Ice hockey gets eighth win
By Justin Feil, The Packet Group
So much for comparing scores.
The Robbinsville High School ice hockey team had fallen prey to a slow start in a 3-0 loss to Toms River South, a team that had then lost to Toms River East, 5-1. But instead of Toms River East blowing out Robbinsville, the Ravens turned the tables with a 7-1 win over Toms River East at Iceland on Monday.
”The kids really executed the game plan well and everything went our way,” said Robbinsville head coach Dan Bergan after his team improved to 8-3-2. “We’ll take it going into Notre Dame.”
The Ravens could feel a lot better about themselves going into the key Colonial Valley Conference showdown with the Irish after putting together an impressive showing in the win over Toms River East. Shaun Cox scored three goals and added an assist and Kellen Anker made 19 saves and Mike Reed made seven saves as the Ravens dominated both ends of the ice. It was quite a contrast from what happened in their last meeting with a Toms River team.
”Toms River South, I think it was a perfect storm of everything falling apart on a given day,” Bergan said. “They have one solid player, Todd Unger. Although I scouted and warned everybody, it was 3-0 after about 10 minutes before they woke up and realized he can skate well and has a big shot. They just put a trap on us and kept it simple, dumped it in, dumped it out and we never got anything going.”
Robbinsville didn’t take long to get in gear Monday. Eric Hildebrand got the Ravens on the board off assists from Zack Bryan and Cox. Logan Fredericks scored his first goal assisted by Dan Cox, and Fredericks’ return to the lineup was a big boost.
”(Monday) night was the first night we had everybody healthy,” Bergan said. “Logan Fredericks was out since the South game when he broke his wrist. He was back which let me put one of our defensemen back on defense where they belong. Logan scored his first high school goal. The second line played well. He made our second line better and our third line better because we moved a guy, and he made our defense better because someone dropped down.”
The domino effect means that the Ravens finally have their full complement in place to go after teams. Toms River East got back in the game with the first goal of the second period, but Shaun Cox answered off assists from Jared Eckert and Hildebrand. Cox added another goal from Bryan before the ice cut, and Cox completed his hat trick in the third period off a feed from Keith Allen. Dan Cox scored off an assist from Chris Deck before Eckert closed the scoring with an assist to Rich Francis.
”Our senior captain, Shaun Cox, is having a great season,” Bergan said. “He has 31 points in 13 games, so about 2.2 points per game.”
Cox hasn’t had to do it all on offense, and with a defense that has been rock solid, the Ravens can play with anyone.
”One of our most surprising players, a kid who has blossomed, is Eric Hildebrand,” Bergan said. “He’s leading the team in goals as a sophomore. Last year, we had him on a line with Rich Salava and Anthony Rosetta. The beginning of the year, we told him, the second line needs to hold the fort. Now, we’ve said, you have to be the scorer. He took that to heart. The kid is a pass-first kind of kid. He’s unselfish. He has great vision all over the ice. He’s a coach’s dream. Now he has to carry the burden and shoot more, and low and behold, the puck is going in.”
The Ravens never feel like they need many goals to win. Their defense has been outstanding this year, led by goalie Kellen Anker, who was facing a showdown of top goalies with Notre Dame’s Steven Anderson on Wednesday.
”Kellen Anker has been awesome,” Bergan said. “Everyone talks about Steve Anderson from Notre Dame. Kellen has a higher save percentage. He doesn’t have the same talent around him. I think he’s technically more sound. I think it’s time that everyone wake up that Kellen Anker is one heck of a goaltender.
”Kellne Anker’s goaltending, anything over 90 percent is good. His (save percentage) is .947. According to New Jersey power ranking, we’re giving up 1.63 goals per game. Nobody has scored more than three goals against us all year. We’re ranked 13th out of 154 high schools in New Jersey.”
The defense has come together well for the Ravens, and it gives them confidence as they head into the second half of the season. Now at full strength, the defense will be critical to the Robbinsville tournament chances.
”We knew that we had two standout defensemen in Zack Bryan and Chris Deck,” Bergan said. “We also had a couple kids that were serviceable and have become functional, with Ryan Hornberger, freshman Jimmy Kenna and Nico Dertony. We got a stud D-man from Allentown, Keith Allen. He’s been the glue. Hornberger, he was a learn-to-skate project. We played Westfield, a top five public team, and the kid played a beautiful game.”
The Ravens are hoping there are more great games ahead of it as it returns to CVC play and looks to secure a top seed for the Mercer County Tournament.