Kristian Hanson told his St. John's Prep hockey team Sunday afternoon, after beating rival Xaverian on the road, that they had just secured the biggest win in his three seasons at the Danvers parochial school.
A little over 24 hours later, he had to readjust those statements.
Scoring three times in the first period and playing stellar defensively for the full 45 minutes, St. John's Prep went into the Walter Brown Arena yesterday afternoon and stunned the state's top-ranked team, Catholic Memorial, with a 3-1 triumph in Boston.
The victory, which Hanson said was "undoubtedly our biggest" during his time behind the Prep bench, was the first for the Eagles over their Catholic Conference rivals from West Roxbury in seven years. Their last such triumph was a 2-1 decision over CM on Feb. 8, 2003.
"We played as well as we can play," said Hanson, whose team improved to 9-7-1 on the season and ended its Catholic Conference slate in second place at 5-2-1, just one game behind league champion CM.
With just a 2-5-1 record in early January, St. John's Prep has now played itself into what would have been unheard of territory just a few weeks ago: consideration for the elite Super 8 state tournament.
The Eagles were on the 16-team "Watch List" released by the MSCHA yesterday; toppling mighty CM will do nothing to hurt their chances.
"When we play our systems like that and the entire team skates and comes back on defense, we can be a very good hockey team that's tough to beat."
Junior Joe Currie got the Eagles off and running 6:47 into the opening period, scoring his second goal of the season. Sophomore Matt McDonald and junior Andrew Pierce assisted on the play.
A minute-and-a-half later, senior right wing Greg Tremblay scored what proved to be the game-winning goal, taking a feed from Sam Kurker and burying it past Catholic Memorial netminder Tommy Knox for his seventh goal. Captain Colin Blackwell also assisted on the tally.
Finally, Kurker was hauled down on a breakaway and awarded a penalty shot with 4:03 remaining in the first stanza. The sophomore glided in calmly, deked and beat Knox on his blocker side, giving the Eagles a stunning 3-0 lead. Kurker is second on the team in scoring with nine goals and 18 points, trailing only Blackwell (31 points).
That lead might have grown if not for some terrific saves from Knox, who finished with 21. But his counterpart, Prep sophomore David Letarte of Salem, was more than up to the task at the other end of the ice, stopping 25 of 26 shots while lowering his goals-against average to 2.20.
Catholic Memorial — which suffered its first loss to a public or parochial team from Massachusetts this winter in falling to 12-4-1 — got its lone tally with under 10 minutes to play from Derek Colucci.
"I give all the credit in the world to our kids," said Hanson, whose team has three regular season games remaining, beginning tomorrow night vs. Arlington Catholic. "We as coaches can put in the systems and say what should be done, but they're the ones out on the ice executing and making things happen.
"To do what they did, going on the road back-to-back days and beating one of the best teams in the state (Xaverian) and then the top ranked team in the state (CM), that tells you everything you need to know about our team and what they're capable of."
