Running it back is now an expectation for the Bridgewater-Raritan High School ice hockey team this winter.
For the reigning Skyland Cup champion Panthers, who are coming off of last year’s surge to the status of state championship contender under the direction of now fifth-year head coach Vincent Arnone, redemption will be paramount.
At one point in 2024-25, Bridgewater-Raritan achieved New Jersey’s longest winning streak of 17 games, a spot amongst New Jersey’s top ten squads, and the No. 1 seed in the state sectional playoffs as part of a historic year when the Panthers raised a Skyland Cup trophy for the first time in a decade.
Suddenly, everything came to a screeching halt.
In the state sectional quarterfinals, eighth-seeded Monroe Township High School turned the postseason bracket upside down after leaving top-seeded Bridgewater-Raritan’s home venue with an upset overtime victory. With just one swing of a stick by the Falcons, not only did the Panthers’ amazing season come to a heartbreaking end earlier than anyone may have expected heading into that afternoon. After helping Bridgewater-Raritan’s storied program rise from the ashes, the amazing careers of Bridgewater-Raritan’s 10 Class of 2025 seniors concluded on a gut-punching note.
All of them were instrumental in laying down the foundation over the four years they were in Arnone’s program, which finished winless the year before he took over as the Panthers’ head coach.
Although Bridgewater-Raritan’s returning players have had to let that sour taste of defeat marinate for the next 10 months, the Panthers have used that as motivation during the offseason, but they will no longer be able to fly under the radar.
Being successful to the tune of a 22-4 record and a conference tournament crown after averaging a single-digit number of victories over the previous three seasons automatically plants a target on your back, especially with the statewide respect Bridgewater-Raritan now has with a promising group of newcomers eager to stamp their names on this program.
From being the hunters to being the hunted, while navigating this type of uncharted territory may serve as a natural obstacle on the Panthers’ path to redemption, this may be a good problem for Bridgewater-Raritan to have moving forward.
“We feel like we want some retribution here and prove that we can really win a state title,” reflected by Bridgewater-Raritan sophomore defenseman Niklas Dorey, whose older brother: Mattias, also anchored the back line last year and was one of the Panthers’ aforementioned 10 graduating seniors from one year ago. “We thought we were going to come in and do that last year, and we came in with an attitude that we were going to beat [Monroe].”
“Now, we’re going to come in this year with an attitude where we are not going to under-judge people.”
Humility being one of the catalysts for the offseason fuel that has spearheaded the Panthers’ 2025-26 campaign, which launched this past weekend without its three top goal scorers from one year ago.
The good news, however, is that two of these losses will be temporary.
While Class of 2025 forward and four-year starter Sean Fagan departed due to graduation, the Panthers began their new season without the services of current senior Alex Kotelnikov and current junior Sasha Abolenskiy, who both combined for 57 goals and 68 assists last winter.
Both of these players were unavailable during the Panthers' first two games of the new season.
Although the Panthers dropped their season opener on Friday night, Bridgewater-Raritan’s next players up got the Panthers into the win column against Watchung Hills Regional High School just over 24 hours later.
Seeking its first victory under first-year head coach Liam Feeley after also dropping its opener on Friday night, Watchung Hills (0-2) played to a scoreless tie after one period against Bridgewater-Raritan (1-1) and ultimately finished with a 12-shot advantage over the Panthers. Sophomore goalie Justin Madison (33 saves) responded by picking up right where he left off as the last line of defense for Bridgewater-Raritan, which scored the game’s first two goals in the second period and never looked back.
Sophomore forward Michael Lalor then collected a pair of goals in the third period to punctuate the Panthers’ 4-1 victory over Watchung Hills Saturday, December 6, at Bridgewater Sports Arena in Bridgewater.
“It’s definitely been a grind, especially yesterday and today where we didn’t have all of our guys,” said after the victory by Madison, who turned away 602 shots as a freshman and blocked 46 shots in his season debut one night earlier. “Some guys have to step up like Niklas and Michael and score a couple of goals.”
