Chatham holds off Morristown, advances to Mennen Cup final

MORRIS TWP. – After surviving a wild third period that nearly saw its three-goal lead disappear, another chance to end a 34-year Mennen Cup drought now awaits the Chatham hockey team.

Will Barnett, Jack O’Connor and Austin Pierce scored goals for the Cougars, who build a 3-0 lead early in a penalty-filled third period that saw Morristown storm back to cut the deficit to a single goal before Chatham held on for a thrilling 3-2 Mennen Cup semifinal victory on Monday.

The win propels the Cougars into Thursday’s Mennen Cup title game for the second-straight season, where they will attempt to end the school’s 34-year Cup drought against either Morristown-Beard or Randolph. Chatham fell to the Crimson 4-0 in last year’s final.

“It’s definitely not what we planned in the third period,” said Barnett, who opened the scoring in the second period with his 20^th goal of the season. “Any team that wins a championship has to overcome some adversity and that’s what we did. We know what it takes to win the Mennen Cup after getting there last year. We have 34 years of waiting for it riding on our back and we just want to bring the Cup back to Chatham.”

Chatham carried the play in the opening period, outshooting the Colonials 10-5 but could not get the puck past freshman netminder Evan Szary, who stretched his postseason shutout string to four consecutive periods after blanking Morris Knolls in the quarterfinals. The Cougars had the better quality scoring chances but failed to capitalize on a late power-play opportunity.

Morristown failed on two consecutive power-play chances of its own to begin the second period before the Cougars finally solved Szary at 12:18 to break the scoreless tie. Barnett took a cross-ice feed from O’Connor with the man advantage and one-timed the puck past Szary from the faceoff dot.

Chatham struck again on the power-play moments later when O’Connor scored off a slick feed from AJ Albanese with just 20 seconds left in the period to give the Cougars a 2-0 lead. Chatham goaltender CJ Albanese started the play with a long outlet pass to his brother AJ Albanese at center ice, who gained the blueline and slid a pass to O’Connor. The Cougars held an 11-4 shot advantage in the period.

“You never want to take penalties and we made it tough on ourselves in the third,” O’Connor said. “We had all the momentum after the second and after Austin (Pierce) scored in the third.”

The momentum indeed carried into the third period and the Cougars struck early when Pierce scored off a 2-on-1 rush, firing a shot from side the faceoff circle through Szary to give the regular-season Mennen Division champs a seemingly comfortable three-goal lead.

The Colonials refused to go quietly, however, and got back into the game when Brad Greik notched a power-play goal just over two minutes later to cut the deficit to 3-1. The visitors were then awarded a two-man advantage and trimmed the Cougars’ lead to a single goal when Scott Carton scored off a huge goalmouth scramble which resulted in Carton also being assessed a five-minute major penalty for charging and a game misconduct.

Morristown then killed off a two-man short situation of its own before pulling Szary for an extra attacker in the final minute, but CJ Albanese and the Chatham defense stood tall to preserve the victory.

“It was frustrating with all the penalties in the third period but we stayed together when we had too,” Albanese said. “We expect to feed off the experience we gained last year playing in the final.”

irst period: No scoring. Second period: 1. (C) Will Barnett (Jack O’Connor, Bryn Casey), 12:18 (pp); 2. (C) O’Connor (AJ Albanese, CJ Albanese), 14:40 (pp); Third period: 3. (C) Austin Pierce, 1:39; 4. (M0 Brad Greik (Kyle Beyer, Nick Swiontkowski), 3:43 (pp); 5. (M) Scott Carton, 6:40 (pp). Shots on goal: Morristown 5-4-12—21. Chatham 10-11-4—25. Goalies: (M) Evan Szary (25-22). (C) CJ Albanese (21-19).