Boys Hockey Rolls Past West Morris in State Tournament

Two championships down, one to go.

The Summit ice hockey team has already held aloft the Union County Conference regular season trophy and the Union County Cup, and now this talented squad is going for the trifecta.

With their "one game at a time" mantra, the Hilltoppers got off to a great start in state action, defeating visiting West Morris-Central 7-3 at Warinanco Ice Center in the first round of the Public B tournament.

"Their first line was quick," said Summit head coach Keith Nixon. "They moved the puck well. We were a little concerned off of that. But once we saw their other two lines, we said, look, we have to neutralize this first line and take advantage of their second and third, and the first two goals we got was our second line against their second and third. So we felt pretty comfortable then."

Trevor Silverstein, Mike Nyitray, and Jeff Wycoff notched two goals each, while Mike Tsian added one.

"On the first one, the puck came out from the corner, I was in front of the net and I buried the puck," Silverstein said. "The goaltender's really small so I saw he was giving up a lot of space, so I just put it in the back of the net. I havn't had a lot of points in the last few games, I've been kind of quiet, so it's nice to have a night when I get a bunch of goals in there."

Summit held a 2-0 lead after the first period, which led to an even better second frame, when the home team scored four goals to essentially seal the deal.

"Once we settled down and started moving the puck around and got the two goal lead, we talked about settling down between the first and second period, make smarter plays, show some more composure out there," Nixon said. "And I think the second period we played a lot better, played really well."

Nyitray, who transferred to Summit after leaving St. Peters's Prep, has made the most of his time on the ice after having to sit out the first part of the season. He scored the third Summit goal at the 14:41 mark of the second period, and earned the praise of his coach.

"Michael, with his ability, warrants recognition out there," Nixon said. "The other team has to pay attention to him. They can't let him loose.  He started drawing some attention late in the first period, they finally caught on that the kid is quick and can handle the puck. That frees up his linemates to get opportunities."

Defensively, it was another stellar effort by netminder Jackson Stuckey, who tallied 16 saves. He got plenty of help from defenseman Jack Mulcahy, who was pleased with the overall effort.

"The first two periods we really came out strong," Mulcahy said. "But then the third period we came out kind of flat, but we started to pick it up in the end. We can't take any team for granted now, especially in Public B. Any team is dangerous."

"I thought defensively, Mulcahy did a real good job of keeping them from getting opportunities, getting pucks to the net, tying guys up behind the goal line," Nixon said. "They were in our zone, but they weren't getting great opportunities out of it."

A big reason why Summit is at the top of the mountain is that they continually do the little things right.

"I think faceoffs were really critical," Silverstein said. "We won a lot of faceoffs against them. We avoided giving them the puck in good situations like in the defensive zone. We were able to avoid giving it to their defensemen up top with big shots. That was one of the keys to shutting down their first line."

And with each win, comes even more confidence.

"We havn't lost since the end of January," Silverstein said. "We're really confident right now which is probably the key to winning in the playoffs. I think everyone knows in the back of our minds we could make a run all the way and as long as we keep working each game, we'll get there."

"We try to build off of every game and keep momentum going in the states." Mulcahy said. "We really spend a lot of time together. We're a close group of guys. We really know how to keep each other going."

Summit (15-6-4) will face a stiff test in second round play when they travel to face Ramapo at Sport-O-Rama in Monsey, N.Y. on Thursday.

Ramapo won their first round game 6-1 over Ocean Township to improve to 16-7-3.