La Salle 3 Holy Ghost Prep 1

In the end, there was little to choose between the two sides. A single surge separated them and that was enough.

Ben Falicki and Charlie Kennedy scored a pair of second-period goals 23 seconds apart and La Salle went on to a 3-1 win over Holy Ghost Prep Wednesday evening in an Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference semifinal at the University of Pennsylvania’s Class of 1923 Arena.

The top-seeded Explorers (19-3) will host St. Joseph’s Prep in the conference championship game for the Founders Cup next Wednesday. The fourth-seeded Firebirds (11-13) will join them in the Class AAA Flyers Cup tournament the week of March 4.

The two goals which gave the Explorers the upper hand came after over 31 minutes of scoreless hockeyThe first two periods were defined by their physicality. There was one penalty called inn the first period and six more in the second but referees Eric Michaels and Laura White allowed a good amount of physical play to go uninterrupted and neither team backed away from banging bodies.

“I definitely think our team came out hard,” said La Salle goaltender Jake Rossi. “It’s just a different animal in the playoffs. Everyone in our league is going to be tough.”

Ben Falicki ended the scoreless draw when beat Holy Ghost netminder Jack Unger on a shot from the left point with 2:48 left in the middle period. Charlie Kennedy made it a 2-0 game when he scored from the right circle just 23 seconds later.

Kennedy said he was confident goals would eventually come despite the absence of goals over the first half of the game,

“Definitely,” he said. “We were getting tons of opportunities and were coming up short. We got [two] quick ones and that gave us a lot of confidence, moving the puck and stuff.”

The Firebirds may have been staggering at that point but they remained unbowed. Jake McCaw finished a rush by beating La Salle goaltender Jake Rossi with 35 seconds left in the period to make it a one-goal game with one period to go.

The only goal of the third period came off the stick of La Salle’s Dean Carvalho with 10 seconds remaining.

Holy Ghost Prep coach John Ritchie talked of what might have been.

“I haven’t quite figured out why some of those pucks didn’t go in for us,” he said. “Six on five [on power plays] we get two or three really good chances.and they just take wired bounces.

“But I’m super proud of my group.”

Holy Ghost Prep 0 1 0—1

La Salle 0 2 1—3

Second-period goals: Ben Falicki (L) from Grant LaGreca and Will Gregorio, 14:49; Charlie Kennedy (L) from Ryan Wiley and Patrick Brace, 15:12; Jake McCaw (HGP) from Michael Holt, 16:25

Third-period goal: Dean Carvalho (L) from Blake Baudelaire, 16:50

Shots: Holy Ghost Prep 27, La Salle 30; Saves: Jack Unger (HGP) 27, Jake Rossi (L) 26

La Salle 6 Hun School 0

HATFIELD TOWNSHIP—The performance was not flamboyant or flashy. This season’s version of the La Salle Explorers don’t play hockey that way. But it was a textbook display of efficiency.

Six different players scored goals as the Explorers shut out Hun School 6-0 Wednesday afternoon in an APAC encounter at Hatfield Ice. The defending Class AAA Flyers Cup and state champions are a perfect 7-0 this season, 3-0 in conference play.

The Raiders are 1-2 overall and 0-1 in the conference.

Charlie Kennedy gave La Salle a lead 7:08 into the opening period and the Explorers built on their advantage from there, adding three goals in the second period and two more in the third.

Kennedy a senior, said he and his teammate were confident scoring opportunities would come, if they worked for them.

“It takes a lot of hard work,” he said. “And you’ve got to be consistent, get some shots on net. You’ve got to drive the net hard You’ve got to be there, you’ve got to communicate. And, if we do all that, that will end up in our favor. We’ve got to continue to be persistent in that way.”

Senior Dean Carvalho scored one goal and set up another.

“I think the third period was definitely our strongest,” he said. “We finished out strong. The first two there were lapses at points in our D-zone but we tightened it up and found a way to come out with a win.”

Ryan Wiley, Patrick Brace, Grant LaGreca, and Michael Zarzycki also added goals for the Explorers. Whatever shortcomings plagued them were not immediately noticeable, certainly not to Hun School coach Eric Szeker.

“That’s a good team on the other side,” he said. “Credit to them, they came out, they were ready to play. They were moving the puck well today and got some good goals.”

The hosts broke the game open with three goals in the second half of the second period from Ryan Wiley, Patrick Brace, and Grant LeGreca. Carvalho and Michael Zarzycki added goals in the third frame.

Lost amidst all this was the work of Raider goaltender Julian Arsenault, who faced 51 shots and stopped 45 of them.

“Julian’s an incredible kid,” Szeker said. “He battled today for us in a little bit of a one-sided game. He gave us a great opportunity but defensively, we kept up a little bit too much on the inside.”

“(Arsenault) was good tonight,” Carvalho said. “There were a lot of shots we put in his chest there were some really good saves that he made, point blank. He did a good job.”

Kennedy was pleased with the Explorers level of consistency for the full 51 minutes.

‘“It felt good,” he said. “We had a little bit of a slow start but eventually got it going, got the right mindset going, and then really came up in the third period with the quality of goals that they were.

