With another season come and gone, thought I’d reflect back on some issues we discussed at the end of last season and the beginning of this year. At the end of last season Cherokee was thinking of replacing head coach Mike Sullivan, but at the last minute decided not to make a change. And not only was it the right move, Cherokee went on to win the league championship and made the semi-finals of the Flyers Cup. As Mike would tell you, he’s got a good staff with Scott McKay and Steve Monaghan, and the kids bought into the system. There can’t be any grumblings from the board on this season, good job coaches!!

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Matt Olbrich scored two third period goals, including the game winner with forty eight seconds remaining as Moorestown defeated Williamstown 6-5 at the Skate Zone in Voorhees and ending the season for the Braves. The game was back and forth as both teams realized with a loss their season was over. Jacob Distasio led Williamstown with two goals and Alec Nicolai added two for Moorestown.

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Once again SJIceHockey.com is pleased to announce our annual award recipients. This year there seemed to be more balance throughout the league and with the playoffs upon us we could be in for a few surprises. Listed below are the 2010-2011 winners:

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Shawnee came into this playoff series averaging just over four goals a game and Williamstown just over six, but it was Shawnee that had the offense going in a 9-3 win at the Skate Zone on Monday night. Firing 43 shots Shawnee led eleven seconds into the game as Timmy Pagliuso scored the first of his two goals on the evening. Later in the period Danny Pagliuso deflected a shot into the net for a 2-0 lead. Meanwhile Williamstown was being swarmed by the Shawnee forwards, not allowing the Braves to generate much offense.

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With the second season upon us the SJHSIHL begins it’s double elimination tournament on Monday so we thought we would break down to see exactly who is peaking and who is struggling. Let’s begin with the Eastern Vikings. Tough year for Mike Pontonio to come out of retirement having coached teams in the past to multiple championships, the Vikings did not win a game this season, but in speaking to Coach Pontonio it was not for lack of effort. Don’t see Eastern advancing.

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In the third annual Junior-Senior Showcase game in the SJHSIHL held at the Skate Zone in Voorhees the North came back from a 3-0 deficit and beat the South 9-5. Vincent Tascione led the North with a goal and four assists and Tyler Pedersen added two goals. Jonathan Ruiz and Jared Hand led the South with two goals each. Tascione was voted the MVP for the game.

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The SJHSIHL has released the roster for the Junior-Senior Showcase game to be played on Friday, January 28th at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. Game time is 8:05PM. North Squad will be the home team and wear white and coached by Mike Sullivan of Cherokee. The South will be in the dark jerseys and coached by Mike Glick of Washington Township. We congratulate this year’s selection and look forward to another exciting contest. Here are the nominees for the North and South All-Stars...

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Matthew Asis notched his first varsity hat trick as Williamstown romped over winless Eastern 12-0 in SJHSIHL action played at Hollydell. Williamstown scored at will in the first period as they set a team record for goals in a period with ten. Jonathan Ruiz and Vince Salvadori added two goals each as Williamstown moved into fourth place in the standings and has one game left against Holy Cross.

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The SJHSIHL has released the nominees for the Junior-Senior Showcase game to be played on Friday, January 28th at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. Each team was asked to nominate 3-4 players with a minimum of 2 players selected from every team. Here are the nominees for the North and South All-Stars…

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Dan Navarra stopped 34 shots and five different players scored for the Chiefs as they defeated Williamstown 5-1 at Hollydell on Friday night. The key to the Williamstown offense runs through Jonathan Ruiz and he was held without a point. Ruiz leads the league in points with 56 and goals with 40. Blaise McCormick opened the scoring for Cherokee as he broke in with Pat Mohnacs 2-on1 and Mohnacs slid the puck to McCormick and his one-timer found the net and the Chiefs led 1-0. It was McCormick’s first goal of the season.

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Alec Nicolai notched his fourth goal of the night in the last minute as Moorestown rallied to tie Williamstown 8-8 in an offensive display played at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. Williamstown did win the shootout 2-1 and will have a tie breaker advantage over Moorestown should they need it to determine playoff position with Jonathan Ruiz converting on the Braves last attempt. Ruiz led the Braves attack with a hat trick. It was an uphill battle for Williamstown for most of the night as they trailed throughout. Moorestown jumped out to a 2-0 lead just three minutes into the game, first Nicolai and Matt Olbrich hooked up on a give and go, with Nicolai benefitting from the pass.

