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More consistent effort from Xaverian sinks St. John's Prep

Saturday, January, 05 By Phil Stacey
Sports editor

WILMINGTON | Do you need to put your hand directly over a flame to know that it's hot? Of course not.

So why does the St. John's Prep hockey team feel the need to let their opponents take the initiative with a big hit or a goal before raising their own level of play?

"I wish I knew why," sighed head coach Kristian Hanson, whose team played poorly for long stretches of play in their Catholic Conference opener Saturday. As a result, a faster, more offensively savvy and | let's be honest here | hungrier Xaverian team came into the Ristuccia Arena and knocked off the host Eagles, 3-2.

Hands down, St. John's Prep played its best hockey in the third period, generating 11 of their overall total of 15 shots and playing with passion and fury. It's too bad that same spark wasn't shown often enough over the first 30 minutes | particularly the first period, when they were thoroughly dominated by Xaverian.

"When we play like we did in that third period, I truly believe we can play with anyone," said Hanson, whose team saw its four-game winning streak snapped. "But it's a question of playing that way for three full periods, not just one. Overall, we just didn't play well. That first half of the game, (Xaverian) took it to us."

It was the second straight game that St. John's Prep (4-2-1) came out slowly. The last time out, they spotted Central Catholic a 2-0 lead before rallying behind three goals from Christian Cowles for a 3-2 win.

This time around, the Eagles rallied from a pair of one-goal deficits, again with Cowles scoring both times. But they couldn't carry the momentum of his second goal, a game-tying score that came with 3:20 to play, as the visiting Hawks took home the two points by netting a controversial goal with 1:37 remaining.

That Xaverian score, which beat Prep goaltender Eric Clifford (who played brilliantly at times with 25 saves) far post, appeared to have been scored a second after the right post had been uprooted, which would have necessitated a stop in play. But the goal was allowed to stand, and fittingly, Xaverian (5-1-1) skated off with the win.

"We didn't play well at all in the first period. It wasn't until they scored in the second period that we seemed to wake up," said Cowles, who leads the Eagles with seven goals.

"We need to start setting the tone early right off the bat, right on the first shift. A big hit, a goal, a big save ... whatever it takes. We've got to start doing it."

Teammate and fellow senior Steve DiCarlo of Peabody agreed, saying the Eagles seemed to gain momentum as the game wore on and played their best hockey down the stretch. Still, he admitted, it wasn't enough in the long run.

"This is how it is in the Catholic Conference," he said. "There are no shortcuts; you can't take a night off, even a period off, and expect to win. I think we'll realize after (this game) that when you come out flat, it'll hurt you."

Little things hurt St. John's Prep on this day. Trouble connecting on passes and transitioning from offense to defense, as well as a defense that gave the Hawks' offense far too much space in the offensive zone, are areas that need to be corrected if the Eagles are to compete with the state's elite teams.

Yet despite all of these shortcomings, the Eagles were on the cusp of taking a point until the last 97 seconds of Saturday's game.

"I told our guys before the game it'd be a one-goal game," said Hanson, "and that mistakes become magnified in a game like this; that's where we got hurt. Plus, our energy level wasn't where it should have been.

"If anything, what we can take from this is that we need to be ready to play every single game. We came on at the end, which was good to see, but we can play better."

With a week from hell on the horizon | road contests at defending state champion B.C. High Wednesday night and a date with unbeaten powerhouse Catholic Memorial Saturday afternoon at Harvard | the Eagles better hope their coach's words can become a reality.

Phil Stacey is the sports editor of The Salem News. Contact him at pstacey@ecnnews.com or at 978-338-2650.