Joe Maione looked outside the window of his Hoboken apartment last Friday morning and came to the cold, hard reality that his St. Peter’s Prep hockey team wasn’t going to face Christian Brothers Academy in the NJSIAA Non-Public semifinals at the Continental Airlines Arena later that day.
The snow and ice that blanketed the area was seeing to that.
“We really couldn’t do anything about it,” said Maione, the head coach of the Marauders. “It was pretty tough. We worked so hard all season to get a chance to play at the Meadowlands and now the game was being postponed because of the snow. I understand that the state (NJSIAA) had to make the decision, but it was still tough on us.”
Maione said that he basically paced the apartment all day in nervous anticipation.
“There was nothing to do,” Maione said. “We all pretty much had to stay in. We couldn’t practice.”
After the game was postponed, Maione sat and wondered about what the NJSIAA was going to do about the game. He knew that the Continental Airlines Arena was going to be a very busy place in the coming days, with New Jersey Nets and Devils games scheduled and the NCAA East Regional finals heading to the Meadowlands as well.
“It was going to be tough to squeeze the games in there and we knew it,” Maione said. “It would have been a major disappointment if we didn’t make it there.”
The NJSIAA made a decision to put all of the state semifinal games at the Arena on one day, Saturday, after the Devils had played earlier that afternoon. It meant one thing. If the Marauders were going to face CBA in the Meadowlands, the game was going to have a scheduled face-off time of 10:30 p.m.
Even the NJSIAA was a little skeptical as to whether the game should start so late. The powers-that-be with the state’s governing high school athletic body in Robbinsville hemmed and hawed about the game time, keeping high school kids – players and fans alike – out past midnight for a hockey game.
The NJSIAA admitted that it was the latest the association had ever scheduled any event of any kind. But it was an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the players that couldn’t be denied.
St. Peter’s Prep played in the 2004 NJSIAA Parochial finale against Seton Hall Prep, so a handful of the Marauders had a chance to skate on the same ice that the Devils grace. But the majority of the team had never been there before. It was one for the memory banks, regardless of the start time.
“Playing in the Meadowlands? We could have started at midnight for all that matters,” Maione said. “We could have played that game at 3 a.m. It didn’t matter.”
When the games preceding the Prep-CBA contest went into overtime, the starting time of the Marauders’ contest kept getting pushed back. And back.
“Once we were in the Meadowlands, no one paid attention to the time,” Maione said. “Just being there was a great experience. I don’t think the time had an effect on anyone.”
It’s almost expected that when you’re a hockey player, you’re going to live on a different clock than the rest of the world. Sometimes, practice sessions are held before sunrise, because that’s the only available ice time. Others, practices run late into the night. It’s the nature of the beast. Not every school or team can get the prime-time ice slots. They have to accept what’s available and live with it, even if it means a 4 a.m. wakeup call or a cold leftover for dinner when coming home past 11 p.m. That’s the life of a hockey player.
“With not that many ice rinks around, I think a lot of the kids are used to the different times,” Maione said. “You take whatever ice time you can get.”
So when the Marauders finally took the ice last Saturday – one day and a bunch of hours later than originally expected, the clock read 11:17 p.m. “Saturday Night Live” was getting ready to air. The episode of “Seinfeld” was just about sign off on Channel 5. And the Marauders were getting ready to play the most important game of their lives.
Unfortunately, they were going to have to play the game without their best player. The snow totally revamped the plans of standout sophomore forward Kyle Palmieri, who was last week’s Hudson Reporter Athlete of the Week. Palmieri had hoped to play Friday night, then hop on a plane to Michigan to try out for the United States Junior National hockey team.
But the snow canceled several flights all over the country and forced Palmieri to drive with his family to the tryouts in Michigan.
“We knew that there was a chance we could play without Kyle,” Maione said. “We understood his decision. If the game was played Friday, he still would have been here.”
The Marauders were really up against it, facing CBA, a team that Maione never had defeated as a head coach (going 0-5-2 before Saturday), without their best player.
“We were dealing with a little adversity,” Maione said.
Maione should know about adversity. After all, it was less than two years ago when Maione suffered two strokes after undergoing elective nasal surgery and nearly lost his life. Although he hasn’t recovered enough to skate again – something that rips at the inners of Maione on a daily basis – he has been able to miraculously come back and coach the Marauders, like he did last season, only a few months after his life-altering illness.
“Any time you face one of the best teams in the state and you’re missing one of your top players, it’s going to be tough,” Maione said. “Everyone just stepped it up. We were ready. I thought maybe it was a good thing to play without Kyle, because we were beginning to rely on him too much. We had a plan. We had to keep them within distance heading into the last period.”
And as for the time?
“I wasn’t wearing a watch for the first time in a long time, so I didn’t know,” Maione said. “I don’t think any of the kids realized the time. We saw the other game ending and just got ready to play.”
And play they did. The Marauders were downright stifling on defense, led by their brilliant goaltender, Kevin Fox, who is clearly the best netminder in the state. Fox did a little bit of everything, doing a fine impression of the man who normally stands between the pipes at the Meadowlands, namely Martin Brodeur. Fox made diving save after diving save, doing everything except stand on his head, keeping CBA at bay.
“Kevin was Kevin,” Maione said. “He gave us a chance.”
When the Marauders and the Colts went to the third and final period without a score, Maione liked his team’s chances.
“At 0-0, it was where we wanted to be,” Maione said.
With four minutes remaining, Tim Miller broke the scoreless deadlock with a goal, putting the Marauders ahead. Mike Dellutri added an insurance goal on a breakaway with less than a minute remaining and the “Midnight” Marauders had a 2-0 victory, earning a date with St. Augustine Prep this weekend for the overall state crown.
When the game ended, the clock inside the Continental Airlines Arena read 1:17 a.m.
“We didn’t get out of there until way past 2 a.m.,” Maione said. “But it didn’t matter. It was a really good win.”
When the Marauders returned home, Maione learned that Palmieri was indeed selected for the U.S. Junior National team, officially making him one of the top 25 players in the entire country.
But when the Marauders face St. Augustine, Palmieri will be on the ice. Hopefully, this game, which will be played at the Mennen Arena in Morris Township – and could have been played on a frozen pond anywhere for all that matters – will start on time.