By RILED UP: Princeton Day School boys’ hockey player Riley Schmidt brings the puck up the ice in recent action. Last Wednesday, sophomore Schmidt scored a goal in a losing cause as seventh-seeded PDS fell 3-2 to 10th-seeded St. John Vianney in the first round of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) Non-Public tournament. The defeat left the Panthers with a final record of 6-7-6. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

Making its debut in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) Non-Public tournament when it hosted St. John Vianney last Wednesday, the Princeton Day School boys’ hockey team got off to a flying start.

Seventh-seeded PDS jumped out to a 2-0 lead over the 10th-seeded Lancers in the first 3:33 of the first round contest as Oliver Hall and Riley Schmidt both found the back of the net.

But Panther head coach Scott Bertoli sensed that the fast start was a bit of fool’s gold.

“We didn’t deserve to be up 2-0, that is what I said on the bench,” said Bertoli. “We score two goals and they probably had four quality chances to the two goals we scored.”

Sure enough, the Lancers responded by reeling off three unanswered goals to go ahead 3-2.

“They continued what they were doing,” said Bertoli. “Give them credit, they didn’t get away from what was working for them. They didn’t chase the scoreboard.”

PDS fought back by carrying play for much of the next two periods and generated several scoring opportunities, but couldn’t break through in a 3-2 loss as it ended the winter with a 6-7-6 record.

“You are going to make a push when your backs are against the wall and we made a push,” said Bertoli. “If you are down and you are desperate and you are at the end of the season, you should carry play. That is to be expected.”

The disappointing defeat was a microcosm of a season plagued by inconsistency.

“For a group that is talented, there has been something missing this year,” said Bertoli. “We play periods and then we take a period off. Sometimes it is the first, sometime it is the third.”

Joining the Gordon Conference and playing in the Non-Public tourney this season proved to be a plus for the program. “That was great (the move to the Gordon Conference), we had some very competitive games,” said Bertoli.

“Overall it is disappointing, not just the way this game played out, it was the lack of wins,” said Bertoli. “It is weird, we never figured it out. We couldn’t sustain anything, I don’t think we won more than two games in a row.”

Senior goalie Tim Miller gave the Panthers sustained excellence between the pipes over his career.

“I will always be appreciative for Timmy, he made the move to come over here a couple of years ago when we were in a pinch,” said Bertoli. “We had both goalies leave. He came and bailed us out; he is right up there with some of the top kids that we have had that have impacted our program. He has been disappointed a lot this year. My message to him is there is nothing you can do, you can’t score goals. He did as good a job as anyone stopping pucks.”

Three other seniors — Chris Babecki, Adam Teryek, and Arnav Kokkirala — also made a positive impact on the program.

“Chris plays the game hard, he is a physical presence; I know what I am going to get from Chris,” said Bertoli. “He plays the game the right way, he plays hard. He is pretty versatile going back and forth between playing forward and defense. There were certain kids that I needed to see an elevation from them to pick up their production up and Adam was one of them and he did. Arnav has been a program kid that has bounced back and forth between varsity and JV.”

With PDS featuring a core of talented young players that includes seven juniors and five sophomores, Bertoli is hoping that the returners will use this frustrating winter as motivation.

“This needs to be a learning experience, myself included; we need to understand what it is that we need to improve on,” said Bertoli. “We need to figure out how to play the game harder and be harder to play against.”