HAMILTON TOWNSHIP, N.J.—The playoff environment gave The Hun School Raiders a spring in their step. Brendan Marino scored goals as the Raiders kicked off the Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference Tuesday afternoon with a 5-2 win over Malvern Prep in a play-in game at Ice Land.
The win advances the fourth-seeded Raiders (10-12 overall) to the APAC semifinals; They’ll oppose La Salle on February 22 at 4:00 at Hatfield Ice. Fifth-seeded Malvern Prep (8-7) will be idle until the Class AAA Flyers Cup tournament next month.
The Raiders’ aggressive style worked to their advantage as they physically dominated the Friars from the outset.
“I think we’ve got an older team” Marino said, “a big, strong team and I think it helped us early in the game, because we’re able to get physical, get pucks in, get pucks out, and play together as a team.”
Hun School coach Ian McNally noted the referees were tolerant of physical play early on. There were no penalties called in the first period. There were seven whistled in the second period and 10 in the third.
“The first two periods there weren’t many penalties being called,” McNally said. “That let us kind of set the tone.”
Malvern Prep was laboring under the additional burden of being shorthanded; offensive catalysts Jimmy and Jeremy Jacobs were away on club duty.
By the time the first period ended, the Friars were in a 2-0 hole.
Hun School’s Justin LaPlante and Malvern Prep’s Pax Hoshik barrel in front of the Malvern Prep net. (photo: Robert Barnes)
Josh Sosner got things started for the Raiders 10:30 into the opening period off an offensive zone faceoff. Marino made it 2-0 with 32 seconds left in the period when he topped in Aidan Shine’s shot from the right point.
Gavin Wilson got Malvern Prep on the board 3:08 into the second frame when he beat Stephen Chen in the Hun School net.
The Raiders answered back almost six minutes later with one of the most picturesque goals of the APAC season. Charles Etienne-Jeffe played the puck the puck up the center of the ice from the midway point on his own defensive zone and caught Ryan Levesque in full stride. Levesque beat the Friar defense and goaltender Brandon Novabilski to make it a 3-1 game at the 9:04 mark.
Just 31seconds later, Elian Estulin gave the hosts a 4-1 lead.
Aidan Kelly cut onto that lead when he scored for the Friars with 4:09 left in the period.
Going into the third frame, Jared Ingersol, who filled in for Bill Keenan behind the Malvern Prep bench (Keenan was absent due to a family issue) thought his team still had a shot as it started the third period with a 72-second power play; Marino was serving a high-sticking sentence.
“We thought we were right there coming out of the second period,” Ingersol said. “Hopefully we could get a power-play goal and get us back in the game.”
Alas for the Malvern Prep faithful, it wasn’t to be. The Raiders killed the remaining penalty time and Marino scored his second goal of the game and what turned out to be the only goal of the third period, just nine seconds after his penalty expired.
McNally saw the win as a season’s worth of effort paying off.
“We’ve had a lot of games where we work hard,” he said. “We shoot the puck, I think we’re playing physical, but we don’t score the clutch goals when we need them.
“And today was back-to-back breakaways and a guy coming out of the box for a breakaway goal. Those goals are clutch goals at the right time.”
Ice Chips—Hun School and La Salle will open the semifinal doubleheader next Wednesday at 4:00. The second semifinal matching second seed Holy Ghost Prep and third seed St. Joseph’s Prep will follow at 6:15. The Founders Cup title game is set for March 1. It will be hosted by the highest seeded finalist.
Malvern Prep 0 2 0—2
Hun School 2 2 1—5
First-period goals: Josh Sosner (HS) from Aidan Shine and Justin LaPlante, 10:30; Brendan Marino (HS) from Shine and Ryan Levesque 16:28
Second-period goals: Gavin Wilson (MP) from Matt Barbacane and Teague Murray, 3:08; Ryan Levesque (HS) from Charles Etienne-Jeffe, 9:04; Elian Estulin (HS) from Levesque and Charles Guida,9:35; Aidan Kelly (MP) from Murray and Jack Sharer, 11:51 (pp)
Third-period goals: Brendan Marino (HS) from Vincent Gregoire, 1:23
Shots: Malvern Prep 24, Hun School 52; Saves: Brandon Novabilski (MP) 47, Stephen Chen (HS) 22
Mathis Pellerin delivered a hat trick as Wyoming Seminary downed the host Raiders 8-2 Friday afternoon at Ice Land.
Elian Estulin and Brendan Marino scored first-period goals for Hun School (8-10) which didn’t score again after taking the 2-0 lead.
