Would have enjoyed seeing your boy behind the pipes again. Bet there were a few anxious moments for your boy in the final minutes. It was good to see that my grandson’s goalie teammate of 6 years ago did so
well against a team with a 13-6-3 record.

Our Jefferson finally won probably its first and only game on 2/15/12 with a miracle finish. In a quarter final round in our division and down 2 goals, 7-5 with 1:35 remaining against Mountain Lakes, a team that had crushed us by a 6-0 score, we pulled our goalie pulled for a sixth skater.

The hockey gods were with us as Ross’ old teammate, now playing forward and using all of his 6 foot 200 lb. frame, unmovable ten feet outside the crease, redirected a shot from the left point, up and over the Mountain Lakes goalie who had gone down to block the original shot, to tie the score at 7-7 with 35 seconds remaining in the game.

Eight seconds after the center ice face off, Tommy blasts a shot from just inside the right point, which deflects off the skate of a defenseman, then off the right sideboard and back out on to the blade of our leading scorer just coming into to right face off circle who wrists a shot over the goalie’s right shoulder and bulges the cords behind him for an 8-7 lead with 26.2 seconds left. We held on for the win. Tommy pick up a goal and an assist in just 9 seconds, his only points of the year.

In twelve and a half hours we go into the semi-final round against the number 6 ranked team in the state (they are 117 above us overall; 93 higher in the Public division, and #2 in the A division to Jefferson’s 44th in the B.) They have clobbered us in all three games this season, outscoring us 24-2, and their 17-3-0 record against our 1-18-2 record would seem to be enough said. But as they say in football, “On any given Sunday…” For Jefferson this February evening, maybe “On any given Saturday…”

The Jefferson Falcons will be facing the Morristown Colonials for the 5th consecutive time since January 29, 2011. And your words, “Great moments are made from great opportunity,” recall the the opportunity presented to Jefferson in that contest when with 2:01 remaining in the game and the score tied 2-2, Jefferson speedster Sean Mullin went stride for stride with Morristown speedster Jordan Klotz on a rink length breakaway and scored the winning goal that defeated Morristown 3-2.

Yes, the Falcons indeed will have chance number five to defeat a stronger 2011-2012 Colonial team. But, recalling what they say in football, “On any given day…” Hey, you never know.

The final weekend of the season featured an all New Jersey game at the famous Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City where Stockton faced D2 Monmouth University, with the Ospreys topping the Hawks by a 6-3 score. The season ended with a road win over Wagner by a 6-5 overtime score. As far as stats, 3 players, Al Morelli, Ken Yasenchock and Kevin Heumann tied for the team lead in points with 36 apiece.

Russ, perhaps a Highlander-Falcon matchup would interesting, as a team with a 4-14-0 record plays a team with a 0-16-2 record (still one of the three winless teams in the state)?

Based on NJPowerRanking statistic “win% of opponents,” Jefferson, of the 136 state teams, is tied for 6th place. (Could this be indicative of difficulty of schedule strength?)

FYI: Of the 136 teams in the state, 50% of Jefferson’s 16 losses came against

# 4 – Randolph
# 7 – Morristown (faced them 3 times)
# 8 – Morris Knolls
#13 – Morristown-Beard
#18 – Ridge
These have a combined record of 78-20-12

Congratulations to West Milford on their wins against

# 129 – High Point
# 126 – Hackensack
# 108 – Old Tappan
# 81 – Fairlawn (2-0 win)

A check of West Milford’s schedule shows that the best ranked in the 18 teams they played was Saint Josephs of Montvale, ranked # 31 of 136 teams.

In closing, will be attempting to edit my profile and replace my wife’s name with mine. Also looking forward to facing the West Milford Highlanders next season and reconnecting with you. It’s been a few years since we rooted for the same team, the one your son and my grandson played for. (I think it was the Bandits Squirt team when they were 10 years old.)

Respectfully yours,
Grandpa Z