By Mike Gurnis
It was a performance reminiscent of what past Morristown-Beard teams would do at their best.
During Morristown-Beard’s recent three-peat of Mennen Cup titles from 2020-22, there were many games where the Crimson could turn a seemingly tight game on its ear, often turning a one-goal lead into a three or four-goal lead within minutes, with a lineup full of players scoring at any time.
Friday’s game against Chatham gave everyone a glimpse of what Morristown-Beard is capable of at the top of its game. Five different players found the back of the net with 10 players contributing with points, as Morristown-Beard cruised to a 7-0 win over Chatham in a Mennen Division tilt at Mennen Arena.
The win officially clinched a spot in the Mennen Cup for the Crimson, and moved it to within one point of second-place Chatham. The Chatham loss also clinched the Mennen Division title and top seed in the Cup for Randolph.
“We came in here and really knew we had to win this game,” freshman goalie Mason Hriczov, who stopped all 27 shots he faced for his second-career shutout, said. “We were prepared for the game. We knew we needed this win, and we did that, we came out here and showed them.”
Morristown-Beard led, 1-0 on a goal from Nick Squashic late in the first period, after Chatham controlled much of the opening frame. Chatham, which was without its top scorer in Matt Nacinovich, had a golden opportunity to equalize early in the second though, when Morristown-Beard took back-to-back penalties and had to kill off over a minute of a 5-on-3.
The Crimson’s penalty kill, backboned by Hriczov, came through, keeping Chatham off the board. Just a few minutes later, Ryan Tartaglione doubled the lead, before Nick Zayas and Hudson Salvador scored 1:16 apart to give it a commanding 4-0 lead by the end of the second.
“Gotta keep them off the board,” Hriczov said. “You can’t let them score. It was a tight game for awhile. I know it was 7-0, but the score didn’t really reflect that. It was a close game. But we just had a really good PK today. I think we scored after that. If you kill a 5-on-3, it’s great. We pushed through that and we battled.”
Salvador buried his second early in the third to make it a 5-0 game, before Kevin Fraga and Tartaglione each scored in the final minute to finish off the win.
Tartaglione and Salvador finished with four points each- two goals, and two assists. Peter Cross dished out three assists and Lucas Krzanowski had two helpers.
“It’s kind of been what we’ve been hoping for all season,” Morristown-Beard coach Scott Greene said. “We always had two lines that I thought could score, two-and-a-half almost with a pretty solid third line. Now to get both of those lines going- the (Nick) Squashic line, he’s really gotten going the last few games with five or six goals in the last three games- that’s really what we were missing before. It was just one line scoring, and the other ones, even if they go out and don’t get scored against, if they don’t get a goal, it’s hard to win.
“That balance is huge. It comes from the back-end too, with Lucas, Nick, and Evan Jones. They put the puck in the net a lot. That’s been our bread and butter is having three lines, with two lines that can score. I think we’re moving in the right direction and building momentum.”
Hriczov, on the other hand, was rock-solid as he has been all season. The freshman has stepped in this season and has played like an upperclassman, posting an impressive .928 save percentage with two shutouts over 12 games played.
He has taken the starting job in the crease and has run with it, making this team even more dangerous when the postseason comes.
“He’s been amazing,” Greene said. “He’s been our best penalty-killer, usually our best player every game. I was thinking about how our team is pretty young, and defensively some games we haven’t been our best. He still has really good numbers. Thinking about his numbers in front of a team that’s not great defensively, once you get a team that can play well defensively, I think it helps him out even more. I think a lot of games that we’ve lost have been one or two-goal losses, but it’s really because of him. He’s incredible the way he focuses, the way he prepares, he’s a great teammate, and he’s unbelievable. I can’t really say much else about him.”
Friday night was exactly the type of performance a team can hope for at this stage of the season, with just over a week before the Cup tournaments begin.
Morristown-Beard will face Morristown in its final league game on Monday, before taking on reigning Public C champion Gov. Livingston-New Providence on Wednesday, followed by a strong Seton Hall Prep squad on Thursday.
That’s all by design for Greene and his staff, to have his team acclimated to the level of competitiveness that will be required once the postseason begins. Especially for a young team that still has plenty of room to grow.
“I think we’re doing a good job of learning from our mistakes earlier in the year,” Greene said. “The schedule, we built it that way where there’s tougher games at the end of the year knowing that they’re tough teams. We’re not going in as the favorite, but focusing on working hard and supporting each other. Princeton Day is a good example- we lost, but I thought we gave a really good effort. It was close and we battled the whole time. That’s what we’re looking for down the stretch. The league games are games that we really want to win to put us in the best position. Outside of that, the teams we play, they’re good teams. We just want to work hard, support each other, and see what happens.”
SCORING SUMMARY
First period
MB — Nick Squashic (Robert Magnotta, Nick Zayas) 4:09
Second period
MB — Ryan Tartaglione (Hudson Salvador) 7:06
MB — Nick Zayas (Ryan Tartaglione, Hudson Salvador) 3:54
MB — Hudson Salvador (Evan Jones, Peter Cross) 2:38 PPG
Third period
MB — Hudson Salvador (Peter Cross, Ryan Tartaglione) 10:55
MB — Kevin Fraga (Lucas Krzanowski, Brendan Tartaglione) 0:57 SHG
MB — Ryan Tartaglione (Lucas Krzanowski, Peter Cross) 0:01
Shots on goal: Morristown-Beard 31, Chatham 27
Saves: Mason Hriczov (Morristown-Beard) 27, Snowden Lange (Chatham) 24
Team records: Morristown-Beard 7-7-1 (3-3-1 Mennen), Chatham 11-6 (4-3 Mennen)
Morris-Sussex Hockey Report 