“These past two games, we really showed that.”
After being shut out on Friday night, five different Bridgewater-Raritan players tallied at least one point over the span of just two periods against the Warriors, and the Panthers answered the call despite being outshot heavily over their opening weekend.
Although the North Hunterdon Regional High School / Voorhees High School co-op tallied a 47-8 shot advantage over the shorthanded Panthers on Friday night, Madison’s usual heroics in his team’s cage helped keep the game scoreless after two periods. The Lions finally broke the ice in the third period for the game’s lone goal, and they left Bridgewater-Raritan’s venue with a 1-0 victory to avenge a 6-2 loss in the Skyland Cup finals against the Panthers 10 months ago.
Just about 15 seconds after the late-night opening puck drop on Saturday night, the Panthers flung a shot right over the Warriors’ net manned by senior Brandon Wenzel (18 saves), who also broke the 600-save milestone last year with 639 saves.
Watchung Hills ended 2024-25 with just 29 total goals, which were the fewest in the entire Skyland Conference. However, its 66 goals allowed were second-best in the conference only behind North Hunterdon / Voorhees (53 goals allowed). After coming off of a 4-0 shutout defeat against Verona High School on Friday night, the Warriors had a good opportunity to score their first goal of the year after drawing the game’s first power play just under one minute into the game.
Madison made his first save with 13:12 remaining in the period en route to a penalty kill for Bridgewater-Raritan, which fell behind 6-3 in shots with 9:38 left in the first period. Exactly 50 seconds later, the Panthers answered with a flurry of five of the game’s next six shots.While Wenzel survived the resulting barrage, Bridgewater-Raritan already found itself with as many shots as it did all of the previous night with just 8:48 left in the first period.
Watchung Hills then had its best chance to draw first blood with 4:20 left in the first period, when a rebounded puck by Madison ricocheted away from everyone and slid into a wide-open area.
Nobody was home for Watchung Hills, which then was whistled for a penalty with 2:35 left in the opening period to halt its early momentum. Although the Warriors responded with a penalty kill and went to the locker room with a 13-11 shot advantage after one period, the game remained scoreless after the first 15 minutes of regulation.
Bridgewater-Raritan then drew another power play just under one minute into the second period, but in arguably the game’s turning point, shorthanded Watchung Hills found itself with a breakaway look with 12:38 left in the second period. The Warriors appeared to draw a push, which was not ruled a penalty by the game’s officials.
With 12:11 to go in the second period, immediately after the power play officially came to an end for the Panthers, Dorey netted his team’s first goal of the season to give Bridgewater-Raritan a 1-0 lead it never relinquished.
“We decided to forget the last 24 hours and come into tonight with a new mindset,” Dorey explained of what was needed for the Panthers’ quick turnaround on Saturday night.
“We needed to come in with a good attitude and play our best.”
After opening the season without a goal over their first four periods, Bridgewater-Raritan made up for it the rest of the way against the Warriors.
Down 1-0, Watchung Hills was set up to respond with another power play with 10:02 left in the second period. Just 21 seconds later, Bridgewater-Raritan junior Sahil Patel (one goal, two assists) intercepted a pass at center ice.
His uncontested breakaway goal doubled the Panthers’ lead to 2-0 as part of his game-high three-point night.
Given Madison’s lethal goaltending already as a sophomore after a productive freshman year, along with the defense he has had in front of him, a multi-goal deficit against this Bridgewater-Raritan team at full strength may yet again prove to be too tall of a task for an opponent to overcome.
The Panthers allowed an average of just over three goals per game over their 26 games last season, which was third best in the Skyland Conference. They also have experience in close games, including a stretch of four victories in overtime over a five-game stretch during Bridgewater-Raritan’s 17-game winning streak and 19-1 start to the 2024-25 season. The Panthers also had an 8-2 mark in games decided by two goals or fewer, including their four aforementioned overtime victories. One of their two losses in such games was their season-ending 3-2 overtime loss against Monroe in the quarterfinal round of the NJSIAA South New Jersey, Public Ice Hockey Tournament.
