The Montclair Boys Ice Hockey team finished the season with a strong record of 14-7-3, finishing third in the Kelly Division. The team took a great leap from last year's abysmal 41 total goals last season to almost double this season with 75. The season started strong for the Mounties, winning their first three games. This included 2 wins over Oratory Prep, the team that defeated them in the division playoffs last season, by a combined score of 8-1. In these first three games, the Mounties outscored opponents 10-1, with 7 goals coming from Senior captain Sam Rotella. The Mounties would then suffer a stunning loss to division rivals Nutley 6-3, outshooting them 41-21. The Mounties bounced back, however, and would go on to win 8 of their next 9 games out-scoring opponents 40-17. During this time Montclair was led by Rotella with 27 points, and Junior Captian Logan Brown with 15 points. Some important wins in this stretch included a 3-1 win against the number one team in the division Glen Rock 3-1, and a 4-2 win against Nutley.
Following their Glen Rock win, the Mounties entered the biggest stretch of their season with the next 5 games on the schedule being the number 2 team in the division Verona-Glen Ridge, the top-ranked team in the state Pascak Valley at Prudential Center, Glen Rock, Montclair Kimberly Academy, and VGR again. The Mounties came into the first game against VGR confident and riding a 12-2 start to the season. The game was a tight-fought contest, with the Mounties taking an early 1-0 lead and holding it throughout the entire first and second period. They held the lead for the first 6 minutes of the third period until VGR would come back and tie it with 9:58 left. Just 20 seconds later Rotella would tie the game with his second goal of the game. The drama would continue as another 30 seconds later VGR would score to tie it once again, and after an intense overtime period with chances from both sides, the game would end in a tie. The Mounties took the rough game in stride and bounced back for a huge game against Pascak Valley at the Prudential Center. Many argued that this would be the strongest offensive team that the Mounties would face, with 3 players on the team finishing the season with over 35 points, and another 4 in the double digits. The game went back and forth with Sam Rotella striking the first 5 minutes into the second. The Mounties would lead the game up until 3 minutes left in the third period, where Pascak Valley would tie the game. It looked like this would be another game decided by overtime, but with exactly 2 minutes remaining in the game, Junior Captian Logan Brown would score the game-winning goal from the point on the power play. The Mounties would end up scoring two more empty goals for a hard-fought 4-1 win.
Following this game the Mounties would be without their Junior Captian Brown, as he suffered a broken jaw with minutes remaining in the game. The Mounties bore down and moved forward into possibly the biggest game of the year, and the battle for the first seed in the division against Glen Rock. Overtime would be the deciding factor in this game as well, but the Mounties would not come out victorious, suffering a brutal 1-0 loss. This loss would prove to be the start of a rough stretch for the team, as in their last 5 regular season games they would finish 1-3-1 including losses to VGR and Bridgwater, and a tie against MKA. Most of this can be chalked up to the injury to Senior goalie Sam Korenbaum, who suffered a concussion in the second VGR game, which would put him out for the remainder of the regular season. Montclair went from averaging only 1.8 goals against in their first 15 games to 3 a game in the last five. Going into the first round of division playoffs the Mounties would still be without goalie Korenbaum. They would be upset in the first round 5-2 against 7-seed Scotch Plains, shocking the team and the league. The loss gave the team a week of preparation for their state playoff game against Glen Rock, and they took advantage of this.
Against Glen Rock in the first round, the 11th-seeded Mounties would spur an upset, led by a 44-save game by Korenbaum in his first game back. Montclair's only goal was scored by Rotella, and against all odds, Montclair won their first state playoff game since the 2019-2020 season. In the second round, the Mounties would fall 4-1 to Chatam, and their seasons would be over.
Key Performances:
Sam Rotella: 24 games, 36 goals, 16 assists, 52 points
Logan Brown: 15 games, 8 goals, 17 assists, 25 points
Anders Jenkins: 24 games, 9 goals, 10 assists, 19 points
Jack Dunne: 24 games, 3 goals, 12 assists, 15 points
Hannah Rosenheck: 24 games, 7 goals, 6 assists, 13 points
Sam Korenbaum: 491 saves, .921 save percentage
Key Awards:
Sam Rotella: Kelly Division MVP
Logan Brown: All Kelly Division First Team
Sam Korenbaum: All Kelly Division First Team
Gavin Parma: All Kelly Division Honorable Mention
Hannah Rosenheck: All Kelly Division Honorable Mention