LOWELL — With a trip to the championship on the line, the No. 1 St. John’s Prep hockey team hosted No. 13 BC High at the Tsongas Center for a Division 1 state semifinal battle.
And in thrilling fashion, the Prep got a game-winning goal in double overtime from Lynnfield native Christian Rosa to take home a 2-1 victory and move on to the Div. 1 state championship game this weekend.
St. John’s Prep came out with a fire burning, as the Eagles were able to maintain control of the puck in the opening minutes of the game. That intensity also led to some early bad blood between both teams, as a handful of scuffles broke out after some aggressive hits and checks. About halfway into the first period, BC High was able to show flashes of momentum, but they were quickly dashed by the Prep as they were able to clear the puck out of their zone and block any potential shots on goal.
The first period ended with a stalemate, with both teams’ defenses stepped up big as they were able to shut down big opportunities for the other to prevent falling behind early in the contest.
Just as the opening frame ended, the second period began the same way — with neither defense giving an inch.
“We were aware of the type of game BC was playing, they were trying to prevent us from getting anything around their net,” said St. John’s Prep coach Kristian Hanson “They did a hell of a job doing it. They laid out, they blocked shots. They really did everything they could to prevent us from getting scoring opportunities, and it worked for a majority of the night.”
That is, until Luke O’Sullivan was able to find an opening for BC High and snuck the puck past Prep goalie Payton Palladino for the first goal of the game — assisted by Frank Shediac and Michael Mann — to make the score 1-0. Even with BC High striking first, the Prep never lost their momentum and were still able to play aggressively.
With their season on the line, St. John’s found itself going into the final period of play trailing by one.
Holland committed the game’s first penalty with a trip, but the penalty kill defense for St John’s was phenomenal as they didn’t allow BC High to take advantage of their power play.
As time dwindled away in the final period, St. John’s pulled its goalie for an extra attacker, and with 52 seconds remaining in the game, Holland was able to find the back of the BC High net off a beautiful shot assisted by Will Van Sicklin and Tommy Sarni to force overtime by knotting the game at 1-1.
“Any time it’s late in the game like that, you want to get pucks on net at all costs,” said Hanson about Holland’s game-tying goal. “We have Aiden in that position for a reason. He’s always capable of putting the puck on net.”
“There’s still time on the clock, you know? I’m a senior, one more game left,” said Sarni. “I’m not going down that easily. We’ve worked too hard to just fold like that. Luckily we didn’t. We’ve got a good group of guys that don’t give up.”
After the first overtime period — played 4-on-4 — saw both sides come up empty, things were whittled down to 3-on-3 for the second overtime.
And it didn’t take long for the Prep to capitalize after that, as Rosa took a pass from Sarni and banged it home to send St. John’s to the TD Garden.
St. John’s Prep (20-3-0) will take on No. 2 Xaverian in the Division 1 state championship game Sunday night (TBD) at TD Garden.
