Cranford Iced By Governor Livingston

The Recap: In a hard-fought 5-4 bout with Governor Livingston High School, Cranford Cougars went down fighting in the final game of the season. The return of senior captain Billy Davitt, after being out injured most of the season, was not enough to get the Cougars over the hump.  

There were multiple lead changes with Cranford scoring first.  Cranford took the early advantage off an Eric Pawlick goal, assisted by Alex Plick.  GL tied the score at 1-1 but Cranford skaters quickly regained the lead on an unassisted goal by Plick . Pawlick then scored his second goal of the night  assited by Sean Feeney.  At this point Cranford was up 3-1 and appeared to be cruising comfortably but their steady march to the penalty box shifted the momentum back to the GL squad, who scored the next three goals to take a 4-3 lead.  

Late in the second period Davitt scored a beautiful assisted by Pawlick to knot the score 4-4 as the period ended. GL scored early in the third period to take the lead back.  Cranford mounted a strong comeback for most of the third period, but again multiple penalties coming down the stretch stalled the Cougars come-back bid, and allowed GL to hang on for the 5-4 win.  

Theo Ballas was strong in net throughout the game, but in the end, the multiple short-handed situations he faced could not be overcome.  Senior Luke Diano played a particularly strong game in defense with several bone-rattling hits on GL skaters.

The Hero

  With two goals yesterday, CHS senior Eric Pawlick zipped up an outstanding career for the Cougars – scoring 98 goals in a high school skating career spanning four years.