HATFIELD TOWNSHIP—Heading down the stretch at Hatfield Ice Monday evening, La Salle found itself hanging on.
The Explorers had the better of the play most of the day against Holy Ghost Prep and held a 2-1 lead with 3:27 remaining in regulation when Michael Zarzycki drew a five-minute major penalty plus a game misconduct for cross checking.
La Salle would have to play the remainder of regulation plus the start of an overtime period shorthanded. It was time for goaltender Jake Rossi to stand tall.
He and the defense corps in front of him did just that, limiting the Firebirds to two shots on goal the rest of the way while Patrick Brace added an empty-net goal with 80 seconds remaining.
The 3-1 win that resulted kept the Explorers perfect in the APAC at 4-0 and improved them to 8-1 overall. Afterward, La Salle coach Wally Muhelbronner lauded his veteran netminder’s effort.
“He’s been solid for two years now,” Muehlbronner said. “It’s not surprising me with Jake. He has very, very good focus and he’d made big saves like that a lot for us.”
Declan Kelly gave La Salle a 1-0 lead 2:36 into the opening period with a shot along the ice from the right point that got past Firebird netminder Jack Bothoff.
Kelly later set up Dean Carvalho who scored a power-play goal 5:30 into the second period to give the Explorers a two-goal.
But the Firebirds (2-6, 0-2 in the APAC) kept working and were rewarded 10:48 into the middle period when Caine Bickel scored off a feed from fellow freshman Nathan Romer. The goal came off a La Salle turnover.
Following Zarzycki’s penalty, Kelly knew he and his teammates had to step things up a bit.
“A five-minute penalty like that, we just have to keep things simple and get the puck out of our zone,” he said. “Keep working all the way through to the end of the game. Those close games, it’s really important to play a full three periods.”
Kelly a junior is playing a more prominent role with the Explorers this season after skating on the third line a year ago.
“Last year we had all these seniors,” he said. “It’s more of a leadership role this year and just showing these underclassmen how to work hard and maybe [overcome] the talent that we lost last year.”
For Holy Ghost Prep, the afternoon was another step in the maturation of a young team, that has taken big strides since the start of the season.
“It’s kind of an ongoing thing,” said Firebird coach John Richie. “We have so many new guys, we graduated 10 seniors, so some of this just come down to chemistry and our coaching staff is together for the first time.
“So, they’re learning our style, we’re kind of still learning some of their tendencies. We’re better than we were a month ago.”
Ice chips— La Salle has beaten each of the other APAC schools once.
Holy Ghost Prep 0 1 0—1
La Salle 1 1 1—3
First-period goal: Declan Kelly (L) from Liam Donahue and Charlie Kennedy, 2:36
Second-period goal: Dean Carvalho (L) from Kelly and Grant LaGreca, 5:35 (pp); Caine Bickel (HGP) from Nathan Romer, 10:48
Third-period goal; Patrick Brace (L) unassisted, 15:40
Shots; Holy Ghost Prep 23, La Salle 32; Saves; Jack Bothoff (HGP) 29; Jake Rossi (L) 22
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