Colts Defeat Spartans in First Round of State Tournament

The remember last year’s ice hockey playoffs like it was yesterday.  Losing 3-2 against Nutley High School still causes heartache for the team, especially starting goaltender Jason Braimon. 

“Last year's unexpected loss is motivation for the playoffs this year," he said. "We came out flat against Nutley, and we didn’t want that to happen against Paramus.”

The Colts defeated the Paramus Spartans 5-2 Monday to move on to the second round of the NJSIAA Ice Hockey Public B tournament.

Kinnelon head coach Jeff Myhren described the game as a "ball of nerves."  

"We came out firing on all cylinders. After we got the early lead, we sat back and didn’t play our game. We regrouped after losing the lead, and dominated the final 25 minutes of the game. We played to our capabilities. We were cycling the puck down low in the offensive zone, outshot the opposition, and used the boards to our advantage. We almost played a complete game. If we play like that our team will be hard to defeat,” he said.  

Before the game, the Colts seniors got the team together to tell them “tonight’s game will not be our last!” Braimon said.

Skylands Ice World was quite similar to an NHL arena Monday.  Rambunctious fans cheering on their teams, physical play and timely goal scoring were all a part of the first round playoff game.  The game started off quickly as Ryan Driscoll drilled a slap shot past Paramus Goaltender Dan Crandall. Paramus quickly responded with a goal of their own when Mark Apidopoulos buried the puck behind Jason Braimon after making the initial save against JJ Piccinich. 

Paramus Captain Pete Reveille gave the Spartans a 2-1 lead early in the second period after taking a pass from Dean Delucia and successfully scored after jamming home the puck under Braimon. freshman Hunter Ledwith created a turnover in the neutral zone with eight minutes remaining in the second period that started an odd man rush for the Colts in which Ledwith took a pass from Francis Caserta and scored a beautiful goal above Crandall’s glove.   

With two minutes and 45 seconds remaining in the period, the Colts regained the lead for good when Brian Kruser fired a wide-angle shot under the blocker of Crandall. Kinnelon added two insurance goals by Paul Zechmeister and Driscoll again to help defeat the Spartans.

The Kinnelon Colts will face the winner of the fifth seeded Ramapo vs. 28th seeded Indian Hills game tomorrow night. Braimon said he feels that the Colts matchup better against the higher ranked Ramapo. 

“Ramapo is more similar to our team. They don’t have superstar players that skate through and around players like JJ Piccinich and Mark Apidopoulos of Paramus," he said. "They’re just a great team that has solid kids and has an excellent goaltender. No matter who we play, we will need to practice hard and scout tomorrow’s game in order to get ready for the next round. We will definitely be ready.”