Livingston Ices Edison

WEST ORANGE, N.J. - Livingston achieved the two-pronged goal that ice hockey head coach Dave Conklin set for his team on Monday when they played Edison at Codey Arena.

First, Conklin wanted win, which they did handily.  Livingston defeated Edison 10-1.  

Second, he wanted to finish the game healthy.  There were no injuries reported last night.

But most important, with their win last night, the Lancers clinched a berth in the states.

"It felt good again to make the state playoffs," said Conklin. "That is the goal at the beginning of the season. In the three years that I have been coach, we have made it every year."

Coming into last night's game, the Lancers needed to win in order to get an automatic state playoff berth.   The win gave the Lancers a 10-9-2 record and the  automatic bid; teams with a .500 record or better on Feb. 15th get an automatic entry.

The Lancers pretty much had the game in hand after the first period with a 4-0 lead that included a Drew Wagner unassisted goal with six seconds remaining.   In addition Livingston outshot Edison, 24-4.

Conklin said that he ran out his lines in the usual order, but mainly used the third and fourth lines in the third period. In addition, the Livingston head coach brought in his backup goalie Anthony Cangianni to give top goalie, Abe Matar, a rest. Cangianni came into the net halfway through the game after the Lancers had built a 6-0 lead after forward Jonny Garfinkel's second goal of the game.

But as well as the team played, Conklin didn't want to run up the score.

"I am never a person who wants to run up the score," said Conklin who has been on the other side of the score. "We did not want to work on anything. At this point of the season, everybody knows what to do in the system."

In addition to getting the automatic state bid, last night's effort was the highest offensive output for the Lancers this season. Livingston had several games this season where they scored six goals, the latest coming on Jan. 20 with a 6-3 victory over Parsippany Hills.

Eight different Lancers scored goals last night including a pair from Garfinkel and Seth Crockett. Drew Wagner, Josh Stone, Cameron Friedfertig, Michael Philpott, Mike Koval and Zach Martin also hit the back of the net.

Livingston now heads into the McGinnis Cup and will take on Verona on Saturday at Codey Arena, 6 p.m..   The Lancers lost to Verona twice during the season, 8-1 and 4-2. But Conklin said the most recent 4-2 loss on Jan. 17 showed the improvement on the team.

"It is like night and day from when we started the season to today," said Conklin.

 The Livingston head coach is hoping to have senior forward Sam Tafel back for the start of the Cup after missing time with a wrist injury. The Lancers, though, will not have junior forward Andrew Hirschorn back after being suspended four games for a hit in the back against a Millburn player on Feb. 5.