The St. Anthony’s Friars defeated the Chaminade Flyers 5-4 in Game 2 of the Catholic High School Hockey League Class A championship on Monday afternoon at Cantiague Park.
A four-goal outburst in the final period allowed St. Anthony’s to capture its sixth CHSHL title in seven years.
Chaminade head coach Ed Smith said he was proud of the boys’ effort and competitiveness despite coming up short to force a decisive Game 3.
He added that they will look to use this game as motivation going into next season.
“They’re resilient and show perseverance,” Smith said. “They fight in every game, every period and every shift. There’s a lot of emotion taken from this game and the boys are gonna look back on this.”
Chaminade got on the board first with a first-period goal by Trevor Radin.
Forward Jeff McCormack set up Radin from behind the St. Anthony’s net as Radin tapped it in to give Chaminade a 1-0 lead with 6:29 remaining in the first period.
In the second period, St. Anthony’s tied the game on a power play goal by Greg Barnych. He roofed a shot from the point with six seconds remaining in the man advantage at 12:28 in the second period.
Chaminade took back the lead with 6:16 remaining in the second period on a goal by Michael Hecht.
A play in the corner to the left side of St. Anthony’s crease led to Radin dishing out a pass to Hecht.
Hecht hit a shot that beat St. Anthony’s goalie Nicholas Wanderlingh from inside the slot to give Chaminade a 2-1 lead.
St. Anthony’s began their comeback with Michael Haggerty getting the tying goal early in the third period.
Haggerty streaked down the left side of the ice, went around defenseman Connor Norton and beat goaltender Paul Dematos to the stick side with 13:33 remaining.
Chaminade answered 47 seconds later on a wraparound goal from alternate captain Chris Parisi.
Parisi’s fore-check allowed him to force a turnover from behind the crease and he capitalized. His goal put Chaminade up 3-2 with 12:58 remaining in the game.
St. Anthony’s tied the game again on a power play goal by alternate captain Joe Pacifico. Pacifico pounded home a rebound in front of the net with 10:17 left to play.
Roughly a minute later, John Forlenza completed a pass to John Riggins in front of the Chaminade goal to give St. Anthony’s a 4-3 lead.
With 1:44 remaining in regulation, Smith called a timeout and Chaminade pulled Dematos to have an extra attacker.
The Flyers failed to convert with the extra skater as Nicholas Cozzi skated out of the zone and scored in Chaminade’s empty net, giving St. Anthony’s a 5-3 lead.
Chaminade’s Tim Landolphi scored with 16.6 seconds remaining to bring the Flyers within one, but that was as close as they got as St. Anthony’s skated off with their sixth championship in the last seven seasons.
Smith said getting into penalty trouble against a strong St. Anthony’s power play and playing with eight forwards led to the Flyers’ third-period meltdown.
“Unfortunately, we had a couple of calls that went the wrong way,” Smith said. “I give St. Anthony’s all the credit in the world. They have a tremendous power play and they’ll make you pay for it.”
