DANVERS — Any time you give an opposing team a man-advantage, it makes it a little harder to win. That was the theme Monday afternoon as Catholic Memorial took advantage of The Prep’s mistakes to win 5-3 and grab the Catholic Conference championship.
Going into the third period, the host Eagles held a 2-1 lead, but within two minutes of the third, Prep had two men in the box. On the five-on-three, Joe Marchi of Catholic Memorial scored the tying goal off an assist from captain Finn Burke – who was easily the best player on the day.
The Knights controlled the pace of the game for most of the third period and went back on the power play. The Knights, again, capitalized on the advantage to give themselves their second lead of the day.
“We need to be a more disciplined team,” Eagles head coach Kristian Hanson said. “We had five penalties today and they scored three power play goals. When you give a team three power play goals, it’s hard to win.”
This was the second meeting between the two teams. In the first meeting, The Prep got the better of Catholic Memorial in 6-3 fashion.
“Last time, they had two power play goals. Their power play is very good,” Hanson said.
Despite going down two goals with 4:20 left, the Eagles didn’t give up, something Hanson was very proud of.
“We fought until the last second of the game. We had some great opportunities to tie it late while being down by two,” Hanson said. “We got a goal to get it to 4-3 and then still from that point had some great opportunities.”
After Will Van Sicklin’s goal cut the lead to one with 2:15 remaining, Christian Rosa had a golden opportunity to tie the game. However, Knights goalie Owen Watson made a pivotal save from close range.
The Prep then pulled its goalie. With seconds left, Catholic Memorial scored an empty-netter to solidify its conference championship.
“Winning is hard. We haven’t lost a game since December,” Hanson said. “The law of averages tends to catch up with you. Today, it did at a really important game. You just have to hope we got the loss out of the way and can have a clean slate the rest of the way.”
Goals (St. John’s Prep)
Will Van Sicklin (2)
Cam Noyes Umlah (1)
