BRISTOL—La Salle has been playing some very good hockey lately. And the timing couldn’t be better.
The Explorers were dominant from the start Friday night in the course of a 5-1 win over Holy Ghost Prep in an Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference game at Grundy Arena.
Michael Casey’s hat trick helped La Salle (6-4, 5-3 in conference) to its fourth straight win and fifth in its last six outings. David Kimmel provided three assists.
Senior defenseman Nick Astolfi says all the pieces are fitting together for the Explorers after a slow start to this abbreviated season.
“We all came together,” he said. “It started with our coach (Wally Muhlbronner). He got us all together. We’re finally playing as a team, there are no individuals out there, we’re all playing together.”
Jake Hannon got the party started for the Explorers with a power-play goal 8:10 into the first period. With the Firebirds’ Michael Connolly in the box serving a slashing minor, La Salle’s Max Maddalo got position to the net and flopped a blind, backhanded pass in the direction of the crease. Hannon poked the puck in the net during the ensuing scramble.
Casey made it a 2-0 game at the 9:42 mark.
La Salle senior forward Jake Armstrong said the two first-period goals against a traditional rival gave the Explorers a big lift. “I think those two goals kind of took the nerves off,” he said. “Because we have a lot of young guys on the team so getting those two goals early really helped us get the momentum for the rest of the game.”
Casey added his second goal of the night 8:16 into the second period and completed his hat trick at 10:21.
Jack Lindmar extended La Salle’s lead with 56 seconds left in the period.
Armstrong said the circumstances surrounding the 2021 season it tougher for he and his teammates to jell as a unit at first. “I feel like it’s taken a little bit longer this year because of Covid and everything,” he said. “We haven’t had chances like last year to come together and have that team bonding but we’ve kind of found what works for us and were just keeping it rolling game by game.”
Holy Ghost Prep (5-6 overall, 3-3-0-3 in conference) finally got on the scoreboard when Brady Baehser scored a power-play goal with 5:45 left in the game.
“I like how we responded in the third,” said Holy Ghost Prep coach Gump Whiteside. “We kind of challenged them between periods and I thought we played well in the third period, but it was just a bad start all around.”
La Salle 2 3 0—5
Holy Ghost Prep 0 0 1—1
First-period goals: Jake Hannon (L) from Keenan Schneider and Max Maddalo, 8:10 (pp); Michael Casey (L) from David Kimmel and Chase Hannon, 9:42
Second-period goals: Casey (L) from Dan Whitock and Kimmel, 8:16; Casey (L) from Kimmel and Dan Whitock, 10:21; Jack Lindmar (L) from Ryan Desmond and Tim Whitock, 15:04
Third-period goal: Brady Baehser (HGP) from Evan Mudrick and Shaun Moore, 10:15 (pp)
Shots; La Salle 31, Holy Ghost Prep 30; Saves: Liam Gross (L) 29; Bobby Baehser (HGP) 26
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