Ironmen win 5th Bergen County Hockey Tournament Title

Make it a perfect five for five Bergen County Ice Hockey Tournament championships for the Don Bosco Prep Ironmen. The Ironmen and Ramsey Rams faced off for a third consecutive year in the title game at the Ice Vault Arena in Wayne, New Jersey. Don Bosco started with a flourish, scoring four times in the first two periods before holding off a furious third period rally by Ramsey to win 5-2.

Don Bosco senior forward Chris Mazzella was named MVP of the tournament notched his second two-goal performance.

“Once again the tournament proved to be a battle and it was tough getting through Glen Rock and Ramapo put up a big effort,” said Don Bosco Prep Head Coach Greg Toskos. “Ramsey came hard to play and this is never easy for us but it’s exciting to win. Thank god we fought back and got that goal late that settled us down.”

In the first period, Ironmen sophomore defenseman Luke Campomenosi fired a shot from the left point that deflected off Rams goaltender Tyler Harmon and Mazzela was parked in the right spot knocking the puck into the net giving Don Bosco with 9:29 remaining. Just about four minutes later a great centering feed from sophomore defensemen to freshman forward Tyler Sedlak who snapped the puck from the left circle past Harmon expanding the Ironmen lead to 2-0. Don Bosco ended up outshooting Ramsey 16-4 in the period.

Don Bosco momentum continued in the 2^nd period off a shot from the right point from sophomore defenseman John Campomenosi that was stopped by Harmon but senior forward Marcus Gureca found the rebound and flipped the puck into the net for a 3-0 Ironmen advantage. Four minutes later off some nifty passes from junior forward Toby DiPaolo and Bohlinger collecting his second assist of the game as junior forward Brendan Hansen rifled a shot from the left circle past Harmon pushing the margin up to 4-0.

Things did get interesting in the 3^rd period as the Rams broke through with 9:52 left as senior forward Kyle DeBel broke away from the rest of the pack and roofed a shot top shelf past Ironmen junior goaltender Alexei Masanko. In the span off forty-four seconds the Ramsey went on a 5 on 3 power play and converted with senior forward Garrett Mast grabbing a loose puck in front of the Don Bosco net and flicking the puck past Masanko trimming the lead down to 4-2 with 6:27 left. The Ironmen penalty kill clamped down killing off the rest of the power play as Masanko(23 saves) stood tall making several spectacular point-blank saves. Mazzella sealed the win scoring his second goal of the game with 1:09 remaining.

“Mazz has got the touch and look at the pass on his one-timer and the puck is in back of the net,” said Toskos. “They (Ramsey) got one on the power play and made it a game. It gets tough there but we did kill the rest of the power play off. Alexei is the best goalie in the state hands downs and makes point-blank saves that gives us a chance. You look up at the scoreboard and 25 of those shot, 15 of them are point-blank. It’s never easy to beat a team 3 times in a row and difficult facing these teams’ over and over.”

“To come out and a get a W for our fans feels great,” said Chris Mazzella. “It was our two best periods of the year and we did what we had to and got our chances. We fell a little asleep in the third but knew Alexei would not give up four goals.”