Eagles grounded by high-flying Xaverian

LOWELL – For the St. John’s Prep hockey team, the task was very simple on Wednesday night at Tsongas Arena.The Eagles, 0-1 in pool play for the Division 1A tournament, needed to beat Xaverian to pretty much preserve their chances of moving on.The Eagles started well. But by game’s end, the Prep was suffering from what Mr. Mister called a case of “Broken Wings.”The Prep squandered a 2-0 lead after the first period, watching as the Hawks rattled off four straight goals in the second period and two more in the third en route to a third win over the Eagles thanks to a 7-4 final.The Eagles now need a crazy set of circumstances to happen today and Sunday at Tsongas to head for the second round.”(Thursday) was just one of those games where everything that they put on net went in,” St. John’s coach Kris Hanson said.For the Hawks, their ticket to the second round is nearly punched at 2-0 and having only a date with Malden Catholic remaining on Sunday. The Prep plays Hingham on Sunday, with the best it can do being 1-2.”The guys in there are thrilled,” Xaverian coach Dave Spinale said. “And they can’t wait until Sunday (against Malden Catholic). It was important for us to have two wins going into that game.”The best way of describing this game was a snowball rolling down a mountain and the Prep having pretty much no way of stopping it.The shots on goal were dead even at 26-26 for the game, but by no means does it show how well Xaverian played for the last two and a half periods, where the Hawks pretty much dominated things.”We hadn’t been down in the tournament against Needham and Hingham, so it’s nice to know that we can come back like that,” Spinale said. “Offensively, you have to give credit to every guy. They went out after every puck and rebound and weren’t going to be denied.”The Eagles (12-7-3) came out playing like a team with desperation as the Prep fired plenty of rubber at Xaverian’s Kyle MacDonald in the early going.MacDonald kept the Eagles off the board for a while before the St. John’s fourth line got an unexpected goal. Mike Papagni lofted a long-distance pass down ice in the vicinity of Chris O’Hare.The senior outraced a Xaverian defender and broke in alone, beating MacDonald with a backhander over the right shoulder at 6:29.The Prep must have found the home-run pass to its liking as the Eagles used it perfectly again 17 seconds later. This time it was Chris Cowles doing the passing and Colin Prior the receiving.Cowles hit his fellow winger in stride at the Xaverian (16-5-2) line. Prior faked right and lifted his backhand shot under the crossbar for a 2-0 lead.After taking the Prep’s double haymaker, Xaverian began to respond in kind midway through the period.With Cowles off for tripping at 7:20, the Hawks peppered Kyle Pettoruto and nearly got on the board as Mark McDonald missed two golden chances in close.The Prep was shorthanded again late in the first but nearly turned it into offense as Cowles was stopped by MacDonald on a breakaway to keep it 2-0 after one.”We had a number of chances to go up 3-0 and didn’t capitalize,” Hanson said.Those missed opportunities would be costly as the second period would belong to the Hawks.Nathan Hardiman shifted the momentum when he converted off a neutral-zone turnover and a Jack Walsh pass with a quick shot over Pettoruto’s right shoulder at 2:40.On the very next shift, junior Bill Scannell took advantage of a Prep turnover in the defensive zone, firing another bullet past Pettoruto for the Hawks’ second goal in 20 seconds and a 2-2 tie.Just over three minutes later, the Hawks broke on top thanks to another shaky play in the Prep zone. Another loose puck caught the Prep defense up ice and gave Walsh a chance to race on a loose puck. He beat Pettoruto’s poke-check chance there and put the puck in the vacated net for a 3-2 lead at 6:09.The implosion was completed with 56.2 seconds left on the clock when Chris Wagner picked Prior’s pocket along the right wing boards and made a nifty