Eagles soar to much-needed win over Malden Catholic

MALDEN – Coming off a 5-0 loss to Austin Prep on home ice, St. John’s Prep coach Kristian Hanson knew that his team’s meeting with Malden Catholic at Valley Forum II on Saturday was almost a game the Eagles had to have.The Eagles responded by playing perhaps their best game of the season as senior Colin Blackwell assisted on a goal in the second period and then scored twice in the third period to break a 1-1 tie and give the Prep a much-needed 3-1 win over the No. 4-ranked Lancers.”We put in a full effort (Saturday),” Hanson said. “At times, we’ve played like this during the year but the kids really played great ? I am very proud of them and I think the Austin game was a bit of a wakeup call for us.”The Lancers (6-2-0) had the puck in the St. John’s end for much of the game but simply couldn’t solve Prep goalie David LeTarte, who stopped 27 of the 28 shots he faced, including several quality chances down the stretch for the Lancers.”You have to give them a lot of credit,” MC coach Chris Serino said. “They took advantage of the chances they had and they really did outplay us.”Despite MC’s dominance of time of possession, the game was scoreless until the late moments of the second period when Blackwell’s intended shot turned into a perfect pass for a streaking Sam Kurker to tip in at the right post with 2:14 left in the period.”I was just trying to get a shot along the ice there and Sam made a great play by going to the net and getting a stick on the puck,” Blackwell said.Both teams had power play chances to begin the third period but failed to convert. The Lancers, who had come close to tying the game late in the second, began to swarm around the Prep zone and just past the five-minute mark were able to strike.James Castucci knocked down an Alex Minter pass with his glove and snapped off a quick shot that got past LeTarte to even the game at 1-1.””At the end of the second period, MC really turned up the heat and I said, ‘Uh-oh, if they go like that and we don’t match it, we’re going to be in trouble,'” Hanson said.Ironically, when Castucci scored, the first voice to pipe up on the Eagle bench was Blackwell’s.”Colin immediately said that we were going to win the game when they tied it up,” Hanson said.And on the very next shift, the senior from North Andover was a man of his word.Picking up a Greg Tremblay pass in the left wing corner, Blackwell got around two defenders, cut to the slot and fired a bullet over Ryan DiMare’s shoulder to give the Eagles a 2-1 lead with 9:00 left.”Once we got that go-ahead goal, the attitude was, ‘There’s no way we’re losing this game,'” Hanson said.And following Hanson’s game plan to perfection, the Eagles didn’t lose. Nick Pandelena’s poke check at the blue line with a minute to go freed the puck up for Blackwell to ice the game with 51.4 seconds remaining.