By Mike Gurnis
The numbers have been self-explanatory for Rylan Gibbons.
His first two seasons as the starter in goal for Kinnelon-Jefferson-Sparta were something to behold, as he posted an impressive .924 save percentage in each of his sophomore and junior seasons. Last year, for his efforts in KJS United’s turnaround season which culminated in a regular season Halvorsen division title, he was given Halvorsen Most Valuable Player honors.
Two games into his senior season, he appears to have found an even higher level of play.
After stopping 25 of 26 shots in a season-opening 5-1 win over Madison, he put together possibly the most impressive performance of his high school career, stopping all 29 shots he faced in a 4-0 win over Morris Knolls-Hills on Friday.
It was the program’s first win in a crossover game with the Mennen division since the tri-op was formed in 2020.
“It was phenomenal,” KJS coach Jeff Myhren said of Gibbons’ performance on Friday. “He was always in the right spot shutting down everything. He was just reading the puck really well today. You could tell he was in the zone. It was fun to watch. We got a lot of good bounces, and Knolls is a fantastic team. They put up a lot of shots on us, but Rylan was that last line of defense and was just tremendous today.
“When he’s in the zone, he’s tough to beat. When the other coaching staff is walking off the ice asking ‘he’s a senior, right?’ You know how valuable he is.”
It was the seventh shutout of his high school career, and it came in a game where his team was out-shot, 29-13. He faced an onslaught of shots in the second period specifically, with Morris Knolls-Hills controlling play with a 14-3 shot advantage. He came up big throughout that period, shutting down two Knolls-Hills power plays and reading every puck that came his way perfectly.
That paved the way for his team to break through in the third. With a goalie like him in net, this team knows it may only need one goal on a lot of nights, and the team put in two early in the period to give it a commanding advantage which it did not let slip away.
Belief is a powerful thing in sports, and Gibbons’ steady presence in net gives his team exactly that, no matter the opponent.
“It helps keep the boys heads held high, keep their heads in this game,” Gibbons said of keeping the game scoreless going into the third. “It’s all kind of automatic once you get to a certain point in the game. I kept going through the motions, and eventually we broke through.”
The senior is a goalie who thrives when he knows he’s facing high-quality competition. In Friday’s game, for example, he was facing a Morris Knolls-Hills squad which had scored nine goals in two games coming in. It features some of the most prominent scorers in the area with players such as Luke Dickerson, Jake McCloud, and Michael Simone, among others.
All he did was hand that team its first shutout loss since 2021-22.
“Absolutely. I always have to lock into it more,” Gibbons said, when asked if he raises his game against top competition. “I have to make sure I’m really on my game, because those guys can score from anywhere. All those players you named are great shooters and all the players on that team can really shoot the puck. It helps keep me on edge and helps keep me more focused.”
When watching him play, it’s impossible to not notice Gibbons’ six-foot-five frame which helps cover a lot of space. With his size, he’s still able to get across the crease quickly and is able to track shots as well- if not better- than anyone in the area.
The physical tools stand out, but it’s the mental side of the game- specifically his upbeat, yet calm, demeanor- that sets Gibbons above the rest, said Myhren as well as senior defenseman Aiden Parlapiano.
“Just his energy. He’s always upbeat no matter what,” Parlapiano said. “Even if he gets one or two scored on him, he’s always perking us back up. We do it right back to him. He stands on his head. He played a phenomenal game today. It’s just overall, just his work ethic and everything.”
Myhren added, “I think it’s his demeanor. He’s not a rah-rah guy. He’s quiet in there. He’s in the zone. When he sees the puck well, there’s no stopping him. He doesn’t get high, he doesn’t get low, he doesn’t get down on himself. He’s just even-keeled all the time.”
Gibbons has backstopped KJS to a 2-0 start to the season, and will be tested once again on Monday afternoon when his team takes on another Mennen opponent in Morristown-Beard at 4:30 p.m. at Mennen Arena.
He’s been the cornerstone of a drastic turnaround for this team going back to his sophomore year, when the team only finished 5-12-3. They rebounded last year to finish 14-6-1, going a perfect 8-0 in Halvorsen play before falling in the Halvorsen Cup finals and the Public C first round.
With a lot of key pieces back around Gibbons, this is a group that has its sights set on finishing what it started last year and capturing the program’s first Halvorsen Cup since merging.
Friday’s win over Knolls-Hills, a Mennen program and one of the top Co-op teams year-in and year-out, showed that it may be capable of even more than that. With such a reliable presence in net, while there is a lot of hockey left to be played, it may have the edge it needs to be a team that makes a deep run in the Public Co-op bracket.
“I feel like since this is the first time our tri-op team has beaten a Mennen team, we’re showing that I think we’re really ready to do something this year,” Gibbons said. “I’m hoping we’re setting an example for the league that we’re hopefully here to play this year.”
Parlapiano added, “I want (the state) to know that we are a real team and we are here to play. We will not stop going until we hopefully reach the highest possible achievement that we can of being in the state championship.”
E-mail Mike Gurnis at michaelgurnis@gmail.com
Morris-Sussex Hockey Report 