Randolph hockey returns to Public A final

MORRIS TWP. – After Morristown did its part to ensure an all-Mennen Division Public A final at the Prudential Center by holding off Ridge on Wednesday, defending champion Randolph took the ice and made certain it would have a shot to defend its title against its rival.

Randolph, which has captured four of the past five Public A titles, earned its return date at The Rock against the Colonials by cruising past Montclair 6-1. Senior forwards Dan Janson and Chris Holowko led the way with a pair of goals each for the Rams, who lost both regular-season meetings to Morristown.

Goaltender Luc Swedlund finished with 15 saves.

“It all comes down to playing Randolph hockey,” Janson said. “We play a physical game and it’s defense first. We’re not worried about scoring and the goals came tonight.

The Rams started quickly and took the lead just 2:56 into the opening period when Janson skated across the Mounties’ blueline and unleashed a hard wrist shot that beat goaltender Ondrej Smalec. It was Janson’s team-leading 25th goal of the season.

Randolph added to its lead with just 1:08 left in the opening period when Holowko beat Smalec with a soft shot from the faceoff dot. The home team did what it does best in the opening 15 minutes, outshooting the visitors 12-2 while playing sound defensive hockey in all three zones.

After killing off a Mounties’ power play early in the second, the Rams cashed in on a man-up chance of their own at 7:22 to extend their lead to 3-0 when Janson took a feed in the slot and rifled a shot past Smalec. Defenseman Bryan Early notched his second of three assists on the tally.

“We knew they only play eight forwards so we wanted to grind it out against them,” Early said. “Getting those two goals in the first period really got us going.”

The lead grew to 4-0 at 10:48 of the second when Chris Mortello found the back of the net. Holowko then added his second goal of the game on the power play with 1:44 left in the period to put the game out of reach.

Randolph added a third power-play goal off the stick of Nick Civetta off a slick feed from Janson in the third period. Swedlund lost his shutout bid in the game’s final minute when Remy Parker scored for the Mounties.