Madison Ice Hockey Stuns Unbeaten Roxbury

MORRISTOWN – Motivating the Madison High School ice hockey team was never so easy for head coach Dave Hansen.

Its opponent, Roxbury, entered Monday's game with a record of 11-0, and beat the Dodgers last month. If that weren't enough, Hansen showed his team a local newspaper article spotlighting the Gaels, for more inspiration.

Safe to say, the Dodgers got the message.

Erik Andersson and Brett Perry each notched a hat trick as Madison earned an electrifying 7-3 victory over the previously-unbeaten Gaels at Mennen Arena.

Madison (5-2-1, 5-1-1 Haas Division) scored six goals in the first two periods to bury Roxbury and win its third straight and move within a point of second-place West Morris and three of the division-leading Gaels. West Morris and Roxbury will face each other twice between now and the end of the season.

"There were no individuals tonight," Hansen said. "It was a total team effort. Erik and Brett had the hat tricks, but everyone contributed."

The Dodgers avenged their season-opening loss to Roxbury (11-1-0, 7-1-0) on Dec. 2 by flipping the script. In that game, Roxbury capitalized on several Madison penalties to score three power play goals to gain a 6-3 win. This time, the Gaels were the undisciplined team, and the Dodgers capitalized by scoring on three of their four power plays. 

In the end, it was a sequence of two Madison goals in the final minute of the second period that gave the Dodgers an unassailable lead.

"The difference was we stayed out of the box tonight and we scored first," Hansen said. "But those two goals were a big momentum shift for us."

With Madison on the power play and clinging to a 4-2 lead, Roxbury sent a long clearance to Grant Perry. Perry sent a long pass of his own to brother Brett, who took it the rest of the way and beat Roxbury goalie Jared Percevault with 36 seconds left in the period.

Seconds later, Andersson took a pass from Brett Anton for a breakaway of his own, weaving through traffic, and wristing a shot over Percevault's right shoulder. The Dodgers led 6-2 after two periods, and could spend the remainder of the game focusing on defense and winding out the clock.

"This is a great stepping stone for us," said assistant coach Joe Swanson. "But we can't let a game like this go to our heads. For us, every team we play is like an 11-0 team."

Andersson's goal also caused Roxbury to pull Percevault out of goal. The Roxbury goalie, who stopped 20 shots on Dec. 2, saved just 14 of the 20 shots he faced.

"We just threw the puck in on net," Hansen said. "We wanted to just make things happen, and what happened was we got a lot of quality shots."

Brett Perry and Andersson were crucial to the Dodgers jumping out to the early lead, too.

Roxbury had a man advantage midway through the first period when a defensive stop turned into a transition opportunity for the Dodgers' talented duo. Once across the blue line, Andersson's pass to Perry shook the only Roxbury defender standing between puck and goal. Perry beat Percevault over his right shoulder to open the scoring.

In the teams' last meeting, the Dodgers scored first but then gave up the next four goals. Lou Cecala ensured that wouldn't repeat itself when he backhanded a rebound into the net with 4:00 left in the period.

But maintaining the lead would not be so easy. Jeff Kuper scored to make it 2-1 48 seconds later, and the Gaels nearly tied it 20 seconds after that, but a shot ricocheted off the post.

Just as Roxbury began to gain momentum and dominate possession, Andersson stole a pass and beat the Roxbury defense back into their own zone. He calmly scored to extend Madison's lead to 3-1 with 30 seconds left in the period. Andersson, a freshman, recorded his second straight hat trick after accomplishing the feat in last Thursday's 5-2 win over Parsippany.

"What can I say about Erik?" Hansen said. "Erik set the pace tonight. He's on fire right now, skating well. He's not putting pressure on Brett Perry, and that's making him (Brett) very comfortable."

His second goal, on a power play midway through the second, deflected off of Roxbury's Stephen Bolognese and in to make it 4-1.

The Gaels had more exceedingly close chances–hitting the post again and having another shot cleared out of the crease with goalie Perry out of position–before cashing in with Anthony Impagliazzo's high slapshot from near the blue line to make it 4-2. But Perry and Andersson combined to put the game out of reach at the end of the period, ensuring the Dodgers' victory.

"We got the two points, and we're going to enjoy that tonight," Hansen said. "We'll get back to work tomorrow and hope we see Roxbury in the (tournament) finals."

Madison and Roxbury figure to be among the contenders in the Haas Cup tournament, which will take place next month.

UP NEXT

The Dodgers will try to extend their league winning streak to six Wednesday afternoon against Parsippany Hills (2-7-0, 1-6-0). The Vikings, currently sitting in fourth place in the lower Charette Division, have lost four straight. Par Hills is 0-4 against the Haas Division this season, having been outscored 31-5 by against Roxbury, West Morris, Park Regional and Montville.

SCORING SUMMARY

Roxbury    1  1  1  -  3

Madison    3  3  1  -  7

FIRST PERIOD

M- Brett Perry (shorthanded, from Erik Andersson), 8:51

M- Lou Cecala (from Charlie Olendorp), 11:00

R- Jeff Kuper (unassisted), 11:48

M- Andersson (unassisted), 14:31

SECOND PERIOD

M- Andersson (power play, from Cecala and Olendorp), 7:39

R- Anthony Impagliazzo (unassisted), 9:37

M- Brett Perry (power play, from Grant Perry), 14:24

M- Andersson (from Brett Anton), 14:34

THIRD PERIOD

R- Patrick O'Connor (unassisted), 13:12

M- Brett Perry (from Bobby Yutcko), 14:24

SHOTS ON GOAL

Roxbury     8  11  13  -  32

Madison    11   9    6  -  26