St. Paul's School's hockey team celebrates its 4-3 decision over Archbishop Curley in the MIAA B Conference semifinals. The Brooklandville school will play St. Mary's in the title game, Friday afternoon at Piney Orchard Ice Arena in Odenton at 4 p.m.
During the regular season, St. Paul’s School defeated Archbishop Curley High with ease. But in Tuesday’s MIAA B Conference semifinal game, the Friars left their hearts on the ice and fell one goal short.
The top-seeded Crusaders held off a late third period comeback by the Friars to win 4-3 in front of a packed crowd at Patterson Park. St. Paul’s was able to overcome game-long struggles with sloppy passing and an inability to clear the puck out of their own zone to advance to the title game, Friday against St. Mary’s at Piney Orchard Ice Arena
St. Mary’s defeated Sts. Peter & Paul, 10-5, in Easton Tuesday afternoon in the other semifinal.
Patrick Powderly and junior Dan Walsh each netted two goals to lead the Crusaders (15-1-1 overall). Mike Druso provided two goals for Curley (5-7-3) in the losing effort.
“They [Curley] did a good job of marking our top players and crowding our goalie,” said Crusaders head coach Eric Nordstrom. “We had a hard time getting the puck out of our zone. They had a lot of big physical guys and I think some of our guys may have been a little bit intimidated this time around.”
After a late three-goal surge in the second period, the Crusaders took a 4-1 lead into the third period. Curley managed numerous shots early in the third, but couldn’t elude the glove of St. Paul’s sophomore goalie Ty Kapp until forward Larry Kovacs wrapped behind the net and found Druso camped in front of the crease for a power play goal with 7 minutes, 30 seconds remaining.
Two minutes later, forward Ian Schultz found the net to bring Curley within one. That’s as close the Baltimore city school would get as Kapp made several game-saving stops in the final two minutes.
“The puck wasn’t on our sticks today. We didn’t get the bounces and kept losing it and shooting right at their skates,” said Powderly. “They had a lot of heart. We let them slip back in, but we got them in too big of a hole so thank god we got the win.”
In front of the net, Kapp had 27 saves for the Crusaders while Ryan Henkin stopped 18 shots for Curley.
In their two previous regular season meetings, St Paul’s outscored the Friars 12-2. The Crusaders next get third-seed St. Mary’s, which they also defeated twice in the regular season by a total of 16-2.
In a season in which the Crusaders have dominated their conference opponents, coach Nordstrom believes the Tuesday’s close outcome will help his team remain focused for their final, and, most important game of the season.
“Today was certainly a wake up call,” said Nordstrom. “Whoever we play in the conference finals, you know it’s going to be a good game. We’ll have to be smarter about how we use our energy.”
St. Paul's 1 3 0-4
Archbishop Curley 1 0 2-3
First Period: St. Paul's, 5:52, Goal: Powderly, Assists: Breckler, Wilson
Curley, 0:02, Goal: Druso, Assists: Schultz, Plunkert
Second Period: St. Paul's, 3:29, Goal: Powderly, Assist: Breckler
St. Paul's, 1:03, Goal: Walsh, Assists: Powderly, Braig
St. Paul's, 0:23, Goal: Walsh, Assists: Burton, Parker
Third Period: Curley, 7:30, Goal: Druso, Assists: Kovacs, Schultz
Curley, 5:09, Goal: Schultz, Assists: Plunkert, Kovacs