The Bridgewater-Raritan High School ice hockey team closed out its final regular-season home game and senior night with a 4-2 victory at Rock Ice Arena in Dunellen against the Manasquan/Point Pleasant Beach High School team on Friday afternoon, February 13.

The victory capped a 15-3-1 regular season for the Panthers, who now have their eyes set on a second straight Skyland Cup title when they face off against Ridge High School in the quarterfinal round of the tournament on February 16. 

Bridgewater-Raritan seems absolutely poised for a trip to the Prudential Center in March for the state tournament final, as it has steamrolled competition when at full strength.

Two of the team’s three losses have come against the North Hunterdon-Voorhees High School team, the first of which saw the Panthers without prominent offensive figures. Even still, the Panthers were able to limit North Hunterdon/Voorhees to just one goal, but couldn’t produce a score of their own, losing 1-0 on December 5, 2025.

In the second game against North Hunterdon/Voorhees on January 30, the team was without star goalie Justin Madison, who had led the team with a 95.6% save percentage and allowed only 23 goals. That game ended in a 5-3 loss for the Panthers, who conceded the fifth goal after putting an extra attacker on the ice in search of an equalizer. 

Madison has established himself as one of the state’s top goalies as a sophomore, with his exceptionally high save rate and low goals-against ranking among the leaders in both categories across the entire state of New Jersey. 

The Panthers also boast top talent on the attacking side of the ice, namely junior center Alexander “Sasha” Abolenskiy. Abolenskiy was a top contributor to the Panthers’ Skyland Cup-winning team last year with a team-high 69 points, and has followed it up with a team-leading 47 points in his junior season.

Abolenskiy also leads the team in goals with 27, with one of his best coming last week against Hillsborough High School that ended up on ESPN’s SportCenter as the fifth-best play of the day. The goal, one in which Abolenskiy deked to his right before pulling the puck back to his left and slotting it home, sat the goalie down on the ice in the process and put an exclamation point on a 5-3 win over the Raiders for Bridgewater-Raritan. 

Abolenskiy is aided in the attack by a newcomer to New Jersey hockey, senior Ari Fusco. Fusco hails from Baldwinsville, New York, and is joined in his first year with the team by junior defenseman James “Jimmy”  Kramer from Chicago, Illinois. The duo compete for the same club hockey organization, the New Jersey Rockets, and have combined for 24 points for Bridgewater-Raritan. 

Kramer’s USPHL Rockets teammate, junior Stanley Xenakis, has also excelled at lighting the lamp for the Panthers this season, producing 13 goals and 13 assists so far this year. Xenakis began competing again for Bridgewater-Raritan this season, after a year-long absence during which he remained active with the Rockets.

Kramer makes up half of the defensive pairing for the Panthers and is joined by senior captain Matthew Harrison. Harrison has only four points this season, but has more than proved his worth by anchoring the defense, while Kramer showcases his offensive prowess. 

Harrison’s fellow captain and senior teammate, Alex Kotelnikov, has also contributed heavily to the high-scoring attack of the Panthers. Kotelnikov broke out in Bridgewater-Raritan’s 2024-25 campaign with 56 points, and emerged as a top goalscorer in the Panthers’ dense forward room with 13. 

The Panthers are heating up at the right time, with a four-game winning streak. Before Manasquan, Bridgewater-Raritan dismantled the Watchung Hills Warriors in a 10-0 shutout victory. The Warriors, who have posted an abysmal 1-20-1 record, stood no chance against Abolenskiy and the Panthers, as he accounted for six scores. This point total comes just one shy of his season high of seven, which also came against Watchung Hills. 

Bridgewater-Raritan will look to extend its winning streak and clinch a spot in the Skyland Cup finals for the second year on Monday against Ridge, a squad that Madison has already shut out twice this season.