Christian Brothers Academy (CBA) continues to be hot on the ice.
The Colts won for the eighth time in nine games when they defeated Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School, 6-1, on Feb. 5 at the Jersey Shore Arena in Wall.
“It was just hard work with every single shift,” senior right wing Nicholas Lidondici said on CBA’s winning recipe. “We wanted to go out there and do the little things right: get the puck down deep, outwork the other team — that’s really all it is. Keep grinding and hopefully, get the puck in the net.”
Lidondici believes CBA has another gear it can still get to.
“We still have the playoffs ahead of us,” he said. “So we have a lot of tough teams coming up. We just want to go out there and, again, keep doing the little things right. Just keep progressing as a team until the end of the season.”
Lidondici scored two goals and recorded two assists against Rumson-Fair Haven.
Senior Dean DiFazio also checked in with two goals and two assists, while freshman Anthony DeFalco came through with a goal and an assist. Sophomore Kyle Contessa scored one goal.
Brendan Behan got the save in net with 14 saves for the Colts.
Senior forward Kurt Bruckman scored the lone goal for Rumson-Fair Haven, which came with 13:39 left in the third period off an assist from junior Christian Danielczyk.
Coach Ryan Bogan was pleased with CBA’s effort.
“I thought we came out hard,” he said. “I thought our puck movement and puck support was pretty good. It has ratcheted up toward the end of the season, as it ought to be. Their goalie was really good and made it hard to put the puck in the back of the net, but I liked our intensity.”
Bogan is looking for more speed out of his players.
“We’re still working on playing as a five-man unit,” the coach said. “I think our puck movement coming out of our own end can be better. Hopefully, that will allow us to play a little bit faster as well.”
The Colts followed up with another victory to close out the regular season in a 2-0 shutout against Pope John XXIII Regional High School on Feb. 6 in Wall. The triumph improved the Colts to 15-7-1 this season.
Bruckman remained positive about Rumson-Fair Haven’s game following the loss.
“Our goalie really stepped up for us,” Bruckman said about Sean Ryan, who made 33 saves against CBA. “The intensity picked up in the third period. We started taking some more shots. Unfortunately, we were very quiet in the first and second periods. If we continue to play the way we played in the third, we can beat some of the teams we have coming up and be in good shape.”
Bruckman pointed out that the team’s chemistry continues to improve, the players just need to remain confident.
The Bulldogs portrayed a winning attitude in their next game against Middletown High School North in the quarterfinals of the Shore Conference’s Dowd Cup tournament.
Rumson-Fair Haven trailed Middletown North, 2-0, heading into the third period of the game that was played on Feb. 8 at Middletown Ice World in Middletown. However, the Bulldogs scored twice in the third to force overtime, where they received the game-winning goal for the 3-2 victory.
Rumson-Fair Haven, which is 5-10-2 this season, was scheduled to face Manasquan High School the semifinals of the Dowd Cup on Feb. 13 at the Jersey Shore Arena.