For at least one more day, Madison has hope of qualifying for the Halvorsen Cup.
The Dodgers earned a 4-1 win over Gill St. Bernard’s at Mennen Arena on Sunday night, and now will have to wait and see the result of tomorrow’s Montville/Gill St. Bernard’s game to find out its fate.
A Gill St. Bernard’s win on Sunday would have eliminated the Dodgers, and a win of any kind by the Knights over Montville tomorrow would do the same. In order for Madison to get in, it will need Montville to beat Gill St. Bernard’s in regulation. An overtime loss for Gill St. Bernard’s tomorrow would leave the teams tied with five points, and it would come down to tiebreakers to determine who gets in.
That game is slated for 3:15 p.m. on Monday at Mennen Arena.
All Madison can do is wait to see what happens in that game, but its effort over the last two divisional games put them in position to even have a chance of qualifying going into Monday. It rallied from a 3-0 deficit to tie Montville on Friday, which was a key standings point.
In this game, the Dodgers out-shot Gill St. Bernard’s 53-19 and controlled play for the vast majority of the game. Claes Machacz scored off a shot from the blue line just a few minutes into the game, before Lucas Gero capitalized off a feed from Chris Palawasta with 52 seconds to go in the first to build a 2-0 lead.
Michael Tighe scored a highlight-reel goal 4:37 into the second period to cut the deficit to one for Gill St. Bernard’s. Just moments later, the Knights nearly tied it when Tighe hit a post. But Lucas Gero set up Ryan McSherry for a goal with 6:25 to go in the period to restore the two-goal lead.
Chris Palawasta iced it with a breakaway goal with 8:12 to go in the game.
Luc Jansson made 49 saves for Gill St. Bernard’s. Nick Worthington stopped 18 of 19 in the win for Madison.
E-mail Mike Gurnis at michaelgurnis@gmail.com
Morris-Sussex Hockey Report 