss was the opener for the Little Tigers.
”We know that our Valley Division games are going to be like this,” Princeton coach Tim Campbell said. “It’s what we expect. No one is going to blow anybody out.”
WW-P South and Princeton played even most of the night, trading first-period goals by the Pirates’ Chris So and the Little Tigers’ Kirby Peck. It was the final 15 seconds of the second period that made the difference, as the game went from Princeton looking like it might score to the Pirates getting a goal from Joe Cangelosi with five seconds left in the period.
The goal proved to be the game-winner.
”We have a couple of guys who are out, so we moved Chris So up on offense from defense in the first two periods,” WW-P South coach Brian McGurney said. “Joe Cangelosi, I’ve never seen him play a game like that before, never. And (Darren) Stafford, you know what you’re going to get out of him in goal. It was a character win and a team effort.”
WW-P South played most of the second period with at least one player in the penalty box. The Pirates were on the short end of eight power plays for the Little Tigers, but did not surrender a goal.
”The penalties were not in our favor, but once we started playing with our heads we did much better,” McGurney said. “We did a nice job with our penalty killing. Cangelosi was out there for both of the five-on-threes and I can’t say enough about his effort tonight.”
With a couple of players out of the lineup, the play of Cangelosi, So and Stafford was a key in the win. McGurney knows that in his time of need, he can always count on So to do whatever is needed.
”If I wanted Chris to be the goalie, he’s do it,” McGurney said. “What Chris has done is outstanding. He’s a guy that doesn’t say too much. But you know what you’re going to get out of him. He’s the best skater on our team. We had him at forward the first two periods and then we got into some penalty trouble and he got back on defense. In the third period we put him back on defense to give us some more support there.”
So realizes that games like the one against Princeton will be the norm for the Pirates, who will need contributions from the whole roster.
”We’ve been playing good defense and Darren has been making a lot of saves,” So said. “We’ve been able to put some goals on the board and do all of the little things we need to do to win games. Every time that we were able to kill a penalty it boosted our morale and kept us going.
”We have some good chemistry and we play well together.”
For the Pirates, it will be all about how the team plays together this year.
”We don’t have the luxury of running three lines,” McGurney said. “These guys know that if we’re not giving everything we’re not going anywhere. It was a team win where everyone pitched in.”
”Having someone like Stafford back there allows you to open it up a little more. You know that he’ll come up with a big save when he has to. So the forwards are a little bit at ease and know they can take an extra chance or two and he’s there.”
Princeton certainly would have liked to have come away from the opener with a win. But, Campbell saw enough good things to come away feeling positive.
”We accomplished a lot of good things tonight,” the Princeton coach said. “We had eight power plays. Staying out of the (penalty) box was something we wanted to accomplish, which we did. But when we do that we have to be able to capitalize. Their goalie is phenomenal. Taking nothing away from him, we need to capitalize when we have opportunities like that.”