Red Devils Lose in Last Two Seconds to Bridgewater, 3-2

Ridge junior goaltender Alec Wells slammed his stick down, shattering it into two pieces, at the conclusion of a frustrating 3-2 loss against Bridgewater-Raritan on Wednesday.

Wells had stonewalled the Bridgewater's attack the entire third period to keep his team in the game, once saving 5 shots right in front of the net in less than a minute.

Yet, with less than 5 seconds remaining in the period, a controversial non-call by the referees gave Bridgewater a face-off inside the Ridge blue line, and Bridgewater took advantage, knocking in a loose puck with 1.6 seconds left to win the game.

Neither team was able to take a definitive advantage throughout the contest. The score was tied 0-0 after the first period, with both goalies making big stops to keep their team in the game.

Senior forward Jake Hotz was able to break free and create scoring chances on several occasions, but never made one count in the first period.

In contrast to the defensive first, the second period turned into a high-scoring period with Bridgewater striking first when Dave Monahan scored on a wraparound attempt.

Just a few minutes later, Hotz got free on a one-on-one, and scored a pretty goal to knot the score at 1-1. To score the equalizer, Hotz put the puck through the defender's leg, recovered it after it bounced off a skate, spun backwards and shot a low backhander by the keeper in one smooth motion.

A couple of close calls followed the scores midway through the second. Bridgewater had a shot go off the post, and following an icing, aggressive play by Ridge sophomore forwards Chris Mastroianni and Tommy Carpenter nearly caused Bridgewater to score an own goal on a puck that got lost in the crease.

A poor clearance by a Ridge defenseman caused a Bridgewater advantage on the other end, and Monahan struck again with a diving poke to put a loose puck in the back of the net to take a 2-1 lead.

Less than a minute later with Ridge down a man on the penalty kill, sophomore forward Keith Knapp took off with the puck on a one-on-one, beat his defender and put his own rebound in the net to tie the game 2-2.

Both teams had chances in the third, but the goalies proved up to the challenge, shutting down all attempts. Wells stopped several point blank shots in the final 5 minutes of the game before allowing the game winner, 3-2.

Ridge head coach Tim Mullin believed that the final face off should not have been inside Ridge's blue line because of an uncalled altercation involving both teams at the end of the game.

"The referee missed the call," Mullin said. "The defenseman joined the altercation, and he should have brought the face-off outside the circle."

Other than the sting of a close loss, Mullin said, "I thought it was a great game, [and] the team played very well."