Bill Daley made a coaching decision that most would advise against. On the eve of the ice hockey state playoffs, he shuffled Howell High School’s first and second lines. That was following the Rebels’ run to the championship game of the historic first Shore Conference Tournament (SCT).
Success in the SCT should have been enough to indicate that the Rebels were right where they wanted to be for the state playoffs, but Daley saw things differently. He saw a Rebels team struggling on offense. They had beaten Monsignor Donovan, 1-0, in the SCT quarterfinals and had to win a shootout to top St. Rose High School in the semifinals. They were then beaten in the SCT finals, 8-2, by top-seed Red Bank Catholic (RBC) High School.
“It didn’t look like the flow was there,” Daley said, explaining his decision to make the line changes.
Daley split the duo Kyle Hallbauer and Frankie Gerbasi, the best one-two combo in school history. Hallbauer was moved to the second line, with Anthony Gallichio and Steve Ramos, to improve it offensively.
Nick Mauro was moved up to the first line for his defense, joining Gerbasi and Lee McCarthy.
The moves have been nothing short of spot on. Howell has rolled into the NJSIAA Public A tournament quarterfinals, with two one-sided victories by a combined 19-4.
The Rebels beat West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South, 11-2, on their home ice at Howell Ice World in the first round. Everyone benefited from the changes, as McCarthy struck for four goals in the win. Hallbauer had two goals and an assist, while Gerbasi assisted on four goals. Gallichio had a goal and two assists.
Also scoring were Joe DiPasquale, Greg Bernhardt, Ryan Damelio and Zach Mazik. Ryan Kinal (two), Mauro (two) and Matthew McNaught (one) picked up assists.
Howell, the ninth seed, traveled to Mercer County Park in West Windsor on Feb. 27 for the Round of 16 game against eighthseed Robbinsville-Allentown.
Robbinsville-Allentown scored in the first minute of play, but Howell responded with seven straight goals en route to an 8-2 win.
Daley said that the Rebels used their speed advantage to continually get odd-man rushes in the Ravens’ zone, cashing in on the chances often.
“We were too fast for them,” Daley said. “We did a lot of 5-on-2 drills to prepare for the game.”
Hallbauer scored four goals and had two assists. DiPasquale, Mauro, Josh Herrera and Gerbasi also scored for the Rebels. Gerbasi added two assists, while Ramos, Di- Pasquale and Gallichio also had assists.
Goalie Bobby Dovenero stopped 30 shots, as Howell improved to 18-6-2.
Daley has not made any changes in his defensive rotation. He has the deepest set of defenders he’s ever had. DiPasquale, Herrera, Bernhardt, McNaught, Damelio and Jack Kosinski make up the six-man rotation. This is the second time in program history that Howell has reached the state quarterfinals, where the Rebels were defeated by top-seed Randolph High School, 2-0, on March 1 at Mennen Arena.
The semifinals are on March 5-6 at the Mennen Arena, and the finals will be played at Newark’s Prudential Center, home of the New Jersey Devils, on March 9.
Despite losing to RBC in the SCT finals, Daley admitted, “It was pretty cool making it to the finals.”
This was the first time the Shore Conference held a single tournament for ice hockey. In the past, it had two tournaments — the Handchen Cup and Dowd Cup (won by Howell in 2009). To be a part of the first finals, played on Feb. 22 at Middletown Ice World, was special.
Howell played two memorable games leading up to the finals.
In the quarterfinals against Monsignor Donovan, Hallbauer scored the game’s only goal in the first period, and Dovenero registered his third shutout of the season.
The semifinals were played at Howell Ice World against St. Rose before a packed house. The teams played to a 3-3 tie through regulation and overtime, and the game went into a shootout. Louie Kuka, who hadn’t played in the game, got the call from Daley to take the shot. He scored and Dovenero stopped St. Rose’s shooter to propel the Rebels to a 4-3 win and a trip to the finals.
Dovenero had 30 saves in the game and came up big in the shootout.
“He’s very focused on penalty shots,” Daley said.
Hallbauer, a junior, and Gerbasi, a senior, are putting their names in the Rebels’ record books. Against Robbinsville-Allentown, Hallbauer became the school’s alltime leading goal-scorer with 82, surpassing Dave Ramos’ old mark of 78, which he set in two years.
Ramos holds the scoring record at 166, with Gerbasi currently at 159 and Hallbauer at 155.
Hallbauer has 44 goals and 29 assists this year, while Gerbasi has posted 34 goals and 35 assists. McCarthy has 23 goals and 17 assists.
Dovenero, a freshman, has made 564 saves, posting a .900 save percentage.
Freehold Township advances
Freehold Township High School picked up a historic win in the first round of the Public A hockey tournament. The Patriots defeated Lawrence High School, 6-0, for the program’s first state playoff win.
Freehold Township, which won the competitive Shore Conference A North Division title during the regular season, had five different players score goals in the triumph on Feb. 25 at the Jersey Shore Arena in Wall Township.
Austin Treubert scored twice and had one assist for Freehold Township. Adam Friedman, Brendan Liebross, Michael Betts and Zach Berzolla also lit the lamp.
Berzolla and P.J. Carfagno had two assists each, while Betts and Greg Russo chipped in with assists as well.
The Patriots dominated Lawrence, as goalie Nick Raiola needed to make just five saves in picking up the shutout. The Patriots improved to 15-8-1.
In the Round of 16, the seventh-seed Patriots defeated 10th-seed Old Bridge High School back at the Jersey Shore Arena, 6-2, on Feb. 28.
Friedman and Treubert registered two goals and one assist each, and Berzolla had two assists. Betts and Russo scored the other goals, while Carfagno and Jared Perskin also had one assist apiece. Raiola made 16 saves.
Freehold Township was scheduled to play No. 2-seed Bridgewater-Raritan High School on March 2 in the quarterfinals.
Treubert (30), Friedman (28) and Russo (24) have spread the goal-scoring around. Friedman leads in assists (31), followed by Russo (26).
The state playoff run helped ease the pain of the Patriots’ first-round exit from the SCT, where they lost in overtime to Monsignor Donovan, 6-5.
Manalapan loses in first round
Manalapan also qualified for the state playoffs as the No. 17 seed. The Braves traveled to No. 16 Hillsborough High School for their first-round game, where they lost in overtime, 3-2.
Mike Lisciandro and Cole Wagner scored for the Braves, who jumped out to a 2-0 lead.
Parker Gaglione, Mike Statnigrosh and Ryan Kirschner had assists for the Braves, who finished the season at 12-10-3.
Lisciandro led the Braves in scoring with 26 goals and 30 assists, while Gaglione was the top playmaker with 34 helpers.