“We ended on a good note.”

Hun School 0 0 0—0

La Salle 1 3 2—6

First-period goal: Charlie Kennedy (L) from Dean Carvalho and Alex Fusaro, 7:52

Second-period goals: Ryan Wiley (L) from Will Carpenter and Logan Dicus, 8:21; Patrick Brace (L) unassisted, 14:51; Grant LaGreca (L) from Will Gregorio and Michael Zarzycki, 15:47

Third-period goal; Dean Carvalho (L) from Julian Tarsi and Declan Kelly, 11:43; Zarzycki (L) from Will Carpenter and Jake Rossi, 16:25

Shots; Hun School 32, La Salle 51; Saves: Julia Arsenault (HS) 45, Jake Rossi (L) 32

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La Salle 7 Peters Township 3

La Salle got contributions from all hands Saturday afternoon. The result was a state championship. Seven different players scored goals in the course of a 7-3 win over Peter Township in the Class AAA Pennsylvania Cup championship game at the Robert Morris University Sports Center outside of Pittsburgh.

The win gave the Explorers (16-9-2) their seventh state title, their first since 2019.

“It was a great team effort,” said La Salle coach Wally Muehlbronner.

The Explorers broke the game open with four unanswered goals in the second period.

Charlie Kennedy gave La Salle a 1-0 lead with 41 seconds left in the first period when he put in a rebound of his own shot from the right point.

Will Tomko tied the game for the Indians early in the second period off an offensive left-circle faceoff.

But La Salle dominated the remainder of the period. Julian Tarsi, Evan Golato, Chase Hannon, and Ryan Desmond scored goals to give the Explorers a 5-1 lead at period’s end.

Peters Township (18-4-1) which came into the game as the defending state champion, drew closer with a pair of goals that made it a 5-3 game with 11:02 still left in regulation but Michael Zarzycki extended La Salle’s lead at the 7:39 mark.

Max Monzo finished the scoring with an empty net goal with 1:16 remaining.

““The boys truly bought in and gave one of their best performances of the season,” Muehlbronner said. “Our senior leadership this season was outstanding.”

Ice chips—La Salle’s previous state titles came in 1998, 2008-09, 2012, 2016, and 2019.

LaSalle 3 Malvern Prep 0

HATFIELD TOWNSHIP—There wasn’t much that was flashy about La Salle’s performance Tuesday night. Just three periods of good solid, fundamental hockey. That was more than enough. Three different players scored goals and Aries Carangi pitched a shutout in goal as the Explorers downed Malvern Prep 3-0 in a Class AAA Flyers Cup semifinal at Hatfield Ice.

Top-seeded La Salle (14-9-2) will try for win its 12^th Flyers Cup net Tuesday against Holy Ghost Prep (8:00) at Hatfield Ice. Fourth-seeded and two-time defending champion Malvern Prep closed the season at 10-8.

The stars of Tuesday night’s show were the goaltenders. Carangi made 22 saves in the La Salle net but a case could be made that Brandon Novabilski at the other end of the ice was just as impressive. He stopped 40 shots in his final high-school game.

“I’m good buddies with ‘Nova,” Carangi said. ”He played lights out tonight. (La Salle) played really well and helped me get the shutout. I just kind of cleaned up a little bit in front, but they got it done in our own zone.

It was past the midpoint of the second period before the Explorers were able to solve Novalbilski. The goal came of the stick of Evan Golato on a play that originated behind the Friar net. Novabilski made a quality save on Ryan Desmond’s shot from between the circles before Golato put in the rebound.

James Carpenter made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at the 13:43 mark when he tipped in Thomas Doucet’s shot from the right point. The goal came while Malvern Prep’s Caiden Canale was in the box serving a holding penalty.

Meantime, the Friars were trying to find a way to solve the puzzle posed by Carangi. They never succeeded.

“We knew it was going to be a fight coming into this game,” said Malvern Prep coach Bill Keenan. “Both (regular-season games against La Salle this year were tough.

“La Salle is a great team, they’re deep, they’ve got four lines they can turn. For us, I thought this was one of the most hard fought games we’ve played all year. The bounces didn’t go our way. It’s tough to win a game with 22 shots.

Charlie Kennedy put the exclamation point on the win for La Salle when he scored a shorthand goal exactly seven minutes into the final period. The junior noted the Explorers have collectively picked up their game in recent weeks. Tuesday’s win was their ninth in their last 11 games.

“Our team chemistry has gotten really good,” he said. “The boys get along great, we’re a really tight group. We’ve really got our momentum going.”

Malvern Prep 0 0 0‑0

La Salle 0 2 1—3

Second-period goals: Evan Golato (L) from Ryan Desmond and Will Gregorio, 9:47; James Carpenter (L) from Dean Carvalho and Michael Zarzycki, 13:43 (pp)

Third-period goals: Charlie Kennedy (L) unassisted, 7:00

Shots: Malvern Prep 22, La Salle 43; Saves: Brandon Novabilski (MP) 40, Aries Carangi (L) 22