Middleton, MA – We were back at the Essex Sports Center for the battle of the St. John’s on this Wednesday where the St. John’s Prep Eagles hosted the St. John’s Shrewsbury Pioneers. Right from the opening faceoff, both teams were both fast and physical. The Eagles’ offense tested the Pioneers’ goalie very early in this one, and then the Pioneers were able to possess the puck and enter the Eagles’ zone. Not even two minutes in, the Pioneers fired their first shot of the game from the point that found the junior Brady Chenevert‘s stick on the way to the net and it beat the Eagles goaltender to give the Pioneers an early lead. As a couple of minutes went by the Eagles were awarded a power play hoping that it would help them get back into this game but with the aggressive penalty kill from the Pioneers, they were able to shut them down and maintain their lead. As time was winding down in the first, the Eagles took a penalty and gave the Pioneers an opportunity to add to their lead. But the Eagles killed off the penalty and got out of the first period only down by one.
The start of the second period made it seem like something must have been said in the Eagles locker because they came out flying and dominating right away not even allowing the Pioneers to break the puck out of their zone. Then the Eagles caught a break with a 2-on-1 but it resulted in a shot that missed the net keeping this game still 1-0. As the Eagles kept coming they recovered a turnover and their shot but was denied by the Pioneers goalie. But the rebound found the stick of sophomore Ryan Finkle, who buried the puck into the back of the net to get this game tied up at 1-1. As a few minutes went by with the Eagles dominating they earned a power play with just under seven minutes left in the second period for a chance to take the lead for the first time today. A minute into the power play the Eagles were set up in the Pioneers’ zone and they caught a break as a shot produced a rebound that junior Brandon Ward picked up and wrapped around the net to give the Eagles a 2-1 lead with just over five minutes left to play in the second. But it didn’t take long until Pioneers junior Caleb Keyes found himself behind the defenseman on a breakaway and put it over the glove of the Eagles goaltender to tie this game at 2-2. Less than a minute later, the Pioneers were awarded a power play to try and get the lead back before the period ended. There were just under 30 seconds to go when Pioneers senior Dominic Reidy shot one from the outside and the sophomore Matthew Mischel found the loose puck in traffic and banged it into the back of the net to give the Pioneers the lead back going into the third period. 3-2 was our score after two.
Back out for the third period as the puck hit the ice and it didn’t take long for the Eagles to create a chance to tie this game up as they went on the power play one minute in. As the Eagles were moving the puck around the zone to try and get this game tied, the puck found the stick of sophomore Sefton Paradis at the point and he ripped it right over the blocker of the Pioneers goaltender to tie this game up 3-3. But it wasn’t too long after when Pioneers defender Ryder Bisson shot one on net and senior captain Daniel Menyalkin found the rebound lying right out front and put it home to give the Pioneers the lead back at 4-3. Just a minute later the Pioneers took a penalty giving the Eagles a chance to tie this thing back up. The Pioneers killed off most of the penalty…but not all of it. The Eagles created a 2-on-1 in the final seconds of the power play and the senior Ryan Delucia decided to rip one from inside the circle and it went right by the Pioneers goaltender to tie this game up at 4-4. Just a little past the halfway point of the third period, an Eagles penalty gave the Pioneers a chance to take the lead. But with all the momentum the Eagles created they killed it off with no damage sustained. With just over three minutes to play in the game, the Eagles created another chance as Ward ripped one and the senior Sam Croke found the loose puck sitting out front to tap it home to give the Eagles the lead 5-4. It stayed that way until there was just over a minute to play in this game. The Pioneers called a timeout with an offensive zone faceoff, trying to set something up and get the game tied. But it just wasn’t enough to fight back into this game with the Eagles playing lockdown defense to keep the lead for the win: 5-4 was our final.
Three Stars:
- F Sam Croke, St. John’s Prep
- F Brandon Ward, St. John’s Prep
- F Daniel Menyalkin, St. John’ Shrewsbury