Dodgers Sloppy, but Victorious in Haas Cup Quarterfinal

MORRISTOWN – The Madison High School ice hockey team earned a sloppy win Monday night, but if head coach Dave Hansen is right, they won't be so lucky next time.

Five Madison players scored as the Dodgers upended scrappy Parsippany Hills, 5-2, in the Haas Cup quarterfinals at Mennen Arena, but it left Hansen less than pleased.

"We didn't play well at all," he said. "If we play like that Thursday, you can count us out."

The Dodgers (13-4-2) advanced to play Mount Olive in the cup semifinals Thursday at 4:15 p.m. at Mennen.

Madison perhaps took the Vikings (5-14), the third seed from the Charette Division, a little bit too lightly. The Dodgers defeated Par Hills 9-2 last month, and appeared poised to repeat that result Monday with two early goals.

"We didn't want to think about it," said senior Brett Perry, who had a goal and an assist. "I think we thought it would be easy for us. We shouldn't ever think that, but I think it was in the back of our minds."

Brett Perry opened the scoring 2:32 into the game. Seven minutes later, Erik Andersson scored a masterful shorthanded goal, wrapping around the net and poking it past Par Hills goalie Deanna Meunier (35 saves).

But that early success may have inspired some selfish play on Madison's part, according to Hansen.

The Dodgers took 40 shots (to Parsippany Hills' 15), but struggled to put passes together in the Par Hills defensive zone.

"Our passes weren't really crisp," Perry said. "We weren't really running our game plan, and we got a bit selfish at times."

Madison's two-goal lead was a luxury that allowed such individual play. But Par Hills fought back, capitalized on both of its chances at the end of the first period, and tied the score at 2-2 with 52 seconds to play.

With Madison on a power play, Par Hills forward Harry Gitlitz cleared the puck into the Madison defensive end. A race to the puck ensued, won by the Vikings' Patrick Lynch. He launched an impossible wrister over goalie Grant Perry's shoulder to get Par Hills on the board.

The Vikings benefitted from a failed clearance 2:30 later, when Ryan Brown capitalized on a wide-open look from the slot to tie the game.

"Our defense was the sloppiest part of the whole game," Perry said. "Grant played a great game, and made some big saves. Without him, it could've been a 5-4 or 5-5 game. But we were very sloppy."

Madison's aggressiveness did pay off 30 seconds later, when Brett Anton crashed the net for a shot. It was blocked by Meunier, but his rebound gave the Dodgers a 3-2 lead after 15 minutes.

Disaster nearly struck for the Dodgers early in the second period, when Sam Fendler created a breakaway

Breakaways and odd-man rushes were a consistent problem for Madison all night.

"We weren't backchecking," Hansen said. "We were getting shots down low, we weren't finishing, and they broke out very easily. We didn't backcheck, and that's how you get so many 2-on-1s."

Making matters worse is that the Dodgers couldn't get any more separation from Par Hills, thanks to Meunier, who was spectacular in the second period.

Madison took 18 second-period shots, spending much of their time in the Par Hills end. But they were repeatedly stonewalled by Meunier.

"Their goalie played outstanding," Hansen said. "We weren't working the puck from up top, and we weren't screening the goalie. When you have a goalie playing as well as she was, you can't let her see the puck."

It wasn't until Lou Cecala's backhand in traffic with 4:17 left that the Par Hills goalie finally cracked. Waresk made it 5-2 two minutes later, cleaning up a scramble around net.

But the Dodgers couldn't put much offense together after that.

"We can't have three good minutes and three bad minutes when it's playoff time," Hansen said. "Some of these teams we're playing, this is their season. They're playing for survival."

Still, it was more than enough, with Par Hills managing just five shots on goal in the third period.

NEXT UP
The Haas Cup bracket took a fortuitous turn for Madison in the preliminary and quarterfinal rounds.

Montville, who went unbeaten (1-0-1) against Madison this season and knocked off the Dodgers in last year's Haas Cup final, lost to Park Regional in the preliminary round Saturday night. Then, in the late quarterfinal Monday night, Park lost to Charette Division champion Mount Olive, 4-1.

Madison will play the Marauders (14-6-1) in the semifinals Thursday afternoon at 4:15 p.m. at Mennen Arena. The Dodgers beat Mount Olive in their regular-season finale on Feb. 15, 5-0.

The winner of that game will advance to the Haas Cup championship game, facing the winner of Wednesday's Roxbury-West Morris game Saturday at 2:30 p.m., also at Mennen.

SCORING SUMMARY
[C-3] Par Hills   2  0  0  -  2
[H-2] Madison   3  2  0  -  5

FIRST PERIOD
M- Brett Perry (from Spencer Waresk and Brett Anton), 2:32
M- Erik Andersson (shorthanded, from Lou Cecala), 9:31
P- Patrick Lynch (shorthanded, from Harry Gitlitz), 11:38
P- Ryan Brown (from Kevin Wilton), 14:08
M- Anton (from Waresk and Perry), 14:37

SECOND PERIOD
M- Cecala (from Andersson and Bobby Yutko), 10:43
M- Waresk (from Charlie Olendorp and Will Remig), 12:46

SHOTS ON GOAL
Par Hills     5    5    5   -  15
Madison   11  18  11   -  40