Ridge Ice Hockey Opens Season With Win

This year's Ridge High School ice hockey team opened the season with a 3-2 win against longtime Skylands Conference rival Montgomery in a game last Saturday night, according to the team's website.

Highlights of the game are on the ice hockey program's new vimeo website.

The varsity team next plays Brick Memorial on Tuesday at 5:45 p.m. and then perennial rival Bridgewater-Raritan at 8:15 p.m. on Friday night at the Bridgewater Sports Arena in Bridgewater.

Friday night's game will be a team-sponsored charity event to aid Operation Santa Jersey Shore. Attendees are asked to bring a toy or game or gift for displaced families due to Hurricane Sandy in lieu of paying the regular admission fee.

In the team's opening victory, Ridge took an early lead on a goal by senior Joe Mandala assisted by senior Matt Zarabara. The score remained 1-0 into the third period, when Ridge freshman Gary Prince scored a second goal to put the Red Devils ahead 2-0. 

The lead was short lived as an empowered Montgomery stormed back to score a power play goal. Montgomery then added a second goal two minutes later to even up the score.

But the Ridge squad to continued to push forward to fiind scoring opportunities and a late third-period goal by sophomore Tim Knightly, assisted by Prince and senior Patrick Zhou, put the game away for Ridge.

This year's captains are Matt Zarabara, Kyle Leddy and Joe Mandala.

The game highlights for all Ridge ice hockey teams are on the vimeo website.