KJS United repeats as Public Co-Op hockey champion

The championship defense was successful for KJS United.

Led by three goals from junior Braydon Sisco - including two in the third period - the Kinnelon-Jefferson-Sparta tri-op squad pulled away late to record a 5-1 victory over North Hunterdon-Voorhees in the championship game of the NJSIAA Public Co-Op Tournament on Monday, March 9, at the Prudential Center in Newark.

The title is the second straight for No. 14 ranked KJS United (16-7-2), which defeated Marlboro-Holmdel, 4-3, in last year’s final.

“This is just a very special group and they were very hungry,” said KJS United head coach Jeff Myhren.”This was the goal to get back to this point again and they did a great job all season.”

Sisco, who was awarded the Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau MVP award for the second straight year, assisted Maximo Rodriguez 7:45 into the second period and then added a goal 17 seconds later to stake his team to a 2-0 lead.

North Hunterdon-Voorhees (19-7-1) cut its deficit in half with a goal in the final two minutes of the period.

Sisco scored a power-play goal off a feed from Alex Roslan 3:20 into the third and added his third goal of the night off a pass from Eddie Brown with 4:45 remaining in the game to push the defending champs’ lead to 4-1.

Cody Sutton put the finishing touches on the title-winning contest with an unassisted tally with 1:54 remaining.

Senior goalie Stefan Filewicz anchored the defense with 27 saves.

“We started to get a little greedy and got away from our gameplan after we went up, 2-0,” Myhren said. “But they smartened up and got back to doing what they had to do.

“And Stefan had a tremendous game on the biggest stage. He was our third-line center last year but is goalie on his club team. The bigger the stakes for us, the better he played for us.”

Filewicz made 534 saves this season, good for a .900 save percentage this winter.

Sisco, who will play for the Tri-City Storm of the USHL, next season, led KJS United in scoring this year with 40 goals and 25 assists and totaled 108 goals and 62 assists in three seasons.

“Braydon is a generational player,” began Myhren. “You can’t get him off the ice; he just loves the sport and his teammates. He was able to spend time with the Gaudreau family recently and I know how much he appreciated winning their award.”

In addition Sisco, KJS United was led offensively by seniors Brown (24 goals, 43 assists), Cormac Gibbons (18 goals, 10 assists), Michael Pandiscia (six goals, 12 assists), Sutton (eight goals, 14 assists), Rodriguez (12 goals, 15 assists), Caden Lombardo (two goals, three assists), Roslan (two goals, 12 assists) and Cooper O’Neil (one goal, nine assists) and junior Ryan Saletto (four goals, one assist).

Myhren, who led Kinnelon for 16 years before taking the reigns of the tri-op four years ago, concluded his 20th season on the bench and owns a career coaching mark of 236-160-42

“We’ll have a bit of a rebuilding process but that’s public school hockey for you,” said Myhren. “Right now, I’m just so proud of what this team has been able to achieve the last couple of seasons.”