The St. John's Prep hockey team could feel the pressure mounting last night against Catholic Memorial, with the Eagles looking for their first Catholic Conference win while trying to avoid a loss that would leave them with a losing record on the season.
Boston University-bound Sam Kurker, on the other hand, seemed to be feeling right at home.
Kurker recorded a hat trick in last night's 5-1 win over the Knights at Walter Brown Arena and added an assist in the rink that the Terriers of BU called home before the construction of Harry Agganis Arena.
The Prep had lost two straight and had fallen behind in the conference with losses to BC High, Xaverian and Malden Catholic.
"It was a pretty significant game for us today in terms of where our season is heading. At 4-4 and we lost two in a row, albeit to quality opponents, but it still put the emphasis of a must-win game (against CM)," said Prep head coach Kristian Hanson, his Eagles now 5-4.
Fellow senior captain David Letarte (30 saves) was outstanding in the crease for the Eagles, facing several five-on-three situations while only letting one puck get past him. Letarte was huge in the early going as the Prep built a 2-1 lead through two periods despite being out-shot 21-13.
"Obviously, we expect our captains to be leaders and to step up in key situations. We are limited in upperclassmen, but we have three senior captains," Hanson said. "Their leadership rubs off on the other guys, and it helps us play a stronger game."
Hanson also highlighted the play of junior captain Brian Pinho, who assisted Kurker's second-period goal after picking up a marker of his own in the first. Kurker put some distance between the Prep and CM with a pair of third-period goals. Sandwiched between those goals was a shorthanded, breakaway goal by Nick Gianelli.
The Knights only goal of the game came on the power play after Jack O'Hear capitalized when the Prep defense failed to clear the puck, but all in all it was the best performance from the defense in weeks led by John Ryan.
"David played well, and the defense as a whole did a nice job keeping shots to the perimeter. We had some big penalty kills," Hanson said. "It takes a complete team effort. Defense is more than the goalie and the defense. We talked a lot about forwards helping out defensively, and early I wasn't too happy, but they did a good job of correcting that the second half of the game."
