RallyNorth.net

Wed, Jan 02, 2008 07:20 PM @ St. John's

Team	1	2	3	Final
Central Catholic	2	0	0	2
St. John's	1	2	0	3

Cowles' hat trick powers Prep past Central Catholic

Wednesday, January, 02 By Mike McMahon
Staff writer

WILMINGTON | Some considered last night's battle between the St. John's Prep and visiting Central Catholic hockey teams as a possible preview of a Super 8 match this spring.

If that proves to be true, Cenral Catholic will certainly remember Christian Cowles' name.

The Eagles' senior forward netted three consecutive goals in a little over 13 minutes to power his team to its fourth straight win, a 3-2 come-from-behind victory over the Raiders in front of a raucous crowd of about 1,000 fans at Ristuccia Arena.

"It had a tournament feel to it," St. John's head coach Kristian Hanson said of last night's contest. "Both of us made the Super 8 last year, (and) it was a really good crowd tonight. Central is still ranked up there in the Super 8, but we haven't broken that barrier yet. Hopefully a game like this makes us noticeable."

The Raiders came out firing on all cylinders. Just 50 seconds in, Brendan Slein hacked a rebound past St. John's goaltender Kyle Pettorutto (22 saves) to give his team the early lead. Just over six minutes later, Cam Fisichelli extended the Raiders' lead to 2-0, snapping shot to beat Pettorutto to the glove side.

Cowles netted his first of the night for the Eagles (4-1-1) with 6:17 left in the first period. He corralled a loose puck along the left wing boards and raced in alone on Central goaltender Mike Alesse (20 saves) before firing a shot underneath his arm.

"We came out flat at the start," Hanson said. "Central was flying. They were quick and they jumped out and had the momentum. Cowles' goal late in the first period was huge for us. I felt fortunate to be entering the locker room down only 2-1.

"At intermission, I told the guys that Central gave us all they had. They showed us how good they were, and I think it woke us up. No doubt, Cowles took us on his shoulders and carried us to this one."

Cowles would score another pair of goals just 22 seconds apart, at the 3:27 and the 3:49 mark of the second period, to give the Prep the lead, and the win.

"We changed up things in the second period with our forecheck," Hanson said. "We made a few corrections to counter some of the success they were having. Mostly, we just raised the level of our game in the second period. The game was pretty even in the third, so it shows how close the two teams are. They won the first, we won the second, the third was even."

The Raiders had their chances in the third. Early in the final frame, Tim Houston had a chance on a loose puck in front, but his bid to tie the game was blown dead when the official lost sight of the puck that had trickled out to the slot. Houston, visibly upset, was assessed a 10-minute misconduct for comments he made to the official after the play.

Losing arguably its best player for the majority of the period was costly for the Raiders.

"We started to get back to our game a bit in the third period, but it was too little, too late," said Central Catholic head coach Mike Jankowski. "We had some penalties too that hurt us, that got us a bit away from our game.

"We owned the most of the first period, and then they owned the last part of the first and the early part of the second, after that, I thought it was a pretty even game."