WELLESLEY — Despite infinite success in recent times, there had all the time been that one proverbial boogeyman the St. John’s Prep hockey program would encounter persistently. That faculty occurred to be Catholic Memorial, which had offered the crew with suits, recreation in, recreation out.
On Saturday, the Eagles earned an announcement victory in opposition to their Catholic Conference rivals, and probably reasserted themselves because the crew to beat within the state. Jake Vana sniped a pair of targets and added two assists, as St. John’s Prep erupted for a 6-3 victory over the Knights.
“It feels amazing,” Vana stated afterward. “All the preparation we’ve done going into this game, and all the noise, the internet saying that they’re number one, that we’ve lost our title … it feels good to get it done.”
Prior to this weekend, St. John’s Prep (5-1-1) had solely received one in every of its prior seven conferences with Catholic Memorial. This featured three consecutive street losses for the Eagles relationship again to January 2020.
The groups traded pictures throughout a scoreless first interval, earlier than junior Christian Rosa notched a purpose to offer St. John’s Prep a 1-0 lead 5:09 into the second stanza. Lightning would strike twice for the Eagles, as senior Harlan Graber registered a tally simply 26 seconds later to make it 2-0.
Rosa would add his second purpose with 3:59 to play within the body, serving to St. John’s Prep take a 3-1 lead into the third.
With 15:38 to play in regulation, Ben McGilvray corralled a free puck, then slid a go over to Vana in entrance of the Knights’ web. The junior sniped the decrease nook, because the Eagles pulled forward, 4-1. Cole Blaeser would discover twine as effectively moments later, giving St. John’s Prep a 5-1 lead with 13:26 to go.
“It feels good to finally get the best of CM on the road,” stated Vana. “Now, we’ve just got to beat them at home and hope we get the best of them there, too. But this one feels amazing, and it gets the monkey off your back, especially after losing three times.”
While Catholic Memorial (6-1) staged a late rally with back-to-back targets from Mike Corbett and Brendan MacNeil, the four-goal deficit was just too steep of a hill to scale. Vana added an open-net purpose with 7.7 seconds remaining to place a cap on the win.
McGilvray was named the winner of the Derek Hines Helmet Award after registering two assists for St. John’s Prep within the effort.
Finn Burke additionally tallied a purpose to energy Catholic Memorial.
“I think it goes without question that this is the biggest win of the season,” stated St. John’s Prep coach Kristian Hanson. “We just played the number one team in the state, we beat them on their home ice. But obviously, it’s still only January 7th. We have a lot of hockey still to be played.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com