January 18 - The Scotch Plains-Fanwood ice hockey team couldn’t buy a win over the past two weeks, suffering one-sided losses to perennial Union County powerhouses, Summit, Westfield and Cranford. They also lost 8-5 in a non-league contest to Colonia whom the Raiders had beaten earlier in the season. The losing streak finally came to an end last Saturday with a 3-3 tie against a tough Hopewell Valley squad. The Raider goals were scored by junior John Bruckman, sophomore Patrick Henkels and senior Eric Hogan. Sophomore Tim Mitchell was in goal for the Icers and his 28 saves would have notched a first varsity win if not for a last minute deflection by the Bulldogs. Strong defensive efforts were put in by seniors Tyler Hardgrove, Kurtis Wisniewski and Stephen Deduck.
The Raiders looked to start adding to the win column again with a UCIHL game against Dayton last Monday and a non-league match-up vs Millburn coming up Saturday Jan 25th at 4:00 pm at Codey Arena in South Orange.
The Raiders overall record now stands at 2-9-2 but they still have an outside chance to make the state playoffs if they can win all 6 of their remaining non-league games as well as notching 4 county wins. The Icers stand in the middle of the UCIHL with a 1-4-1 record and could still get the 4th or 5th seed in the year-end tournament with a strong finish. You can follow the Raider Icers and check their schedule on www.leaguelineup/spficehockey and follow all of the New Jersey high school ice hockey teams on www.njhockey.org.
