Cougars Win in Close Game Against Summit

The teams were fairly evenly matched, but in the end, the Cougars were victorious in Tuesday night's 3-1 game against the Summit Hilltoppers.

"Our plan was to try slow them down a little bit early on and not let them get into the flow," said Cranford head coach Richard Hurley. "We did that and that helped a lot."

The first period included strong skating and puck handling from each team, but neither seemed to be able to gain a clear advantage. The period ended tied 0-0.

"I think we played well in the first period," said Hurley. "But we didn't put the puck in the net, so that doesn't really mean anything."

Though both teams had their opportunities, Cranford's Eric Pawlick scored first on an assist from Tom Fitzgerald.

Then a costly interference call set up a Summit power play that the Hilltoppers took full advantage of. Jeff Wycoff evened up the game.

"Summit's a decent team," said Hurley. "You give them power plays and they're going to score. So you forget about that and you move on."

The boys went into the locker room tied 1-1.

Tensions were running high in the third period, and the Hilltoppers seemed to let it get the best of them. Two interference calls against the Hilltoppers gave Cranford a two-man advantage early on in the period. Though Cranford failed to capitalize on the opportunity, they clearly wore down the Hilltopper defense.

"Our power plays have actually been doing very, very well lately," said Hurley. "But today, it didn't show up."

A penalty for high sticking gave Cranford another power play. Again, the Hilltoppers held them off, but the little mistakes were becoming more apparent. Cranford finally took the lead when Fitzgerald found the back of the net off an assist from Luke Diano.

In the final seconds of the game, the Hilltoppers pulled their goaltender in an attempt to put more pressure on the Cougars, but a bad pass was intercepted by Cranford's Pawlick and taken straight down the ice and into an empty net for the final goal of the game.

"We have practice tomorrow morning," said Hurley. "We're going to be working on the power play for a good part of practice. That's for sure."

The Cougars take on Princeton High School on Friday at 7 p.m.