Pennington rallies to stun Steinert; WW-P eases past N’ham
WEST WINDSOR » It was all about poise and leadership as Pennington just wasn’t going to be denied.
Despite a three-goal deficit late in the second period, the Red Raiders rallied in the final period in a classic Mercer County Tournament opening game.
“It was the right place at the right time,’’ Pennington’s Charlie Kovalcik said of his game winner at the 5:48 mark of the third period to give No. 8 Red Raiders a thrilling, 4-3 win over ninth-seeded Steinert on Tuesday afternoon in the first round of the MCT at Mercer County Park.
The win sends No. 8 Pennington into a prep battle with top-seeded and four-time defending champion Hun at 3 p.m. on Wednesday at MCP.
“I wanted to be in the slot for the rebound,’’ added Kovalcik, one of the three Pennington seniors. “You hope you can whack one away and I got lucky.’’
Maybe a little luck, but not much as Pennington (5-6-2) after falling behind 3-0 to Steinert (6-10-4) scored twice in 11 seconds with the second one coming at the 1:23 mark of the middle period.
From that point on it was all Red Raiders as they scored twice in the final period and kept the pressure on the Spartans goal.
“We thought we could come back and I felt if we could get that one goal before it got out of control we’d be ok,’’ said Pennington coach Chris Barcless. “We played hard. These kids understand what to do and how to do it. We are just a thin team and Steinert is a very good team.’’
The Spartans got a fantastic game from Trevor Malik in goal making 38 saves. If there was an undoing for the Spartans it was the five penalties as the Red Raiders were 3-for-5 on power plays.
“The first period we had no penalties and we controlled the play,’’ said Steinert coach James Nobilio. “Then we started taking penalties and it adds up. There was a lot of good in the game as all the players worked hard.’’
Steinert saw Dano Malik, Mike Miller and Shane Barry score. Dano Malik and Miller each had two assists with Cameron Kontura getting one.
Besides Kovalcik’s goal the Red Raiders got scores from Matt Reilly (power play at 1:34 of the second), Logan Harris (unassisted at 1:23 of the second) and Sidney Spencer (power play goal at 9:12 of the third).
It was Spencer’s goal that tied it and Kovalcik’s power play goal was the winner. Alex Boczniewicz had a pair of assists with Harris and Reilly each getting one.
“Leadership goes a long way with this team,’’ said Kovalcik. “Everyone tries to keep a good attitude when things aren’t going our way. We have to keep our heads up and take it to another level and do your job.’’
It took almost two full periods, but Pennington definitely got the job done.
WEST WINDSOR-PLAINSBORO 6, NOTTINGHAM 3
Ronan Keenan continued his solid freshman season and Andrew Ferencevych earned his first Mercer County Tournament coaching win with the opening-round victory.
WW-P (11-8-4) is the No. 6 seed and will now face No. 3 Notre Dame on Wednesday at 9 p.m.
WW-P spotted the Northstars (114-1) a goal and then scored six unanswered to take control.
Keenan scored twice to give him 20 goals on the season. David Corell, Sam Parris, Adam Huang and Tyler Shankoff all added goals for WW-P.
Daniel Wang, Shankoff and Keenan all had assists.
The Nottingham goals came from Kevin Kolczynski, Alex Truban and Dylan Kinloch.
Both Nottingham goalies, David Thompson and Mike Fitzpatrick, played well.
While WW-P will advance, the Northstars season ends, but it has been one where it again took some positive steps forward.