Phil Stacey
WILMINGTON — Going out and having fun.
Pretty novel concept when it comes to playing high school hockey, isn't it?
"That's really what it is, why we've been able to turn things around," said St. John's Prep captain Pete Cahill, outside a happy locker room Saturday after his Eagles got a late goal from fellow defenseman Nick Pandelena to trip up B.C. High, 3-2, at the Ristuccia Arena for the team's third straight win.
A week-and-a-half ago, the Eagles were 2-5-1, in an offensive funk of ginormous proportions and seemingly headed for a very non-Prep-like season. Three games — and three victories — later, they find themselves tied atop the Catholic Conference standings at 3-0-1, riding a crest of momentum and, at 5-5-1, have saved their season before it sank faster than Jay Leno's reputation as a good guy.
"Our confidence has shot back up," said Cahill, the Beverly native who will carry on his family's legacy of attending Middlebury College beginning this fall.
"After we got hammered by Austin Prep (5-0 on Jan. 13), there was a general feeling of awfulness on this team. We decided the next night at practice we had to change that — immediately. So we said, 'Let's go out, have some fun and play the way we know we can.' Now, three games later, we're seeing the results."
Saturday's triumph was the third since that Austin Prep debacle, following upset wins over Malden Catholic (3-1) and Xaverian (4-0). This latest victory wasn't so much an upset (B.C. High is an uncharacteristic 3-5-4) as much as it was a statement that the Eagles can bounce back from their mistakes in-game and fix them while also persevering in crunch time.
Case in point: after controlling play for most of the second period and the first 6-7 minutes of the third, a defensive breakdown allowed B.C. High to tie the game. Goaltender David Letarte (23 saves) — who saved the Prep's bacon in a poorly played, penalty filled first period by his team, making 10 stops — stopped Jack Tenaglia's long shot. But no one put a body on Matt Sullivan, who streaked in and buried the rebound in the slot with 7:06 to play.
It was a definite Swing Moment for St. John's Prep: would they allow this goal to derail all they had worked for to that point? Or would they dig down as a collective unit, find that something extra and somehow, someway make the breaks work for them once more?
Smartly, they chose the latter.
B.C. High was whistled for two penalties in the game's final 5 1/2 minutes; the Prep made sure they cashed in on their second power play attempt. Captain Colin Blackwell, who had another sublime game with assists on all three goals, fed Pandelena at the left point. The 6-foot-4 blue liner led it fly through a maze of traffic out front; with sophomore Sam Kurker adroitly screening Young, the puck slipped by the goalie's right pad and into the cage for the game-winner.
"We got some bounces and breaks we weren't getting earlier in the year. That's a credit to this team for how hard they worked to create those bounces and breaks," said Prep head coach Kristian Hanson. "This group has put together back-to-back-to-back good games — the credit all goes on them.
"One thing about this team: these kids have had the same attitude all season, win or lose. They come to the rink every day ready to work and make themselves better. They're a good group that works hard and never gave up on their season."
Trailing 1-0 after one period, the Eagles had bounced back with a pair early in the second. Senior Greg Tremblay buried his third of the year just 10 seconds into the frame, grabbing the puck that Cahill had thrown into the zone and beating Young. Two minutes and nine seconds later, Kurker cut to the net after Blackwell stole the puck from a B.C. High defenseman behind the visitor's net, took the center's pass and beat Young low glove side for his fourth goal of the season.
As Hanson was quick to remind folks after the game, no one from the Super 8 committee is going to be banging down the door at 72 Spring Street in Danvers this morning, ready to hand St. John's its postseason invite. "We're a 5-5-1 team at this point looking to stay above water at this point," said the ever-cautious.
Technically, that's true. But they're are also playing their best hockey of the season, and with the state's top ranked team in Catholic Memorial coming to Ristuccia Wednesday, the Eagles hope their recent momentum continues to follow them.
"From here on out, it's on us players," said Cahill, whose team has nine regular season games to play, needing nine of a possible 18 points to qualify for postseason play. "The coaches can tell us what we need to do, but we're the ones that have to go out there and play. It's up to us to keep working hard — and keep having fun."
¢¢¢
Phil Stacey is the sports editor of The Salem News. Contact him at pstacey@salemnews.com or 978-338-2650.
