Prep advances to 1A semifinal

STONEHAM – From the game’s early stages, when he kicked out Brian Pinho’s mid-slot bid then scrambled left to deny the St. John’s Prep captain’s rebound, Central Catholic’s junior goaltender Colin Soucy gave the Raiders a shot to win the decisive Game Three of Sunday night’s Division 1A quarterfinal series at Stoneham Arena.However, Soucy (21 saves) had no chance when Pinho buried the game-winner with seven minutes to play – 26 seconds after Christian Thompson had drawn No. 8 Central (15-7-3) even – as the top-seeded Eagles (19-3-1) closed out the series, 4-2, and advanced to Wednesday night’s semifinal against Austin Prep at The Tsongas Center (tbd).Defenseman Brent Murray set up the winner when he fired from the right point into a crowd in front of Soucy. The puck caromed left to the Providence College-bound Pinho, who didn’t miss an essentially wide-open net. Brown commit Tyler Bird provided separation on the power play with 2:08 remaining.Each game of the series had its own personality. While Central controlled the opener, the Eagles responded with physical dominance Friday night. Neither team backed down last night, each giving as good as it got and both controlling long stretches of play. Shots were even at 25 apiece.”I’m happy we won, relieved. I’d hoped we’d be in this position after our performance of last Sunday, so I’m satisfied,” said Prep coach Kris Hanson. “I thought it was a nice team effort and that we played a great third period. Give a lot of credit to Central – they played us really hard and played a great game.”Hanson acknowledged that the rivalry with Central – the teams split four games this season – it the closest thing the Prep has to a public school rivalry.”A lot of our kids are from that area and know their kids. This is the closest we have to a public school town against town type of rivalry. This was personal for these kids,” he said.Following a scoreless first period spent probing and parrying, the Eagles grabbed a 1-0 lead at 5:38 of the second period as junior James Currier converted from close range, assisted by Paul Crehan and Brent Murray.However, Central tied it on the power play when stellar junior Lloyd Hayes snapped a partially screened wrist shot from the left circle over the glove of Prep keeper Billy Price (23 saves) to tie it, 1-1, with 5:19 left in the period.Central carried the play throughout the second period but Price held strong with 10 saves. Perhaps his best came when he swallowed up Alex Lester’s clean break-in after the Raiders caught St. John’s in a terrible line change.”Billy played great tonight. He was very calm and very poised,” said Hanson.St. John’s exited the period with a 2-1 lead thanks to Crehan’s goal at 13:41 of the period. The rebound of Cam Shaheen’s shot from the right side kicked directly to Crehan in the left slot and he beat Soucy high to the stick side.Thompson’s equalizer with 7:26 remaining came off a turnover forced by Central’s aggressive forecheck, which bedeviled the Eagles all night. Pinho, though, countered that 26 seconds later and the Prep was off to the 1A semifinal round for the third straight year.The Eagles dealt No. 4 Austin Prep (15-1-6) its only loss of the season in mid-January but Hanson says that result is of little consequence now.”We beat them in January. This is March – what we did in January means nothing,” he said.