Cranford Iced 5-1 By Westfield

It was a much anticipated rematch. Westfield had beaten Cranford 6-0 early in the season, while the Cougars returned the favor with a sharp 4-3 victory last week. The third matchup went to Westfield, who defeated the Cougars 5-1 Wednesday night at Warinanco Park. 

"It was one of those nights where we couldn't catch a break," said Cranford head coach Rich Hurley. "For most of the game, I really thought we were the better team. They caught every break. We couldn't catch a cold."

Westfield exacted a bit of revenge thanks in part to a big night from C.J. Meyer, who tallied two goals and two assists for the Blue Devils. 

"Cranford's always a big rivalry," said Joe Kramkowski, who made the final goal. "This was a real big game for us. We were all flying, our team is back together, we're at full strength now."

"That one loss that they had last week (to Cranford) kind of set in with them," said Westfield coach Dennis Doherty. "We're definitely a better team, and they showed it tonight."

Meyer started off the scoring at 9:04 of the first period, scoring on an assist by Henry O'Brien to make it 1-0. John Macik scored less than two minutes later on a Meyer assist to make it 2-0 at the end of the first period. 

"Despite the score, I thought we played pretty well," said Cranford's Hurley. "We outshot them 15-5 in the second period, we had a couple of defensive breakdowns in the first period. It seemed each time we had a little bit of a breakdown, they capitalized and put the puck in the net"

"Our first line plays well every night, but our second and third lines played well," said Doherty. "When we get scoring from our other lines, we're going to be tough to beat. Tonight was the first time that we had scoring other than our top three forwards."

O'Brien and Meyer teamed up in the second to push the Westfield lead to 3-0 with 6:49 left, but Cranford, who had the better of the play in the second period, struck back :40 later on a goal by Eric Pawlick, who made a rush up the ice before hitting the back of the net to cut the Westfield lead to 3-1.

"The puck just didn't go our way tonight," said Pawlick. "Nothing bounced our way, nothing we could do about it. We took it kind of hard today, but we have to bounce off of this and play the next game as hard as we can."

While Cranford outshot the Blue Devils in the second stanza, it was Westfield who took a 3-1 lead into the third, when Meyer notched his second goal of the game on a Macik assist to give the Blue Devils a 4-1 lead. Kramkowski finished the scoring off an assist by Nick Attanasio at the 10:31 mark of the final frame.

"We're not invincible. We know we can take a hit, we lost to Cranford and we beat them twice. But we're all working. We're not looking ahead, we're just taking it game by game."

"I've been saying since the beginning of the season, this is potentially one of our better teams that we've ever had in Westfield," said Doherty.

Trevor Hertz had 31 saves for the Cougars, while freshman Joe Fleschler had 24 stops for the victory.

Westfield improves to 6-2-1 on the season while Cranford falls to 5-6. The Cougars will next face Johnson on Monday night while the Devils face off against Governor Livingston, also on Monday, in a battle for first place.

"We're looking forward to this," said Doherty. "I think G.L. will be a good test for us, we're playing well going into it, but they're a tough team. I think, for the most part, if we keep doing what we're doing, playing three lines solid, keeping our 'D' going and getting good goaltending, we'll get good results."

"G.L. didn't lose any forwards, they lost some of their defense and their goalie," said Kramkowski. "But it's going to be a tough game, it's not going to be a cakewalk. Every game is a make or break game, every game is important."

Meanwhile Cranford is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel as their young team matures from game to game.

"That's what we talked about in the locker room," said Cranford's Hurley. "We really feel we played well enough to win. Right now, we played three league games and we're 1-2. I think a lot of these teams are going to knock each other off all season long, and if we play like we played tonight, we'll be right in the mix to win this league at the end of the season."