There have been -- and will be -- a lot of high school ice hockey championships in New Jersey. No one, however, will ever be able to match what South Brunswick did this past Friday night.
Connor VanDemark scored in overtime, lifting the South Brunswick High School ice hockey team to a 3-2 win over Old Bridge in the title game of the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament.
"Like I was telling the kids after the game, no one else will ever be the inaugural GMC champion," South Brunswick Coach Mike Slansky said. "That's pretty cool."
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As cool as it was, it took a little while for the sudden death goal to sink in.
"I thought he scored, but I didn't hear a whistle," Slansky said. "I turned to say something to my assistant coach. When I looked back, the guys were all celebrating. It was a 2-2 game in overtime. The referee just wanted to take a couple of seconds to verify the goal. He took that time, made the right call and the rest is history."
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Old Bridge scored goals in the first and third periods. Sean Kacerosky (assisted by Joe Marchesani and Ryan Fisher) and Russ Lorring (assisted by VanDemark and Marchesani) scored for South Brunswick in the second period.
"In all honesty, we made one mistake -- on Old Bridge's second goal," Slansky said. "That tied the game early in the third period. It stayed that way until ten minutes into overtime."
South Brunswick reached the GMC title game by defeating St. Joe's, 4-1, on Feb. 16.
Brian Leach had 32 saves in goal for South Brunswick.
"Brian Leach has been playing exceptionally well the past couple of weeks," Leach said. "He wasn't too pressured in the Edison game, but he had some huge saves against St. Joe's. We gave him the winning puck from that game.
"We took down two very good teams in St. Joe's and Old Bridge. That was fun. The whole season we have been stressing defense. We played very well defensively in those wins."
Will Connell scored two goals. Connor VanDemark and Joe Marchesani scored a goal each for South Brunswick against St. Joe's. Tommy Fisher and Ketul Patel had an assist each.
South Brunswick opened play in the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament with an 11-1 win over Edison on Feb. 14.
"You try not to go into a game overconfident, but we were the better team," Slansky said. "That was an expected win."
Shanek Bobik actually made 37 saves for Edison to keep the game as close as it was. Brian Leach had 20 saves for South Brunswick. Will Kogan had three goals and an assist. Ryan Christofalo had a goal and three assists. Joe Muha, Raj Kumar, Sean Kacerosky and Connor VanDemark had a goal and an assist each. Casey Walker had a goal and two assists. Tommy Fisher and Ketul Patel had a goal and assist each.
In regular season action, South Brunswick and St. Joe's tied 5-5 on Feb. 9.
Ryan Christofalo had two goals and one assist. Will Kogan, Sean Kacerosky and Tommy Fisher had a goal each. Ryan Fisher, Joe Marchesani, Connor VanDemark and Will Kogan had an assist each.
South Brunswick is now 15-2-1. Seedings for the state tournament will be released this week.
"We're hoping for a first-round home game," Slansky said.
South Brunswick will then see what it can do about adding to an already historic season.