This postseason setback was one of just two losses the Panthers had all of last year when Madison, Abolenskiy, and Kotelnikov all were in the starting lineup, and Bridgewater-Raritan fell just once in the regular season when all three of these stars were on the ice together.
Although the Panthers will have to replace Class of 2025 graduates Mattias Dorey, David Yi, and Skyland Cup M.V.P. Tair Gafiatullin on the defensive front, the next-person-up mentality seems to be off to a good start for Bridgewater-Raritan in 2025-26.
According to the Panthers’ online roster, Matthew Harrison is Bridgewater-Raritan’s lone senior defender as of this moment, meaning seven of Bridgewater-Raritan’s eight current defenders will have the opportunity to step into these shoes even beyond this season.
With Niklas Dorey already picking up where his older brother left off as part of a group of six Bridgewater-Raritan defenders alone who are freshmen or sophomores, the thought of this unit gaining experience heading into the depths of February will certainly bode well on the Panthers quest to repeat as Skyland Cup champions and win a state championship.
“He’s taught me to make sure to always be aware on the point and make sure no guys slip behind me,” Dorey went on to say of how his older brother has passed the torch to him.
“We need to make sure we’re locked down on the back end.”
Although it had a couple of brief hiccups, Bridgewater-Raritan’s defense completed that objective against Watchung Hills on Saturday night.
Leading 2-0 after Patel’s shorthanded goal, Bridgewater-Raritan killed the resulting penalty with 8:01 left in the second period. Watchung Hills finally responded and scored for the first time in 2025-26, when senior forward John Ptack scored on a fast break on a dish from classmate Tyler Bracht after skating behind Bridgewater-Raritan’s defense along the edge of the rink by the Warriors’ bench.
His resulting goal cut the Panthers’ lead to 2-1 with 5:14 left in the second period, and with 3:44 to go in the period, Ptack again found his way into his team’s attacking zone. This time, Madison turned away the potential game-tying look.
The Panthers took their 2-1 lead into the second intermission, and another big power play for Bridgewater-Raritan with 13:01 remaining put the clock on the Panthers’ side.
While they did not score on this power play, Lalor scored shortly afterwards with 10:45 to go to cushion his team’s lead back up to 3-1. Watchung Hills then answered with power play with 8:44 to go, but Bridgewater-Raritan’s penalty kill remained perfect to begin the year after collecting two such instances on Friday night in defeat against North Hunterdon / Voorhees.
The Warriors reached a double-digit shot advantage, 30-20, with 4:40 remaining, but nothing else got behind Madison after Ptack’s second-period goal even though Watchung Hills had a 34-22 overall shot advantage. Lalor then stamped the Panthers’ 4-1 victory with an empty-net goal with 2:55 to go.
Freshman John Ciesla and sophomore Noah Vallejo each tallied one assist for Bridgewater-Raritan, which improved to 1-1 to begin the new season.
However, with its one loss to North Hunterdon/Voorhees coming in a close 1-0 fashion, despite being outshot 47-8 and not at full strength, Bridgewater-Raritan clearly showed its potential over the opening weekend.
“That’s what we needed – guys to step up,” praised Madison of Bridgewater-Raritan’s offense. “Last year, we kind of lacked guys stepping up and that grittiness to our game, but that’s a big piece in our game right now. It’s not easy, but we’re used to these games, especially from last year.”
“We just have to keep going and pick up right where we left off.”
Bridgewater-Raritan (1-1) will travel across the Delaware River next to square off against the Robbinsville High School / Allentown High School / Jackson Memorial High School tri-op (1-0) at 5:20 p.m.m Wednesday, December 10, at Grundy Ice Arena in Bristol, PA. The Panthers and Watchung Hills (0-2) will then square off again at 7 p.m. Friday, December 12, at Rock Ice Arena in Dunellen.