An early statement made a big impact. La Salle scored four goals by the time the game was barely seven minutes old and went on to a 6-3 win over Malvern Prep Wednesday night in the Class AAA Flyers Cup final at Hatfield Ice.
The win gave the top-seeded Explorers (23-3) their second consecutive Flyers Cup title and their 13th in school history, the most for any school in any classification. La Salle will face Pine-Richland, the Penguins Cup AAA champion, Saturday at the Skatium (5:00 start) in the state title game.
The four goals at the start certainly helped La Salle’s cause. None of the four were in themselves knockout blows. But the second-seeded Friars (11-9) who were seeking their 11th Cup, were back on their heels for most of rest of the evening.
“We came out really strong,” said La Salle head coach Wally Muehlbronner, “A lot of energy and just a good, simple approach is what we were looking for. We had some good opportunities and we were lucky to put them in.”
Cam Ross scored two goals for the Explorers. The junior defenseman was named the Bobby Clarke Award winner as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
“It feels amazing,” he said. “It’s awesome to go back to back.”
Ryan Wiley got things started for La Salle when he beat Matt Crawford in the Malvern Prep net 3:42 into the opening period. Ben Falicki made it a 2-0 game just 11 second later. Ross scored his first goal at the 6:41 mark and Grant Lagreca made it a 4-0 game 23 sends after that.
We just couldn’t get an offensive pressure,” said Malvern Prep coach Bill Keenan. “La Salle was in our end a lot and going down four goals in the first six minutes of the game it was hard to come at them.”
Jeremy Jacobs got Malvern Prep on the scoreboard with a power-play goal with 52 seconds left in the period in his team’s first real surge of the evening.
Ross scored his second goal of the game 2:06 into the second frame, it was a shorthanded effort. Pax Hoishik answered for the Friars with a power-play goal at the 5:34 mark.
At one point, Keenan felt his troops were on the verge of getting back in the game.
“After our timeout the guys responded well,” he said. “I thought we took it to them. I think in the second period we outworked them. I think we outshot them (13-10) There was a period of time there when I thought we were buzzing.”
But after Hoshik’s goal, the Friars could get no closer. Charlie Kennedy extended La Salle’s lead once more with 6:07 left ln the game before Jonathan Holt finished the scoring with 47 seconds remaining.
Ross said he had no worries about he and his teammates losing their focus despite leading from start to finish.
“From what (Muehlbronner) teaches us, we know we have to keep going,” he said. “We go until that buzzer hits zero.
Ice chips—Joining Ross on the All-Tournament team were Lagreca, Jacobs, La Salle’s James Carpenter, Malvern Prep’s Brady Doyle, and La Salle goaltender Jake Rossi.
This was Muehlbronner’s 11th Flyers Cup title as a coach, an all-time record.
Malvern Prep 1 1 1—3
La Salle 4 1 1—6
First-period goals: Ryan Wiley (L) from Charlie Kennedy, 3:42; Ben Falicki (L) from James Carpenter, 3:53; Cameron Ross (L) from Wiley and Kennedy, 6:41; Grant Lagreca (L) unassisted, 7:04; Jeremy Jacobs (M) from Brady Doyle and Jonathan Holt, 16:08
Second-period goals: Ross (L) 2:06 (sh); Pax Hoishik (MP) from Holt and Henry Tesoriero, 5:34 (pp)
Third-period goals: Kennedy (L) 10:53; Holt (MP) unassisted, 16:13
Shots: Malvern Prep 34, La Salle 47; Saves: Matt Crawford (MP) 36 and Riley Doyle (MP) 5; Jake Rossi (L) 31
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