Last night was the first round of the Public C hockey playoffs and the Verona-Glen Ridge team came away with a big 5-0 win over Mountain Lakes-Boonton.
VGR came into the Codey Arena matchup after two disappointing losses, a 6-1 defeat by Millburn in the Kelly Cup semifinals and a 2-0 finish against Morristown.
This playoff, which pitted 15th-seeded VGR against 18th-seeded MLB, started off very slowly. Nobody scored in the first period as the two teams cautiously circled each other on the ice. Alec Vecchione, from the Glen Ridge side of the team, got the first VGR score in the second period on an assist from Andrew Martell but it wasn’t until the third period that VGR went full throttle.
In those final 15 minutes, Glen Ridge teammate Jake Kuhn scored once, Verona senior Sean DeCandia scored twice, and fellow Verona High School senior Dylan Ruggiero scored once. Colin Gilmore was in goal and had 23 saves. VGR’s coveted Bloomfield Avenue hat went to Verona-side freshman Vincent Eremita for his penalty kills.
The quixotic seeding in the Public C bracket means that the next match for VGR, which has a 15-5-7 record this season, will be against the No. 2 seed, the Wall Crimson Knights, on Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. at Jersey Shore Arena in Wall.
Sean DeCandia makes it 3-0 @VGRHockey and Dylan Ruggiero almost immediately scores a fourth. Now 4-0 VGR. #hockey #playoffs pic.twitter.com/HEgRxwBdlu
— MyVeronaNJ (@myveronanj) February 20, 2018
