Summit Ice Hockey Defeats Mendham 3-1

The Hilltopper ice hockey team (3-0) has a goal in the Cron Tournament.

"We want to get to the Cron Tournament finals," said head coach Keith Nixon.  "We haven't been to a Cron Tournament final in a long time."

If Tuesday night's game was any indication, the boys should be well on their way.

Round one of the tournament pitted them against Mendham who was clearly outmatched by the bigger, faster, and more united Hilltopper team. Summit won 3-1.

"I knew that Mendham was a fairly young team but they have some young talent," said Coach Nixon.  "I knew just from having played against them so many times and knowing their coaches as long as I have that they were going to play hard."

As expected, Mendham showed a great deal of skill, but in the end Summit proved to be too much for them.

"We haven't been tested like this so far," said Coach Nixon, "so it was a good benchmark for us to see where we are right now."

Jon Santina, Timmy Yager, and Trevor Silverstein contributed a goal apiece in Tuesday night's game.  Summit allowed just six shots on goal, and goalie Brandon Jackson allowed only one to get by him. 

Santina scored early in the game, giving the Hilltoppers a 1-0 lead that they would maintain for two periods. 

"We came out hard in the first period," said Nixon.  "The second period we fell into a little bit of a lull, but the third period we just said, 'look everybody's got to go out there, play with their hearts, and give everything they've got every time they step out on the ice.'"

In fact, a pep talk in the locker room after the second period brought out a whole new team.  The Hilltoppers came out onto the ice in the third period with a new intensity.

Yager's goal, a hard fought battle in front of the net, made the score 2-0, giving the Hilltoppers a little room to breathe.

Mendham battled back and scored with 7:04 left in the third period putting the Hilltoppers ahead by just one goal again.

However, the Hilltoppers that came out on the ice in the third period answered almost immediately.  Silverstein was credited with the third goal, which came just 22 seconds later.  This one was truly a team effort, and the student section went wild with appreciation for the Hilltoppers' definitive stop to Mendham's rally.

Individual performances, especially from Jeff Wycoff helped keep the Hilltoppers pumped up.

"Jeff Wykoff, he had a phenomenal game," said Coach Nixon.  "He's the smallest guy on the team and he battled hard all night.  He got the rest of the team on his back tonight.  They noticed and they were cheering him on, and it was firing them up to see the smallest guy on the team go out and play like that."

The game was emotional by the end, and Summit players were not immune to it.  Summit and Mendham each had players sent to the penalty box, though neither team was able to capitalize on their power play opportunities.  However the Summit boys played with a lot of heart and were controlled for the majority of the game.

"They all have their heads in the right place right now," said Nixon.  "Everybody's working on trying to improve on an individual weakness and play to our strengths.  Everybody understands what we do well, what we need to work on as a team, what they do well and what they need to work on as individuals.  They're working together to accomplish all of their goals.  We have a lot of unity right now."

The Hilltoppers face Johnson in Round 2 of the Cron Tournament on Monday at Warinanco.