St. John’s Prep ices Catholic Memorial from tourney spot

The kings of Massachusetts high school hockey over the past quarter century will be on the sidelines for the first time since 1984 when the puck drops next week to begin the state tournament.On Friday at Cronin Rink, St. John’s completed a season sweep of Catholic Memorial as Sam Kurker scored twice to brush the Knights right out of the playoffs via a 3-1 Eagles win.”We really wanted this game,” Eagles coach Kristian Hanson said. “And it’s a good thing for us going into the tournament to have played against a desperate team like CM was.”The Prep (14-5-1) will likely be a top three seed when the Super Eight bracket is announced this morning. The win completed a second half that St. John’s go 9-1 following a loss to Malden Catholic.The game was scoreless until the 5:38 mark of the second period when CM’s (8-10-2) Thomas Stanton banked an acute angle shot off the skate of Prep goalie David LeTarte for a 1-0 Knights lead.The Knights had controlled much of the second period but a three minute stretch in the late going would doom them.Freshman Shane Eiserman finished off a 2-on-1 with Colin Blackwell at 12:35 to draw St. John’s even. Then with 31.7 seconds left in the middle period, Eiserman made a pinpoint pass to Kurker at the front of the net to send the Eagles off with the lead.CM would go on the power play early in the third when Nick Pandelena was called for tripping at 1:14. The Knights came breathlessly close twice to tying the game but defenseman Scott Derrickson cleared sure fire goals out of the crease area.Needing two goals late, CM pulled goaltender Tommy Knox for an extra attacker but Kurker iced a historic win with 55 ticks remaining.”As much as we’d like to enjoy this, now its time to start thinking about a second season,” Hanson said. “We know we’re going to be a pretty high seed and now we’re focused on what’s ahead.”