Wednesday,
January 15, 2014
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
|
|
Greg Rassam scored with 5:45 to go in the third period to break a tie and River Dell/Westwood went on to win its first ever game in the Bergen County Tournament, 4-1, over Mahwah. |
WAYNE – Because the Bergen County Ice Hockey Tournament is only three years old, there are going to be those “first in the history of...” moments in just about every game played. For ninth-seeded River Dell a co-op program with Westwood, there were a couple of them on Wednesday night in the opening round against No. 8 Mahwah. Senior Greg Rassam scored his first ever-tournament goal and the Golden Hawks won their first-ever tournament game as River Dell went ahead for the first time with 5:45 left in the third period and scored twice in short order after that to post a 4-1 win at the Ice Vault in Wayne.
The game-winning combination started when Rassam took a pass from Jason Conroy below the goal line. Rassam then skated out to the stick side of Mahwah goaltender John Kapoian and, unchallenged, he squared his hips and lifted a shot across the keeper's opposite shoulder and under the crossbar at 9:15 of the third period for the 2-1 lead.
“I passed it to Conroy. We were in the corner, we cycled it down and he gave it right back. I turned and shot and the next thing I knew it was in the back of the net. We were even with them the whole game, we just had to find a way to take that extra step,” said Rassam, River Dell's junior forward. “This is a great feeling. This is the farthest I have ever been [in the county tournament] in my high school career, so it is a first and it feels great.”
|
Michael Matos' goal at 8:08 of the first period gave Mahwah a 1-0 lead. |
River Dell was wearing the dark jerseys signifying their underdog status, but the Hawks were not over matched by a Mahwah team that was on a bit of a roll coming in. Rassam set the tone by holding off a defender and muscling in for the game's first quality scoring chance just 16 seconds after the opening faceoff. If the Hawks had a problem it was that they were maybe too hyped up and could not stay out of the penalty box.
Chris DeTitta, River Dell's senior netminder, was involved early as he made his first save of the game on at 2:53 of the first period after Michael Matos was a battle at his own blue line and went in ahead of the pack only to see DeTitta hold his ground and close the 5-hole. A penalty was called behind that play and River Dell went down a man for the first of three times in the opening period.
While Mahwah did not convert any of those man advantages into goals, the T-Birds were wearing down the River Dell defense and scored at even strength to take the game's first lead. Matos, assisted by Zach Orton and Marty Kapoian cleaned up a mess in front of the net and gave Mahwah a 1-0 lead at 8:08 of the first.
“What was killing us was that we were constantly in the box. Our fifth defenseman has the flu. He up in the stands because I won't let him near the locker room, so we really needed to stay out of the box and keep the shifts short,” said River Dell head coach Brian Sharkey. “We run three lines and I put a lot of pressure on our forwards to, first, stay out of the box and then really put the pressure on them and keep the puck in the Mahwah zone. At full strength, we were able to do that.”
|
Jack Shaefer scored an empty-netter for River Dell's final goal. |
After killing off the last bits of a held-over too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty 37 seconds into the second period, River Dell found some open ice to work with as both teams went back-and-forth until Matt Candrilli scored unassisted to tie the game at 1 at 7:08 of the second period. River Dell then killed off two more penalties and got some good work from DeTitta two get into the third period still all even.
With just under three minutes left in the second, Mahwah was on the power play and all over the net and had two shots at a rebound that were both turned aside. With the puck still loose, DeTitta's helmet was knocked off, which forced an immediate whistle. Then, with 1:21 to go, DeTitta stuck his left pad out just in time to rob Matos, who swooped in from behind the net. Those were opportunities lost that would come back to bite Mahwah later on.
“Second period, right before the ice cut we had a chance to go up 2-1 and Chris [DeTitta] made a great save on a point blank shot. Instead of getting up 2-1 and having a little bit of momentum, we missed out,” said the Mahwah head coach Kevin Sabella, also the co-host of It's Hockey Night on NorthJerseySports.com. “Quote this and I'll say it on the show, we got what we deserved tonight.”
Four-and-a-half minutes into the final period, DeTitta made on Marty Kapoian, who went to his backhand while holding off the last defender and five minutes later the River Dell keeper finally had a lead to protect.
|
Senior forward Zach Orton assisted on Mahwah's lone goal. |
“I just wanted to do what I could to give my team a chance to win. I wanted to put my teammates in a position where if they could score, that would be the winning goal. My job is to keep the pucks out of my net,” said DeTitta, who has made the most of his first season as River Dell's No. 1 keeper. “My defense was great. They were able to keep shots to a minimum, they swiped the puck out of there and eliminated and second shots off of rebounds.”
Then Rassam scored and changed everything. Instead of knowing that any mistake might show them the county tournament exit, the Hawks all of a sudden put Mahwah in desperation mode. The T-Birds were forced to throw everything forward, but any chance they had to get back in it was gone when Rich Myers banged in a rebound to make it 3-1 with 3:53 left. Jack Shaefer added an empty netter with 1:10 to go to provide the final margin.
“After the second intermission we really just had to turn it up. We realized what we were doing wrong. We weren't fore-checking, we were taking penalties and we were getting outplayed. After the first period our shots were [almost] doubled (9-5 to River Dell), but after the second period they were almost even (20-19 to Mahwah),” said Myers, River Dell's senior forward. “Rassam got that goal and it was huge and on mine I saw the puck go through a bunch of skates and it was sitting on the goal line. I just put it in.”
Because 11th-seeded Tenafly beat No. 6 Ridgewood and because the tournament re-seeds itself after the first round, River Dell avoids a quarterfinal match-up against top-seeded and two-time defending champion Don Bosco Prep. Instead, the Hawks will No. 3 Glen Rock, which had a first round bye.
For Mahwah, it was a disappointing exit.
“We had a couple of chances early in the third [period], but hats off to their goalie. He didn't let us bury our chances, but this game was lost to us in the first two periods. We did not come ready to play, we didn't have our legs, we got beat to a lot of pucks and for us, as an average hockey team, we have to do those little things,” said Sabella. “Our effort has to be a maximum effort every game because we don't have the man-power to coast by. Nobody does, but for us personally at Mahwah if we are not giving a maximum effort, this will be the result every game.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS GAME.
TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT
OF THIS STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com. |