Chris Connor carries the
puck for the PBA.
the state apparently sensing what an army of law enforcement
officers can accomplish.
Accordingly, the PBA rolled out the red carpet for Mallory’s
game, figuratively and literally. An actual red carpet led Dianne
and Seth to center ice to drop the puck for the ceremonial open-
ing faceoff. Prior to the actual faceoff, Kelly came forth with an
extraordinary gesture of unity by presenting Trooper/Forward
Dennis Palaia with a lifesaving award for his off-duty hero-
ics saving a choking man at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Rockaway
Township.
“He’s a brother and a hockey player,” Schulze reasoned of the
honor.
Schulze also illuminated how Mallory’s game provided the
perfect opportunity to officially inaugurate the PBA-NJSP hock-
ey rivalry. It began a year earlier when the PBA scored a 9-2 vic-
tory in its second game ever. But this game, and its accompa-
nying goodwill, proved to be the time to unveil the New Jersey’s
Finest Memorial Cup, a sterling silver bowl large enough to hold
about one post-game beverage.
Of course, the State Police was not about to hand over the cup
without a warrior-esque effort worthy of Mallory’s Army. And
when the Troopers took a 2-0 lead less than three minutes into
the game by scoring on their first two shots, they left the PBA
looking up at what appeared to be a mountainous deficit.
“The Troopers are big boys,” recognized Dave McAndrew of
Morris County Sheriffs Department Local 151. “They’re always
big and they’re always good. We had to keep coming at them.”
Fortunately, the PBA was able to rely on its last line of de-
fense to climb back in the game. As team captain Dan Tacopino
of Monmouth County Sheriffs Officers Local 314 noted about
goaltender Joe Aliseo, “He’s one of the reasons why this team
wins.”
After giving up the two goals, Elizabeth Local 4 member Al-
iseo rejected 32 consecutive NJSP shots during 34 minutes, 48
seconds of game time. As he stood up to breakaways and bat-
tled the big boys on the doorstep of his goal, Aliseo wielded one
of the attributes that embodies Mallory’s Army.
“Bear down and focus a little harder,” Aliseo articulated.
Going a little harder seems to be a way of life for PBA scrappy
forward Dave McAndrew. The Morris County Sheriffs Depart-
ment Local 151 member felt a special connection to Mallory
coming from the same hometown. He played his high school
and college hockey in Mennen Arena, and he had a cheering
section of family and friends at the game.
McAndrew was in the middle of nearly every play in front of
the State Police net, and on one occasion gave up his body slid-
ing after the puck and into the goal. With the score 2-2 midway
through the second period, McAndrew burst ahead of the State
Police defense and was dragged down as he moved in on goal.
The infraction resulted in a penalty shot for McAndrew.
Though he failed to convert on one of the rarest and most dra-
matic moments hockey can offer, such relentless fortitude per-
haps was inspiration for Dianne to post, “They fought for her.”
The fight ignited when PBA leading scorer Chris Connor of
State Corrections Local 105 took a pass from the team’s newest
speedster, Travis Daniel of Madison Boro Local 92, and scored
to cut the lead to 2-1 in the first period. Broschart chipped the
puck out of the PBA zone, took control and then outskated ev-
erybody to score the tying goal with 10:40 to play in the second
period.
And it stayed that way until the third period because, as
McAndrew said, “Aliseo was a monster tonight.”
Then came the moment that changed everything.
At 10:09 of the third period, Broschart skated through the
neutral zone and was promptly wiped out. A patch of blood
blotched his cheek. There was no call. But there was a response.
“That was a big momentum changer for us, because when
one of us goes down, we all go down,” Kelly responded. “We
weren’t going to let anybody go down.”
While Broschart recouped for a moment, the PBA bench po-
sitioned with the fervor of a SWAT team. The plan was simple
but direct.
“When one of our guys gets hit like that, there’s only one way
to answer,” McAndrew asserted. “You answer on the score-
board.”
Broschart was back on the ice in less than 30 seconds. He
found the puck, navigated through the State Police defense and
found Connor who scored the go-ahead goal at 9:31. Forty sec-
onds later, Ryan Collis of Local 263 motored behind the NJSP
net and centered a pass to the omnipresent “Taco” and Tacopi-
no blasted a shot low into the net.
The remaining nine minutes then whipped both teams, the
crowd and perhaps a young girl watching from above into a
frenzy.
“Back and forth, back and forth, it made the game even more
intense,” Taco exclaimed. “When that happens, everybody plays
like it’s cutthroat. It made the game even better. Everyone was
pulling out every trick they had.”
The State Police came back with a goal to make it 4-3 at 6:46,
but the PBA came forth with a goal by Tom Keough of Paramus
Local 186 with 3:27 remaining. A final NJSP tally cut it to the
final score of 5-4.
But as the handshake line that caps any momentous hockey
game turned into a hug-it-out fest among brothers in blue, the
winners on this night were the Jack Jacinto family, the Grossman
family and all the kids who will benefit by what was done here.
Sometimes, it takes an army to raise awareness, and that led to
mission accomplished in every respect by the NJSPBA Hockey
Team and the NJ State Police Ice Hockey Club.
Dianne Grossman captured just how much with this post:
“Powerful…just pure power. People are talking. A lot. Keep
it up because it’s working. Round of applause please…to you
all.” d
www.njcopsmagazine.com
■ JANUARY 2018 45