WILMINGTON — One stern test passed, two more to go.
St. John’s Prep successfully kicked off one of the most rugged eight-day stretches of games a team could ever have on Saturday. Purging a personal demon and gaining a measure of revenge for the rest of high school hockey, the top-10 Eagles defeated the consensus No. 1 team in the state in Malden Catholic, 3-2, before nearly 1,000 fans at Ristuccia Arena.
It was the first time the Prep beat the Lancers since a 3-1 win on January 16, 2010, snapping a six-game losing streak that included a 4-3 overtime heartbreaker in the 2011 Super 8 title game.
For two-time defending state champion Malden Catholic (now 3-1-2), a 24-game overall unbeaten streak and 40-game in-state skein came to a close.
“Malden Catholic obviously is a very talented team,” said Eagles head coach Kristian Hanson. “It’s a good measuring stick to see where you’re at in the state.”
And obviously St. John’s Prep (now 5-1) is in a very good place as the veteran squad didn’t buckle under the pressure of a high-caliber opponent and missed opportunities, instead responding behind the efforts of unsung winger Andrew Brandano to reverse an early deficit.
Trailing 1-0 eight minutes into the second period, the motivated senior muscled past junior Patrick Wrenn at the Lancer blue line, collected the loose puck between a pair of defenders and deposited a perfect wrister over goalie Connor Maloney’s right shoulder.
“Momentum was swinging in our favor, and we felt that we needed that one lucky bounce to end up having us put a couple of pucks in the net,” said Brandano. “I saw some net top left and it ended up going in.”
“Andrew doesn’t always get noticed, but we know what he’s capable of,” Hanson said. “That goal he scored was a big goal for us.”
It wasn’t a seismic shift in play but the Eagles grabbed enough control and eventually a 3-1 third-period lead. Senior Mark Azarian’s second-chance shot found the mark about four minutes in and, 21/2 minutes later, junior Ean Mendeszoon’s power-play point blast snuck through a crowd and into the net.
“Our game plan was to put pucks to the net from basically any angle and eventually one’s going to go in,” said Hanson. “But I just felt overall, systems-wise, we did a lot of good things.”
Malden Catholic closed to within one with 1:36 when Wrenn scored with Maloney pulled for an extra attacker, but wouldn’t get another shot the rest of the game. Losing high-scoring forward Tyler Sifferlen to a leg injury with 7 1/2 minutes left, requiring a trip to the hospital post-game, hurt the Lancers’ comeback efforts.
“We have nine senior forwards and two senior defensemen, guys that have played in Super 8 games for the past couple of years, that played in big games before,” Hanson said.
That will stand the Eagles well come Wednesday when they travel to UMass Boston to take on second-ranked BC High before battling perennial power Catholic Memorial at Walter Brown Arena on Saturday.
Hanson knows the importance of this stretch, noting that “I’ll tell you (what beating Malden Catholic means for us) Wednesday after BC High.”
