As senior Jackson Chicola tore down the ice, the puck stuck to his stick as he smoothly stick-handled past Cranford’s defense and rifled a shot into the back of the net. He brought Westfield up 3-2 against Cranford less than a minute after Cranford had tied the game. The Blue Devil fans exhaled as the assistant captain, Chicola, stepped up and brought Westfield back in the lead.
Westfield played Cranford earlier this season, beating them 7-2, yet this wide gap does not reflect how close the game was in the first two periods. This second game against Cranford reflected the same game trajectory.
The first period ended with the Blue Devils in the lead 2-0, however Cranford tied it quickly into the second period. Westfield pulled away with a handful of goals from many different players, including senior defenseman Danny McDevitt who scored his first career goal. McDevitt said, “It felt great to finally get some points, I’ve been waiting for a while.”
The Blue Devils started their backup goalkeeper, senior Jack Garguilo. Junior defenseman Nick Benson said, “He has a lot of pressure on his back. It was his first start and I think he played well.” On a similar note, McDevitt said, “We just had to support him and as a defense do the best to limit the shots.” Garguilo stepped up with a few blocks in the first two periods including an exciting save on a Cranford forwards 1v1 and Westfield’s primary goalkeeper, junior Troy Conover, came in during the third period. At this point the Blue Devils led 7-5, later the game ending 9-5.
Unhappy with the game, head coach Joe Bertucci said, “The goal was to get something out of this game and I don’t know if we did that.”
The Blue Devils were in action two days prior against Livingston where they clutched a win after two back-to-back losses. With a now 7-2 record, coming off of that lapse, Westfield will focus on consistency moving forward. Bertucci said, “I don’t know that anything went wrong today, I just dont think there was urgency out there. We put in two goals and then got lazy,” and “we understood we were the better team and expected that the rest of the game would fall in our favor.”
Moving forward, Bertucci said, “We have a busy week ahead of us. I think we need to take a step back, regroup and refocus for tomorrow. We have to play with motivation and with confidence which I am sure we will do next game.” The Blue Devils will be back in action tomorrow, Jan. 8, at 6:35 p.m. against West Essex at Warinanco.
