Cranford Beats SP-F in Hockey Action

Ever since Eric Pawlick laced up the skates as a freshman for the Cranford High School varsity ice hockey team three years ago, expectations were high. Fast, skilled and smart, only time would tell if he would make his mark on the program.

Well Monday night, the time came, as Pawlick earned his 100th point as a Cougar. Cranford iced visiting Scotch-Plains Fanwood 10-1 at Warinanco Rink in Roselle to improve to 9-7 on the season. Pawlick had a goal and an assist for the home team.

"It feels good," Pawlick said. "I worked three years for this. This was one of my goals. We're looking good. We're jelling as a team. It's been going good so far. Everything's been clicking." 

The Raiders, meanwhile, played as well as could be expected, down two starters who are both out with injuries. That leaves just 11 healthy players who have to work overtime, not that they're complaining.

"We played hard," said Raiders coach Matt Gualtieri. "We're happy with the effort. We're down guys and we played last night as well. These games are going to benefit us in the long run. Our heads are up. The big thing is trying to stay positive."

And staying positive isn't always easy, especially with Steven Rachko and Andrew Skood watching from the bench.

"Rachko is out for the year," Gualtieri said. "Andrew will be back in about two weeks. Steven dislocated his kneecap in the Dayton game. He's not doing bad, but he's out for the year, more precautionary. Andrew strained his rotator cuff and deltoid muscles. He's in a sling right now. He's going to skate tomorrow. He just can't shoot. He's got limited mobility. We're being cautious with him too. We'll sacrifice this season to make sure they're healthy for next season."

SP-F has a young squad that's getting key experience, which should help them in the future, especially with a large freshmen class set to step on the ice.

"We work really hard in practice, more than the average team, I'd say," said junior Kyle Douglas. "We really try and translate that effort onto the ice. Sometimes it's unfortunate because we have so few kids, but we try our best and we hang in every game."

Cranford received two goals apiece from Sean Feeney, John Pijanowski and Pat Hartnett. Jake Zimmerman, Rogan, Pawlick and Russ Harvey each added a goal apiece in the win.

The Cougars sped off to a 4-0 start after one, and led 8-0 through two periods.

"Everybody's improving, the team's really coming together," Hartnett said. "It's been a lot of fun this year."

Scotch Plains got on the scoreboard when Kevin Lewis hit the back of the net two minutes into the final period to break the ice.

"He's played well for us all year," Gualtieri said. "He's making smarter decisions with the puck. He can skate well. He's really not connecting on a lot of his shots, but he's smart about using his feet. He actually got a pretty good shot off, I think the goalie thought he was going to pass. He kid of put himself at an awkward angle, but when you put the puck on net, good things happen."

"For long periods of time we can skate with the other teams," added Douglas. "Inconsistency is our biggest problem. For lengths of time we can play even hockey, score a goal or even play 1-0 hockey, and then there's times when we let in a lot of goals."

Cranford, which still has their sights set on a league title, will next face off against Johnson on Wednesday night in a key matchup at 6 p.m. at Warinanco. The Cougars will look to turn the tables on their neighbor after losing earlier in the season.

SP-F will face division-leader Governor Livingston Wednesday before facing Colonia later in the week. The Raiders fell to G.L. 11-2 the first time around, and tied Colonia 2-2 earlier this winter.

"We scored the first two goals against G.L., but we couldn't sustain it," Gualtieri said. "They're probably the deepest team in our division, so it's tough, especially with our low numbers. They've got 12 or 13 kids that are good, quality players. Colonia has three or four kids that are solid players. That's a good matchup for us, where it's going to be a good, competitive game. We like those games."