St. John’s beats the clock, CM, 4-3

WILMINGTON – As he watched Andrew Brandano deliberately maneuver into position to set up the winning goal, St. John’s Prep coach Kristian Hanson felt as though time stood still.When Mark Azarian steered Brandano’s precise pass into the Catholic Memorial goal with six seconds to play, delivering a 4-3 victory, one sensed time may have run out on the season for the Knights and their legendary coach Bill Hanson.The winning play began when Brandano blocked a shot just inside his own blue line, then chased down the puck in the neutral zone to create a 2-on-1 break with Nazarian. Brandano carried deep along the right side, forced the lone CM defenseman to commit, drew Knights goalie Shane Starrett to cover the near post and feathered the puck to Azarian, who charged hard to the cage for the re-direct just ahead of a closing CM defender.”It felt like time stopped,” said Kris Hanson, after the Eagles (11-5-1, 4-4-0) bolstered their 1A Tournament credentials and secured a third-place finish in the Catholic Conference. “I’m watching him (Brandano) and he’s getting slower and slower and there were no red shirts around him. I said, ‘OK, he’s going to shoot.’ He’s running out of space and guys are getting back now and it’s one of those plays where a second the other way they probably don’t make.”He sacrificed his body to block the shot at one end and then made a great play at the other. And Mark did his job by going hard to the post,” he added.Fresh off back-to-back ties against B.C. High and Malden Catholic, CM (6-7-2, 2-4-2) climbed out of a 2-0 hole to take a 3-2 lead with less than six minutes to play. However, what looked to be a momentum-builder for a closing regular-season surge devolved into the loss that may well keep CM on the post-season bench for the second straight year. The Knights need to secure five points in their final four games against Rhode Island stalwarts Bishop Hendricken and LaSalle Academy, Central Catholic of the MVC/DCL Large, and Connecticut power Fairfield Prep. It won’t be easy.Brandano’s closing heroics were made possible by senior captain Sam Kurker’s natural hat trick, pushing his season totals to 25 goals and 46 points. He scored on the game’s first shot, the second period’s first shot and nine seconds into the game’s lone power play to tie it with 2:53 remaining. Linemates Brian Pinho (two) and Tyler Bird and defenseman Nick Pandelena drew assists on Kurker’s strikes. Senior goalie David Letarte finished with 24 saves.It was Pandelena who sent Kurker streaking down the right side for a laser over the glove of Starrett (24 saves) and 1-0 lead just 31 seconds into the game.The Eagles doubled the margin at 2:10 of the second period. Bird’s two-zone pass found Pinho, who swooped in from the left and delivered a cross-crease backhand dish to Kurker for an easy deposit into the open right side.CM, though, was playing desperate hockey and cut the margin to 2-1 at 11:21 of the period when Kevin Bletzer moved in from the left side, protected the puck well, and slipped a close-range backhander past Letarte.The Prep controlled pace and tempo through the first eight minutes of the final period and seemed to have things well under control until CM struck twice in a span of 1:22. Sean Heelan’s pass through traffic set up Beau Starrett for a tying deflection with 6:27 remaining. Then, with 5:05 left, Jack O’Hear walked in clean after winning a face-off at the right dot, laid several fakes on Letarte and tucked the puck into the left side.”You know, on the second goal I thought Andrew (Brandano) did a good job taking his kid to the post. It was more of a deflection than anything. The third goal we had a big breakdown and hung David out to dry. There were two red shirts going to the net and five white shirts watching,” said the Prep’s Hanson.On the tying power play goal, Pinho moved to the top of the umbrella and fed the puck to Kurker, whose one-timer from the left point exploded into the top corner over Starrett’s bloc