Westfield Ice Hockey Has Potential for Standout Season

When the Westfield ice hockey team took to the ice last season it pretty much had a 50-50 chance of coming out on top.

This year the Blue Devils expect to win more than half of their contests and challenge for Union County Ice Hockey League regular season and playoff titles.

Westfield got off to a good start by defeating league rival Scotch Plains 10-0 Tuesday night at Warinanco Ice Skating Rink in Roselle.

The first line of junior left wing Henry O'Brien, junior center CJ Meyer and junior right wing Nick Attanasio returns in addition to senior defensemen Dylan Moran and Joe Kromkowski.

Moran and Kromkowski are the captains and Meyer the assistant captain.

"We really only lost two defensemen," ninth-year head coach Dennis Doherty said. "Moran and Kromkowski are senior leaders and have been playing for four years.

"You can see that they log a lot of ice time for us. That's really where our team lies, with those five guys."

Westfield finished third in the first year of the UCIHL, going 6-4-2 with 14 points against the other six teams in the league.

The Blue Devils also qualified for the Public A states and finished 10-10-2 overall.

Westfield defeated Scotch Plains twice in three tries last year, including once in the quarterfinal round of the league playoffs.

The Blue Devils were one goal away from reaching the league championship game after falling to Governor Livingston 3-2 in overtime in a semifinal.

"We have high expectations," Doherty said. "In our league we have a lot of potential."

"Other schools graduated numbers and we only added numbers. We added 15 freshmen and five got substantial ice time today (vs. Scotch Plains.)

"I think, potentially, we can be right up there with anybody."

Meyer was Westfield's leading goal scorer with more than 20 and also finished with the most points for the Blue Devils a season ago.

He produced Westfield's first goal of the year by scoring 52 seconds into Tuesday's game against Scotch Plains, with Moran and O'Brien earning assists.

In last year's season-ending 2-1 overtime loss to Fair Lawn in the first round of the Public A state tournament at Floyd Hall Arena in Montclair, Meyer and O'Brien assisted on a goal by Attanasio in the first period.

Meyer and Attanasio scored in the Union County Cup semifinal defeat to GL.     

Experience, alone, is one reason why Westfield will be a more difficult opponent to skate past this season.

"We have a lot of veteran leadership," Doherty said. "We don't have a huge senior class, but the seniors that we have are quality kids.

"Our junior class is really a strength - that's where our forwards are - and we have good goaltending."

Morgan Bungerz, a junior, stopped 11 shots to earn a shutout against Scotch Plains. Also in net will be sophomore Steve Wronski, who made 20 saves in blanking Madison 3-0 last year at Mennen Arena in Morris Township.

Wronski posted a second straight shutout when Westfield defeated Scotch Plains 3-0 in the quarterfinals of the league playoffs. He finished with three shutouts total last year.

"Steve was excellent last year as a freshman and played a lot of games for us and has a lot of potential," Doherty said. "We're not really a school that promotes just one goalie. We want multiple goalies playing and that keeps everyone fresh and on their toes."

In addition to playing solid on defense, Moran was able to put the puck in the net last year. For example, he scored twice in an 8-3 win over Summit at Warinanco.

In a game earlier in the season, Moran scored on the power play off an assist from Meyer with just 1:35 remaining to lift the Blue Devils to a 4-3 league win over GL at Warinanco.

"I think we can do really well and we have the potential to win our league and make some noise in the state tournament," Moran said. "Hopefully, we can take it (the states) past the second round, which in my high school career we have not done, so I really hope to make it past that."

Meyer is a three-year starter who, like O'Brien, has a knack for putting the puck in the net from different angles on the ice.

Meyer produced a hat-trick against Cranford last year in league play, with his three-goal performance leading to a 7-2 triumph at Warinanco.

"We have a lot more experience coming back, we only graduated two kids that really played last year," Meyer said. "My line and the second line was the first and second line last year, so we feel real strong offensively and we have these two (referring to Moran and Kromkowski) who are four-year starters, so we're pretty solid all the way through."

Kromkowski scored in both league games against Scotch Plains last year and is excited about the potential this year's Blue Devil squad has.

"We have a strong core of seniors coming back and CJ's line was the top line last year, so they have more of the experience and they know who we're playing and what we're playing against," Kromkowski said. "They're not going into games scared and don't know what they're up against, like a lot of teams that graduated a lot of seniors.

"We have a lot of tough teams here and lot of tough games. Most of our out-of-league games are going to be tough. We need everyone to step up."

One non-league foe Westfield scrimmaged against was Morris County power Randolph, which - as the third seed - captured the Public A state championship last year by blanking top-seeded Ridge 1-0 in the final.

"Pre-season went pretty well," Kromkowski said. "We did pretty well against Randolph even though we lost.

"The experience was good for all of us because we need to step it up this year and play fast."

Westfield's next game is Wednesday vs. non-league foe Verona at 8:30 p.m. at Warinanco.

The Blue Devils will then take on Cranford Monday night at 8:30 p.m. at Warinanco in a first-round Cron Tournament matchup.

Johnson won the Cron Tournament for the first time last year and then the Clark school went on to capture the UCIHL regular season and playoff titles en route to a 20-win season.

Westfield is scheduled to skate against non-league rival Ridge on Dec. 23 at 8:30 p.m. at Warinanco.

