Conetta makes 30 saves in Pope John hockey win

Marcell Buki scored twice and Anthony Conetta turned in a 30-save shutout performance in his return in goal as the Pope John High ice hockey team earned a 4-0 victory over St. Joseph of Metuchen in its season-opener on Monday, Dec. 8 at Skylands Ice World in Stockholm.

Pope John, ranked No. 10 in the state, started the game with a three-goal outburst in the opening period.

First, Hunter Parrillo scored a short-handed goal on feeds from Michael Perry and Aidan Perry 1:33 into the game before Alex Mizak connected off of assists from Logan Dickson and Nicholas Colatrella just under five minutes later.

Buk, a junior transfer, then scored his first goal off a pass from Cameron Guerra with 4:29 left in the first stanza. Colatrella and Aidan Perry then assisted on Buki’s second goal with 12:22 left in the third period.

Under coach Ryan Brown, the Lions went 14-6-1 last year, including a 4-4 mark in the National Division of the Gordon Conference and its second straight Egan Cup title. Brown, now in his 19th season at the helm, owns a career record of 226-142-44.

Pope John returns seniors Parrillo (20 goals, six assists), Colatrella (11 goals, 10 assists), Aidan Perry (four goals, 10 assists), Guerra (six goals, four assists) and Mizak (five goals, two assists), juniors Liam Amabile (four goals, nine assists), Sean Hughes (three goals, seven assists) and Nicholas Moschello (five goals, one assist) and sophomore Michael Perry (one goal, five assists).

Conetta is back for his senior year between the pipes for the Lions after spending a year at Rice Memorial Prep in Vermont.

As a sophomore, Conetta stopped 493 shots, recorded seven shutouts and posted a .920 save percentage in earning All-State Second Team honors.

“Like every year our goal is to be a top 10 team in the state,” said Brown, who coached Pope John from 2001 through 2007 and returned in 2013. “We have a similar team back from last year. Anthony returning helps fortify our defense and our other goalie Mason Giordano is back as well.

“We have some injuries we’re working through and (junior) Sean Hughes has a torn labrum in his shoulder and will be out for the year but hopefully we’ll get some of the other injured back by mid January. We have some new guys playing new roles.”

The Lions (1-0) are scheduled to play St. Peter’s Prep on Friday, Dec. 19 at the American Dream Mall at 8 p.m. before meeting Red Bank Catholic on Monday, Dec. 22 at Skylands Ice World at 6:30 p.m.

“It’s an interesting place to play there right in the middle of the mall,” stated Brown of playing at the American Dream. “Its a hot building and a different experience for sure. And that starts a busy week ahead for us.”

KJS United Ice Hockey

The Kinnelon/Jefferson/Sparta tri-op squad, ranked No. 16 in the state, improved to 2-0 this season with a 5-2 victory on Friday afternoon at Skylands Ice World in Stockholm.

Braydon Sisco totaled three goals and an assist and Cody Sutton and Eddie Brown each added a goal and an assist.

Cormac Gibbons and Michael Pandiscia had an assist each with goalie Stefan Filewicz making 32 saves.

Brown, Gibbons and Sisco each have three goals this season to lead the offense.

KJS United was slated to play Morris Knolls on Friday, Dec. 19, at Skylands Ice World at 4:40 p.m. before clashing with Morristown on Monday, Dec. 22 at Mennen Sports Arena in Morristown at 8:30 p.m.