ARLINGTON – Following a six-goal defeat to Xaverian on Saturday, Arlington Catholic boys hockey needed to respond in a major way against Saint John’s on Tuesday.
After falling behind in a neck-and-neck first period with the Pioneers, the Cougars worked their way onto the scoreboard over the next two periods and eventually to a 3-2 win.
The win over Saint John’s was a first for the program and coach Curt Colarullo, but what was most important was the way the team responded to their prior defeat.
“It’s more about coming off of a tough loss against Xaverian, it doesn’t get much lower than a 7-1 loss,” Colarullo said. “We worked really hard the last two days and they put a lot of work in. We did a lot of video we did a lot on the ice, the emotion is that that’s a complete 180 for us.
“I thought in that Xaverian game we had a lot of good moments of hockey, we just didn’t put enough together. So we went back to the drawing board and we talked about all the little things, what it takes to win a hockey game.”
In the opening period, both teams had plenty of offensive chances. What slowed down the Pioneers was penalties.
Saint John’s drew three penalties in the first period and finished the contest with eight total.
“One of the things we’ve been stressing is team disciple and obviously we haven’t been able to show that, it’s very disappointing,” Pioneers coach Mike Mead said. “The biggest thing is you want the guys to stay together as a group. What happens when you get all those penalties, is you start to finger point and we want to try to avoid that.
“It’s early in the season but bad habits can come up quickly… Eight total penalties and that’s 16 minutes, that’s a full period of hockey. And what that does is it doesn’t allow us to roll the three lines, you get your penalty killers and you try to get some moment but you can’t do that.”
Despite all the time they spent undermanned in the opening frame, the Pioneers were the first team to score. working shorthanded, Matthew McGinty found Jaydon Wrzosek who gave Saint John’s a 1-0 lead with 8:47 remaining in the first.
Jaydon Wrzosek celebrates scoring for Saint John’s hockey against Arlington Catholic.Peyton Doyle
Although they went down first, Colarullo and the Cougars were not dismayed.
“I thought we controlled most of the period, they had some moments but we were playing good hockey,” Colarullo said. “It was just, keep grinding, keep going, keep getting the puck to the net and good things happen when you do that.”
Quickly in the second period the Pioneers found themselves in more penalty trouble. With five minutes gone in the frame, Cael Colarullo made them pay for it, tying the game on the power play.
“That was something that we worked on a lot the last two days, our power play,” Curt Colarullo said. “We said if we’re going to be struggling to score goals five on five, we’re going to have to capitalize a little bit more on the power play.
“It was just getting kids moving, we could’t be standing still, we had to get them moving and get puts on the net and get a body in front so they worked really hard the last couple games on that and it showed by getting a couple goals.”
For the rest of the second period, as more Pioneers spent time in the penalty box, their kill and in particular, goaltender Colin McCarthy kept them afloat.
“I thought Colin McCarthy played well, he played really well,” Mead said. “He’s played really well for us the last three games, but when you give a team like that with a player like (Alex Frost) on the power play, they’re going to capitalize on that.”
25 second into the third period, it was Frost who gave the Cougars their first lead of the game, blasting one by McCarthy on off a feed from Stephen Constantine.
As the Pioneers tried to claw back and even things up, Arlington Catholic’s Henry Taylor was there to shut things back down.
The junior stopped 10 shots in the period and 34 overall for the Cougars.
“Taylor stepped up,” Colarullo said. “That was exactly what we needed today from him. He made some really big saves, he kept the puck out, he had some timely freezes when you need a whistle, so he did a great job in net today.”
Four minutes after Frost gave Arlington Catholic the lead, Saint John’s committed another penalty and were made to pay for it. This time it was Brayden Boczenowski who got a puck to sneak by McCarthy and give his team a 3-1 lead.
The Pioneers however weren’t out of the contest for good.
With four minutes remaining, Kaden Rorick netted one for Saint John’s.
Though they were able to cut into the deficit, and found shots on net in the closing minutes, the Pioneers weren’t able to complete the comeback.
“They don’t quit, that’s the biggest thing, they don’t quit,” Mead said. “They’re going to keep battling until the end.”
Next, Saint John’s will play in its first tournament of the season on Dec. 27 at 8:10 p.m.
“We’re three games in, we get to go defend the My Hockey Live Cup this upcoming weekend in Framingham, we’ll see how that goes,” Mead said. “We have a tough team in Franklin right off the bat and then we’ll go from there.”