UNION COUNTY ICE HOCKEY LEAGUE SEASON-OPENER

AT WARINANCO ICE SKATING RINK

WESTFIELD (1-0)                                          1            7           2 - 10

SCOTCH PLAINS (0-1)                                 0            0           0 -   0 

FIRST PERIOD:

WESTFIELD - Goal: CJ Meyer. Assists: Dylan Moran, Henry O'Brien. Time: :52. Westfield leads 1-0.

SHOTS ON GOAL: Westfield 16, Scotch Plains 2.

GOALIE SAVES: Westfield 2, Scotch Plains 15.

POWER PLAYS: Westfield 0-for-2, Scotch Plains 0-for-1. 

SECOND PERIOD:

WESTFIELD - Goal: Henry O'Brien. Assist: Liam Devon. Time: 4:06.

Westfield leads 2-0.

WESTFIELD - Goal: CJ Meyer. Assists: None. Time: 6.55.

Westfield leads 3-0

WESTFIELD - Goal: Henry O'Brian. Assist: CJ Meyer. Time: 8:44.

Westfield leads 4-0.

WESTFIELD - Goal: Henry O'Brian. Assist: CJ Meyer. Time: 8:56.

Westfield leads 5-0.

WESTFIELD - Goal: Nick Attanasio. Assist: CJ Meyer. Time: 11:11.

Westfield leads 6-0.

WESTFIELD - Goal: Henry O'Brien. Assist: Nick Attanasio. Time: 12:48. Westfield leads 7-0. A shorthanded goal:

WESTFIELD - Goal: Ryan Morse. Assist: Matt Wronski. Time: 13:56.

Westfield leads 8-0.

SHOTS ON GOAL: Westfield 25, Scotch Plains 2.

GOALIE SAVES: Westfield 2, Scotch Plains 18.

THIRD PERIOD:

WESTFIELD - Goal: Sam Meyer. Assists: None. Time: 1:43.

Westfield leads 9-0.

WESTFIELD - Goal: Zander Maslow. Assists: None. Time: 11:54.

SHOTS ON GOAL: Westfield 13, Scotch Plains 7.

GOALIE SAVES: Westfield 7, Scotch Plains 11.

GAME TOTALS:

SHOTS: Westfield 54, Scotch Plains 11.

GOALIE SAVES: Morgan Bungerz, Westfield, 11.

Jason Breit, Scotch Plains, 33. Pat Foti, Scotch Plains, 11. 

2009 WESTFIELD BLUE DEVILS:

30-Morgan Bungerz, junior goaltender

27-Dylan Moran, senior defenseman, captain

14-Joe Kromkowski, senior defenseman, captain

29-Henry O'Brien, junior left wing

9-CJ Meyer, junior center, assistant captain

7-Nick Attanasio, junior right wing

23-Zander Maslow, senior

21-Matt Wronski, senior

15-Oliver Bevan, sophomore

12-Matt Lee, sophomore

42-Sam Meyer, freshman

19-Evan Samer, freshman

33-Ryan Morse, freshman

38-John Macik, freshman

13-Danny Bungerz, freshman

39-Liam Devon, freshman

22-Kyle Heron, sophomore

24-Colin Fitzhenry, junior

1-Joe Fleschler, freshman

33-Steve Wronski, sophomore goaltender 

2009-2010 WESTFIELD SCHEDULE/Results:

Dec. 1 (A) Westfield 10, Scotch Plains-Fanwood 0 - at Warinanco, UCIHL

Dec. 2 Verona, 8:30 p.m., Warinanco

Dec. 7 Cranford, 8:30 p.m., Warinanco, Cron Tournament

Dec. 21 at Cranford, 6 p.m., Warinanco, UCIHL

Dec. 23 Ridge, 8:30 p.m., Warinanco

Jan. 5 at Summit, 6 p.m., Warinanco, UCIHL

Jan. 6 Cranford, 8:30 p.m., Warinanco, UCIHL

Jan. 11 Governor Livingston, 3:45 p.m., UCIHL

Jan. 13 Scotch Plains-Fanwood, 8:30 p.m., Warinanco, UCIHL

Jan. 14 Madison, 4 p.m., Warinanco

Jan. 17 at Dayton, 6:40 p.m., Union Sports Arena, UCIHL

Jan. 18 Watchung Hills, 8:30 p.m., Warinanco

Jan. 20 Johnson, 6 p.m., Warinanco, UCIHL

Jan. 25 at Hanover Park, 8:30 p.m., Mennen Arena

Jan. 28 Hopewell Valley, 4 p.m., Warinanco

Jan. 31 at Mountain Lakes, 5 p.m., South Mountain

Feb. 3 at Johnson, 6 p.m., Warinanco, UCIHL

Feb. 8 Bridgewater-Raritan, 3:30 p.m., Warinanco

Feb. 10 Summit, 8:30 p.m., Warinanco, UCIHL

Feb. 14 at Governor Livingston, 7:30 p.m., UCIHL

Feb. 15 Dayton, 3:30 p.m., UCIHL 

2008-2009 UNION COUNTY ICE HOCKEY LEAGUE STANDINGS

1-Johnson 10-0-2 (22 points) 20-2-3 overall

2-Governor Livingston 7-4-1 (15) 15-10-2

3-Westfield 6-4-2 (14) 10-10-2

4-Summit 6-6-0 (12) 12-11-2

5-Cranford 5-6-1 (11) 6-14-1

6-Scotch Plains-Fanwood 3-8-1 (7) 4-18-1

7-Dayton 1-10-1 (3) 3-17-1