Blue Devil Hockey Falls in State Tournament; Concludes Successful Season

Tuesday might have been a night to forget for the Westfield ice hockey team, but its 2010-2011 campaign certainly was one to remember.

The Blue Devils saw their season come to an end Tuesday night in a Public A semifinal at South Mountain Arena in West Orange, falling to Randolph 10-0.

Fourth-seeded Westfield finished 20-5-2 overall, while top-seeded Randolph improved to 20-2-2 and will next face third-seeded Montgomery in Sunday’s 3 p.m. final at The Prudential Center in Newark.

Randolph scored two goals in the first period, added three more in the second and put the game away with five in the third.

After Randolph was called for consecutive minor penalties just two and three minutes into the game, Westfield had a two-man advantage for 1:19.

The Blue Devils managed four shots playing 5-on-3, with one each on net by senior forward CJ Meyer and sophomore defensemen Liam Devin.

“If we could have scored there or say if the puck took a crazy bounce, who knows?  We were given a chance right off the bat, but couldn’t capitalize,” interim Westfield coach Bob Ritchie said.

After Randolph killed the penalties the Rams immediately went on the attack and applied heavy offensive pressure. Randolph senior forward Evan Jones snapped the scoreless deadlock 6:36 in by scoring an even strength goal at the left side of the net after a scramble.

Westfield senior goaltender Morgan Bungerz then made five fine saves – one a stop with his left skate and one on a breakaway – to keep the score at 1-0.

A mix up in a line shift at the very end of the first period resulted in another Randolph goal, which was quite costly.

Jones was able to gain control of the puck by himself at mid ice. He then skated straight ahead toward Bungerz and fired a shot through his legs for a goal with just one second left.

Randolph now had a 2-0 lead heading into the second period and valuable, added momentum.

“Not scoring when he had the 5-on-3 and giving up that goal with one second left in the first hurt us,” Ritchie said. “Randolph is a bigger, stronger, faster team and our goal was to try to stay as close as possible.”

The Rams made it a 3-0 game 3:47 into the second period when Nick Beatrice scored on a scramble in front. Bungerz was injured on the play and left the game for good, with junior Steve Wronski taking over in net.

Wronski made several fine saves before Randolph added back-to-back goals 34 seconds apart, with Justin Kleinwaks and Jones again – for a hat-trick – finding the net.

Randolph outshot Westfield for the game 47-20.

“Westfield defeated Toms River South 1-0 Saturday, but are we nine goals worse than Toms River South, I don’t think so,” Ritchie said. “I told the kids not to let one game ruin the kind of season they had.

“We had three goals this year. The first was to win the league, which we did, undefeated. The second was to win the (county) tournament and we almost did. The third was to go deep into the states and we managed to do so.”

Westfield went 10-0-2 to capture the Union County Ice Hockey League’s regular season championship. It was the first division title in program history.

The Blue Devils then reached the league’s Union County Cup final, falling to Summit 4-3.

Then Westfield bounced back in the Public A playoffs to beat 29th-seeded Monroe 5-2 in the first round, 13th-seeded Tenafly 6-1 in the second round and fifth-seeded Ridge 2-0 in the quarterfinals.

“The kids have a lot to be proud of,” Ritchie said.