Highlander's skate into the season

The Highlander Varsity Ice Hockey team is off to a good start with a record of 3-1 after losing 9 senior players from last year. The wins include, Glen Rock, Sparta, High Point, the loss was at the hands of Lakeland. The latest game was an 11- 6 win over High Point, with balanced scoring from all the lines. Senior goalie Ken Shusko and rookie Brendan Gillen played well and shared the net time. Senior co-captain Andrew Ateih finished off the hat trick with a spectacular goal as he was spinning on his knees and beat the goalie with a wrist shot upper right to finish with 5 points. Senior co-captain Kevin Flynn had two goals and an assist. He started the scoring with a breakaway goal & also scored the 3rd WM goal. High point came right back and scored three goals to take a 3-2 lead. One goal was 4 on 4; one was a power play, and one even strength. West Milford then got moving again after Coaches Brian Jones and Mark (The Marine) Pych motivated the players. West Milford scored the next five goals to take a 7-3 lead. Goals by Matt McCann and Ed Deslonde were included in that five goal output. At the end of two periods it was 8-4 West Milford. The third period for West Milford started with a goalie change to first year player Brendan Gillen. The offense stared right back up when defenseman Jeff Reese pinched the play and scored an unassisted goal. Next up was a one timer by Chris Rohr set up perfectly from Pete McDonald. High Point then scored the next two goals to make it 11-5. Defenseman Alex Barr then added a goal to his three assists when he picked up the puck at center ice and scored an unassisted goal. Also playing well with an assist in the game was Colin McDonald. In addition, with the refs calling a very tight game penalty kills were very important. Ray Worley, Mike Hamilton, Keegan Saum, and Jared Fisher saw lots of ice time as penalty killers.