Wilson’s addition bolsters already deep Knight squad
By: Justin Feil
In three years at Notre Dame, Ted Wilson had the opportunity to skate on some very good lines with the Fighting Irish ice hockey team. About the only change for Wilson since transferring to West Windsor-Plainsboro North for his senior year has been the number of lines with which the Knight ice hockey team skates.
"At Notre Dame, we always played two lines," Wilson said. "But we always had those great players. We have those great players here, we just have more of them."
Wilson has helped bolster the WW-PN second line that also includes Luke Shevlin and Matt Lalli. Friday, Wilson’s made his presence known with four goals and an assist as the Knights topped Hopewell Valley, 7-3.
"We had the advantage because we play three lines," Wilson said. "Our defense is really good. We have six defenders. And Joe Ferrara is probably the best defender in the league. Not everyone can play with three lines. It starts catching up with other teams in the second period and eventually they start to get winded.
"We started doing that (playing three lines) against Hightstown, and even though it didn’t catch up with them until a minute left in the third period, it’s an advantage."
The win over Hopewell gives WW-PN a big advantage in the race for the Colonial Valley Conference Valley Division title. It also helped avenge a 10-1 loss to the Bulldogs last season and a 4-1 loss to them in the Titans Cup semifinal.
"They used the 10-1 game, and that Titans Cup game as motivation," said WW-PN head coach Tim Grable, after his squad improved to 12-3-1. "They thought back to those two things. The 10-1 game last year cost us the Valley Division. This game allows us to control our own destiny for the Valley.
"It’s a big deal. The kids really want to hang a banner in the school. Obviously, being a newer school, some of the sports have had a hard time excelling right away."
But the Knights have enjoyed back-to-back seasons where they’ve been in contention. With Friday’s win, WW-PN also leap-frogged Hopewell Valley to take the No. 2 seed for the Mercer County Tournament that begins next Monday. WW-P North will face West Windsor-Plainsboro South in a rematch of their early-season 2-2 tie. WW-PN plays MCT top seed Pennington 9:45 p.m. Wednesday in what could be a MCT finals preview.
"We’re really excited about being the second seed in the tournament," Wilson said. "I’m personally excited to play South. I had to sit out."
Wilson missed the game against the Pirates as part of the policy that costs transfers 30 days. But once he was back with the team in games, he didn’t miss a beat.
"It wasn’t really that tough," said the 17-year-old, who is second on the team with 16 goals this season. "I played with players like Nick Cream and our goalie, Jimmy Merrow, is on my travel team. It was pretty easy. It was kind of tough watching the team play for 30 days, but they did really well. I was glad to come in when I did."
North is happy to have him as well. It’s helped an already deep team become even stronger.
"It gives us depth on another line," Grable said. "I don’t think there’s a team that can say that if they just stop our first line, they’ll win. In the past, we were so young it was tough. Now they’re all older and we have three lines.
"I’m in a nice situation. Who do I put out? I can’t get five to six kids on one line. I have to go with two. And all the lines scored. You have to go back to Morris Knolls and find a game where all three lines scored. If you have all three lines score, unless you’re horrible defensively, you win. We were fortunate (Friday) night that our opportunities went in."
Even more important and the main reason for the turnaround from their losses to Hopewell was one change.
"Our intensity," Grable said. "Basically, we were flat at the Titans Cup and Hopewell wasn’t. The other night, the kids tried to make up for it."
"There was a lot of talk of the 10-1 loss," Wilson added. "That was an embarrassment. We wanted to show that we were better than that. And we wanted to show we were better than the Titans Cup loss. We had a lot to prove on Friday. The mood in the locker room before the game was a lot more intense. We knew what we had to do. I think we kind of surprised Hopewell."
It’s going to be harder for the Knights to sneak up on any team as they get into the tail end of the season. But it won’t be hard for WW-PN to stay fresh for tournament time, not with three lines skating.
"You can’t really focus on one line now," Wilson said. "A typical CVC team has one scoring line. We have three of them. It opens the ice, and we are fresher coming out. We go into the third with fresher legs."
Fresher legs, and the fresh legs of the newest Knight, Ted Wilson, have helped WW-P North into position to hoist its first CVC Valley Division ice hockey banner and prepare for a shot at the MCT title as well.
"I’m not jumping ahead in the season," Wilson said. "It’s been the best of my four years so far."
And it isn’t close to over yet.