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St. John's Prep, CM set for showdown at Salem State

Wednesday, January, 30 By Phil Stacey
Sports editor

For the first time in two decades, the ultimate in high school hockey royalty invades the North Shore tonight. Catholic Memorial | which has won as many hockey state championships (16) over the last 22 years as the Boston Celtics have won NBA titles in their entire history | make their first visit to the area since the late 1980s tonight when they take on St. John's Prep at the Richard J. Rockett Arena (8 p.m.) on the campus of Salem State College.

"The place is going to be packed," said St. John's Prep goaltender Kyle Pettoruto, whose Eagles take a 6-4-3 mark into tonight's highly-anticipated game. "It's going to be a great atmosphere."

The last time the Knights played on the North Shore was 20 years ago, when the Prep called the old Twin Rinks in Danvers home. Before that, they did place a few games against the Eagles at Salem State.

Having cemented their status as the greatest hockey dynasty in Massachusetts schoolboy history years ago, it should come as no surprise that the Knights come into tonight's contest unbeaten (8-0-3) and ranked as the No. 1 team in the Commonwealth.

Playing their Catholic Conference rivals from St. John's twice a year, they are used to travelling to the Ristuccia Arena in Wilmington (where the Eagles normally call home) to play the Prep, usually on Saturday afternoons.

However, St. John's had a chance to move the game to Salem State this season | much closer to their Danvers campus | and jumped at the chance.

That means that hundreds of hockey fans from this area who have never seen Catholic Memorial play will get the chance to do so tonight. This can work two ways, however; locals who don't want to make the trip up to Wilmington to watch St. John's now have the chance to see them in their own backyard.

In other words, expect the place to be packed | early | with scores of Prep students and fans, as well as those who just love high school hockey played at a high level.

While fans in this area have anticipated this game for months, Catholic Memorial's legendary head coach, Bill Hanson, is not among them.

Now in his 32nd season behind the CM bench, Hanson (no relation to St. John's Prep head coach Kristian Hanson) has no problems with his team going to Salem State; his mantra has long been that the Knights will travel anywhere to play anyone at any time.

As an educator, however | he's a guidance counselor at CM | Hanson doesn't hold back his disdain for the fact that his team has to play a midweek game at 8 p.m. some 50 minutes outside of West Roxbury.

"The Prep plays nine home games, and this is the only one they're playing at Salem State. On a Wednesday night, too," he said.

"Coming from the city (Boston) at night in the middle of the week ... that doesn't float with me, and it hasn't from the beginning. I voiced this five months ago when I found out the schedule; they get home dates and they throw them out at us.

"It's not good academically for us; some of our guys won't be getting home until after midnight, and they need to be in school at 7:30 a.m. (tomorrow) | and they will be in school," Hanson continued. "From an educator's point of view, I don't like it at all."

Like it or not, though, his Knights will be ready to play when the puck drops following tonight's Danvers/Revere tilt. Despite his team's unbeaten record, Hanson decided his Knights weren't playing as well as they could be and shook up his three forward lines and defense pairings last week.

Senior Mike Collins, the reigning Catholic Conference Player of the Year, is now skating on a line with a pair of highly talented sophomores in Shane Walsh and Troy Starrett. Another scoring unit is made up of all sophomores, with Derek Colucci centering T.J. O'Brien and Benjamin Murphy.

Goaltender Tom Conlin, another sophomore, is a steady keeper who stops the shots he needs to stop. A five-man defensive rotation of Peter Starrett, Travis Jonasson, Mike Tierney, Garrett Noonan and Chris Rooney are protection in front of him.

"We were playing well, but not well enough with the talent we have," said Bill Hanson about the line juggling. "The changes have given us some newness."

St. John's, which has struggled to beat the Knights (as virtually every other team has) over the years, have not beaten the Knights in a home game in five years, since a 2-1 victory in Wilmington on Feb. 8, 2003. Since then, they've lost three one-goal games (3-2, 1-0 and 3-2), as well as a 4-2 setback last season.

Bill Hanson, whose team beat St. John's at Harvard earlier this month (4-2), said he watched the Prep's 3-2 victory over B.C. High last Saturday on television and was impressed, especially with their play over the first two periods.

"The Prep kids are talented and they play hard," he said. "St. John's is a wonderful place to play hockey, and they get premier players from (the North Shore). It's certainly a better alternative to going to a private school. I think Kris is doing a nice job there."

To get used to the playing surface at the Rockett Arena, St. John's skated there Sunday afternoon.

Pettoruto, the Prep goaltender, said his team will need to be "almost perfect" to win tonight. Not that it can't be done, however.

"We need to use the body and block shots, forecheck and create chaos in their end," said Prep senior winger Danny Haugh. "We have to work on keeping the puck in their zone as much as we can."