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Everything seemed to be working for the SJHSIHL as they had a great game scheduled between Washington Township and neighboring Williamstown, the rink was near capacity and the game was tied late in the second period at 4-4. What happened over the next few minutes was, in a word ugly.

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Jonathan Ruiz scored six goals as Williamstown handled Cinnaminson 7-2 in action played at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. With the win Williamstown moved into third place and will meet up with Washington Township on Friday night at Hollydell. This game was all Ruiz as he opened the scoring in the games first two minutes and after Justin Nugent tied the score at 1-1, Ruiz would add three more over the next two minutes, scoring once on a short-handed break and another on the power play and one even-strength with Chris Brown getting the assist.

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Shawnee used a three goal third period to erase a 3-0 deficit and earn a tie with Williamstown at 3-3. The game was played at the Skate Zone in Voorhees with Robby Churchill getting the tying goal in the final three minutes. After a scoreless first period Williamstown used goals by Jonathan Ruiz, Rich Busch and Jacob Distasio to build a 3-0 lead as Troy Altbaum stopped all nine shots for Williamstown.

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Ed Moore scored two goals as Clearview built a 4-1 lead and withstood a late flurry by Williamstown and hung on to upset the Braves 5-4 in SJHSIHL action played at Hollydell on Friday night. After getting off to a slow start this season, Clearview has played well in there last 3 games, going 2-1 and the loss was by one goal to defending champ Moorestown.

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Jonathan Ruiz had a hat trick as Williamstown used a four goal first period to fly by Lenape 8-2 in a game plated at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. Matthew Asis got things going for Williamstown just three minutes into the game as he scored his second goal of the season to give Williamstown a 1-0 lead. Ruiz would score the next two goals for the Braves with Mike Quigley getting the assist on one goal and Williamstown was in command at 3-0.

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Jacob Distasio scored twice and Kyle Parks had a goal and two assists as Williamstown rallied to beat Cherry Hill East 7-4 in a SJHSIHL game played at Hollydell. Jonathan Ruiz also scored two goals for the Braves. After a scoreless first period the teams combined for seven goals in the second period. East jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals by Jared Hand and Dan Desrochers just over two minutes into the second period.

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Troy Altbaum stopped 33 shots as Williamstown rallied from two down and surprised Moorestown with a 5-3 win at the Voorhees Skate Zone. Jonathan Ruiz led Williamstown with two goals; Ryan Volosin netted two goals for Moorestown. Volosin scored the first two goals of the game as Moorestown led 2-0 with less than seven minutes played. And with Moorestown on the power play with a chance to increase the lead, Jacob Distasio scored a shorthanded goal to cut the lead to 2-1. That goal seemed to swing the momentum towards Williamstown and Nick Gomez would score a power play goal three minutes later and we would end the period at 2-2.

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Jonathan Ruiz scored with less than five minutes left in the third period as Williamstown rallied to beat Holy Cross 6-5 in a game played at the Igloo in Mt. Laurel. The goal completed a hat trick for Ruiz and goalie Troy Altbaum turned aside 35 shots in winning his second straight game in nets. Charles Quigley led the Holy Cross attack with two goals.

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Jonathan Ruiz scored four goals and Allan Haynes added two more as Williamstown defeated Eastern 9-3 at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. The game marked the return of the former coach of the Vikings, Mike Pontonio, who was a very successful coach for the Vikings from the late 1990’s to mid 2000’s, winning a couple titles along the way. Williamstown started quickly as Rich Busch scored just thirteen seconds into the game to give the Braves a 1-0 lead. Midway through the period Ruiz would score two goals just over one minute apart, the second on the power play and the lead was 3-0.

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Jonathan Ruiz scored four goals and Jacob Distasio added three as Williamstown scored six goals in the opening period and breezed by Clearview 13-3 in SJHSIHL action played at Hollydell. Ed Moore led Clearview with two goals. It started out good for Clearview as Moore gave them a quick 1-0 lead just under one minute into the game. Williamstown would score the next six goals of the game to take control. After Distasio tied the score at 1-1, Chris Brown scored his first of two goals to give Williamstown the lead for good at 2-1.

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Cherokee opened the 2010-2011 season easily defeating Williamstown 9-5 in Tier I action played at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. Pat Mohnacs led the attack with three goals. Getting the start in nets for Cherokee was freshman goalie Kelly Farinella, the first female to ever start the first game in nets for the Chiefs. Another interesting stat was last season the Chiefs struggled to score goals averaging less than 5 goals per game, and only scored nine goals in one game, and that occurred in game 16. This team is young and showed some speed and looks like they could be a contender.

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