Cranford Iced By Watchung Hills in Final Minutes

Records can be deceiving. Cranford found that out firsthand Saturday night, when they paid a visit to the Union Sports Arena to face Watchung Hills.

The Warriors came into the match with a 3-15 record, but the home team battled the entire way and edged the Cougars 3-2 thanks to a power play goal with 1:25 left to play.

"It was a tough game, harder than we thought it would be," said Cranford's Eddie Conte. "I was surprised."

"I told the kids before the game that was going to be the best 3-15 team that we're ever going to see," said head coach Rich Hurley. "We started off slow, but we chipped away. They just got one at the end."

Cranford had numerous chances to turn the game in their favor, but it was just one of those nights when they couldn't catch a break.

"Overall we played well," said Hurley. "We had our chances to score. We didn't finish on two breakaways and missed two open nets. We were snake-bitten tonight."

Watchung Hills, which outshot Cranford 35-24 for the game, got on the board first at the 13:26 mark of the first period, when Tom Saldiviero scored off an assist by Troy Lewis to make it 1-0. Four minutes later, Hills scored again when Chris Robinson hit the net to up the lead to 2-0.

The Cougars kept plugging away and finally scored with 3:57 to go in the first, when Conte and Eric Pawlick assisted on a Sean Feeny goal to cut the lead to 2-1 after the first period.

After a scoreless second stanza in which Hills outshot the visitors 13-8, senior sharpshooter Pat Hartnett evened the score at 2-2 when he scored with 5:43 left in the third. Gary Merwede and Jaime Nicoli assisted.

Watchung Hills then took advantage of the power play to nail down the game-winner when Sean Simons beat Mike Williams to make it 3-2.

One bright spot was the play of defenseman Eddie Conte, who broke his kneecap just before Thanksgiving and returned on January 9. This was the first time he felt he was on top of his game since putting the sweater back on.

"This was my first real game back," said Conte. "It felt good. I had a solid game. I'm looking forward to the tournaments."

The Cougars will have a week off before county tournament action begins on Monday February 22.

"We have four practices scheduled for this week," said Hurley. "So that will give us a chance to work on different things. We feel have as good a shot to win the county as anyone else. We at least tied or beat every team in the tournament. Any one of five teams can win it. It's really up for grabs. We're looking forward to it."