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Sports

Madison Hockey Thrashes Park Regional

Perry, Cecala record hat tricks; Andersson tallies five assists as Dodgers clinch top-two Haas Division finish with blowout win over rival.

MORRISTOWN – With the Haas Cup and the state playoffs looming over the next three weeks, now certainly is a good time for the Madison High School hockey team to start clicking on all cylinders.

The Dodgers ended a two-game losing streak Friday night in a heated struggle with West Morris. Monday night, Madison used that momentum to dismantle rival Park Regional, 9-2, at Mennen Arena. With the win, Madison clinched no worse than a second seed in the Haas Cup, which begins next weekend.

Lou Cecala put together his second straight multiple-goal game, scoring three and adding three assists, while senior Brett Perry notched a hat trick of his own to go along with two assists. Freshman Erik Andersson had five assists for the Dodgers (11-4-1, 10-2-1 Haas).

Madison equaled its highest single-game goal total of the season, equaling the Dodgers' nine-goal efforts against Morris Hills (Dec. 14) and Parsippany Hills (Jan. 13).

"This was a good confidence builder," said Madison coach Dave Hansen. "We can skate with anybody. It's just a matter of being disciplined, playing within the system. When we do that, it works out pretty well."

The Dodgers used a six-goal second period to put together a comprehensive win over a Park Regional team that gave Madison fits when the two teams played three weeks ago, a 5-3 Madison win.

Madison led, 2-1, after the first period and seemed to be in for a dog fight. But everything fell apart in a hurry for Park Regional (7-11-2, 5-7-1).

Disaster struck for Park just 10 seconds into the second period, after Madison took the initial faceoff into their attacking zone. Brett Anton skated up the boards on the left side and flipped a centering pass towards the slot.

Two Madison players were in the area, but neither could reach the pass. But Park defenseman Kyle Chambers, trying to clear the puck away from the net, accidentally flipped the puck over the shoulders of goalie Michael Brattoli. With that stroke of good luck, the Dodgers found themselves ahead, 3-1.

Perry made it 4-1 on a power play goal four minutes later, and Hansen said he thought Madison broke Park Regional's will at this point.

Sensing a chance to go for the kill, Hansen left his No. 1 line on the ice over the last couple minutes of the second period to keep pressure on. The move paid off big time, as Madison delivered the knockout blow by scoring three goals in 61 seconds.

"We put a couple really good shots on goal (to go up 4-1), and you could tell they kind of gave up," Hansen said. "Once they dropped the puck, we rushed players into their zone and got some 3-on-1 chances."

Perry scored with 1:25 on a long slap shot set up by Cecala's diving chip from the neutral zone.

Cecala, who scored three goals in Friday's win at West Morris, put in another of his patented backhand goals with 39 seconds left, following a string of three perfect passes between Cecala, Andersson and Perry.

"We really started clicking together," Andersson said. "We put together some passes and got some nice goals. The more shots we put on them, it seemed like their goalie lost his feel."

Cecala put together another superb finish just 15 seconds later to give Madison an 8-2 lead.

"Lou's got such great speed," Hansen said. "It's a confidence thing for him. We've been telling him, you know, 'You're skating into their zone and going behind the net, and you're not doing anything with the puck.' We're telling him to put the puck on net as much as he can, and he's scoring goals for us.

The game got chippy towards the middle of the second period, set off by a monster hit by Charlie Olendorp on a Park forward. Emotions ran high between the two rival teams, as hard hits and after-the-whistle confrontations became the norm over the final 20 minutes of game time.

"I thought we kept our composure," Hansen said. "We didn't take stupid penalties, which we could have done. Stuff like this is going to happen when you've got two teams who are rivals like these two."

Despite the lopsided scoreline, the Dodgers actually found themselves trailing just 14 seconds into the contest. Park's Michael Braviak deflected a shot from Randy Patrizio–Hansen called it a "fluke"–and beat Madison goalie Grant Perry (13 saves). It was the fourth straight game Madison gave up an early goal.

"It took five or six minutes for them to get in the game," Hansen said. "We came out flat in the first period, but we got it turned around."

Madison responded soon enough. Cecala backhanded in a goal 5:30 into the first period to tie the score.

Will Remig put Madison ahead after an Olendorp slapshot went wide and bounced off the boards behind the Park net. Remig backhanded the puck into the net before Brattoli could find the puck.

Madison's four seniors–Perry, Greg Maxwell, Olendorp and Remig–were all honored following the conclusion of Monday's game in a short ceremony.

HAAS NOTES

With the win, Madison moved two points ahead of third-place West Morris in the Haas Division standings, and three ahead of fourth-place Montville. All three teams have just one league game remaining. Only the Wolfpack can catch Madison in the standings, and since the Dodgers beat West Morris twice, they would win any Haas Cup seeding tiebreaker.

The Dodgers remain one point back of first-place Roxbury, whose Monday game against West Morris was postponed due to melting ice at the Chill Out Arena in Hackettstown. The Gaels still have two games remaining, and would clinch the Haas Division crown with one win. Madison can win the division title, and the top seed in the Haas Cup, if the Dodgers win their remaining league game and Roxbury loses to both Montville and West Morris this week.

NEXT UP
The Dodgers conclude the MCSSIHL portion of their regular season schedule Wednesday night at Mennen Arena, when they take on former Haas Division rival Mount Olive (13-4-1, 7-4-1). The Marauders clinched the smaller-school Charette Division title on Jan. 31 when they defeated Parsippany Hills, 4-3. Mount Olive has been a tough out for Haas teams this year, falling by identical 4-3 scores to Park Regional (Dec. 14) and Roxbury (Jan. 18).

The Dodgers are 4-0 against the Charette Division this season, outscoring Morris Catholic, Morris Hills, Parsippany and Parsippany Hills by a combined score of 29-5.

SCORING SUMMARY
Madison               2  6  1  -  9
Park Regional    1  1  0  -  2

FIRST PERIOD
P- Michael Braviak (from A.J. Dean and Randy Patrizio), 0:14
M- Lou Cecala (from Erik Andersson), 5:28
M- Will Remig (from Bobby Yutko), 9:53

SECOND PERIOD
M- Brett Anton (unassisted), 0:10
M- Brett Perry (power play, from Andersson and Cecala), 4:10
M- Greg Maxwell (from Perry and Spencer Waresk), 7:57
P- Michael Marano (from Michael Tripp), 10:10
M- Perry (from Cecala and Andersson), 13:35
M- Cecala (from Andersson and Perry), 14:21
M- Cecala (from Andersson), 14:36

THIRD PERIOD
M- Perry (from Yutko and Cecala), 0:41

SHOTS ON GOAL
Madison               9  15  2  -  26
Park Regional    7   5   3  -  15

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