Verona/Glen Ridge hs ice hockey team’s McInnis Cup victory tastes sweet

GLEN RIDGE – Seems so fitting that the Verona/Glen Ridge High School ice hockey team won this year’s McInnis Cup by defeating Montclair Kimberly Academy.

After all, it was a humbling 6-0 defeat to this very same MKA team that helped rally the Hillbillies/ Ridgers midway through the year.

And so the 4-2 win for the conference championship on Feb. 20 at Richard J. Codey Arena was the culmination from that point on. Indeed, the team managed to come full circle en route to its historic run.

“After we lost 6-0 to MKA, we had a team meeting and we talked about underachieving and we talked about  winning this cup and how we thought we had the right mix to do it and after that game,  we went on a nice unbeaten streak of about 10 games, and with that, our confidence grew and the senior leadership has been tremendous,” said Verona/Glen Ridge head coach Ken Lilien, whose team improved to 14-8-4.

To start their playoff run, Lillien said his team defeated Nutley in an exciting overtime win. One game later, the team pulled off the mother of all upsets in knocking off previously undefeated Montclair in another overtime thriller.

“The Nutley win was exciting and then we were worried about a letdown after beating Montclair but we talked about making history and how it was so important for us to finish what we started and I’m so proud of the boys. This is such a great achievement,” Lilien said.

Individually, the coach said his team’s conference playoff run was led by the play of Glen Ridge’s Owen Gleeson.

“Owen is our leading scorer. He has had a tremendous season and as our captain he has put the team on his back when he’s needed to,” said the coach.

In addition, Glen Ridge’s Stephen Wenzl is another player who the coach talked about.

“Stephen plays offense and defense and he is a tremendous leader,” said the coach, who credited Verona’s Kevin White and Liam Blaney for their contributions. “Kevin has also played well for us this year while Liam has been outstanding and with him as our goalie, we know we’ll have a chance to win any game we play.”

With not much time to enjoy those conference championship victory, the coach said his team needs to refocus for the upcoming state playoffs.

“Come state playoff time, everyone starts from ground zero. We don’t want our season to stop,” said the coach, whose squad was slated to play Woodbridge in the first round of the state tournament on Monday, Feb. 22. “What we’ve done previously doesn’t matter. It’s all about what we do now. We feel like we have the talent to make a run and we’ll see what we can do in the states.”