The Raiders will host La Salle in an APAC game on Wednesday.
Wyoming Seminary 2 3 2—8
Hun School 2 0 0—2
First-period goals: Elian Estulin (HS) from Justin Laplante, 3:04; Brendan Marino (HS) from Estulin and Vincent Gregoire, 4:15; Yoan Gagnon (WS) from Mathis Pelletin, 7:00; Pellerin (YS) from Gagnon and Alexis Billequey, 10:22
Second-period goals: Xavier Beaulac (YS) unassisted, 13:19; Billequey (YS) from Vitello and Gagnon, 13:57; Oliver Van Der Groen from Ford Boock, 15:10
Third-period goals: Pelletin (YS) from Billequey, 1:08; Matyas Tichy from Daniel Svozil, 3:58; Pellerin (WS) unassisted, 16:33.
Elian Estulin’s goal midway through the third period proved to be the game winner as Hun School bested Malvern Prep 4-2 in an Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference game Wednesday afternoon at Ice Line.
Scott Richmond, Ryan Levesque, and Justin LaPlante also scored goals for the Raiders, who improved to 5-8 overall and moved into third place in the APAC standings with a 2-3 conference mark. LaPlante and Brendan Marino contributed two assists each.
Julian Arsensult got the win in goal, making 51 saves in the process.
Jimmy and Jeremy Jacobs scored goals for the Friars (7-4, 1-4).
Jimmy Jacobs gave Malvern Prep a 1-0 lead 10:22 into the second period. Richmond tied the game for the Raiders with a power-play goal at the 13:32 mark before Levesque put Hun School in front with 2:03 left in the middle period.
Jeremy Jacobs tied the game for the hosts 6:11 into the final period but Estulin’s effort with 8:27 left in the game proved decisive.
Hun School 0 2 2—4
Malvern Prep 0 1 1—2
Second-period goals: Jimmy Jacobs (MP) from Gabe Bedwell and Aidan Kelly, 10:22; Scott Richmond (HS) from Justin LaPlante and Brendan Marino, 13:32 (pp); Ryan Levesque (HS) from LaPlante and Marino, 14:57
Third-period goals: Jeremy Jacobs (MP) from Jack Sharer and Jimmy Jacobs, 6:11; Elian Estulin (HS) unassisted, 8:33; LaPlante (HS) from LeVesque, 16:06 (en)
Shots: Hun School 30, Malvern Prep 53; Saves: Julian Arsenault (HS) 51, Matt Crawford (MP) 26
Brady Baehser scored four goals as Holy Ghost Prep overcame an early 3-1 deficit to defeat The Hun School 7-3 Friday evening in an Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference game at Ice Land.
The Firebirds now stand at 7-2 overall and 2-0-0-1 in the APAC while the Raiders dropped to 4-4 and 1-1.
Baehser gave Holy Ghost Prep a 1-0 lead exactly halfway through the first period but Scott Richmond and Justin Laplante scored goals 51 seconds apart to put Hun School in front with 30 seconds left in the period.
Laplante scored his second goal of the game 3:29 into the second frame but Holy Ghost Prep took over from there. Baehser tied the game at the 8:37 before the Firebirds scored three times in a span of 100 seconds to race out to a 5-3 lead with 1:12 left in the second frame. Kieran Mulholand scored twice in the flurry before Baehser completed a hat trick.
Baehser and Zach Pers scored in the third period.
Holy Ghost Prep 1 4 2—7
Hun School 2 1 0—3
First-period goals: Brady Baehser (HGP) unassisted, 8:30; Scott Richmond (HS) from Ryan Levesque and Justin Laplante, 15:39; Laplante (HS) from Elian Estulin and Levesque, 16:30.
Second-period goals: Laplante (HS) from Estulin and Levesque, 3:29; Baehser (HGP unassisted, 8:37; Kieran Mulholland (HGP) from Shaun Moore and John Seravalli, 14:09; Mulholland (HGP) from Seravalli, 14:48; Baehser (HGP unassisted, 15:48.
Hockey Happenings joins with the rest of the APAC community in extending our sympathies to Holy Ghost Prep coach Gump Whiteside whose father, William A. Whiteside Jr. passed away on December 4 at age 93.
Hun School jumped to a 3-0 first-period lead Sunday afternoon but fell 5-3 to Fort Erie International Academy Sunday afternoon in the final round of the Shady Side Academy holiday tournament.
Mark Gall, Jack Neckritz, and Brandon Marino scored for the Raiders who went 2-2 against elite competition during the weekend. Both losses came in shootouts.
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