BRISTOL— There weren’t a lot of style points handed out at Grundy Arena Wednesday afternoon. But it was the three points in the Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference standings that mattered after all.

Kyle Washkalavitch scored two goals and assisted on a third as Malvern Prep got the better of Holy Ghost Prep 6-5 in an APAC matchup. It was a big win for the Friars, who improved to 4-1 overall (2-1 in the APAC). It was the second win for Malvern Prep over the Firebirds this season.

Waskalavitch, a senior left winger, said he and his teammates took the ice with a focused mindset. “We go in with the same mindset every game,” he said, “just to play our absolute hardest. Only worry about the things we control. We just want to make sure we’re playing our best game defensively; that will create our offense.”

The Friars never trailed in the game. Washkalavitch and Charlie Andress scored goals to give them a 2-0 lead with 3:41 left in the opening period.

Evan Mudrick got one back for the Firebirds (4-4, 0-3) with 11 seconds left in the period before Thomas McNulty tied the game 2:27 into the second frame.
Malvern Prep took the lead for good when Matt Harris and Nick Martino scored goals 64 seconds apart to put their team up 4-2 with 8:58 left in the middle period.
The teams spent the rest of the affair trading goals. Mudrick and Byron Hartley each scored twice for Holy Ghost Prep but it wasn’t enough.

Holy Ghost Prep coach Gump Whiteside had hoped his team would get out of the gate more effectively. “Not a good enough start,” he said. “We were chasing the game. a good effort at the end but you can’t play that way and chase the game like that and expect to come out winning.”

Malvern Prep coach Dave Dorman will take the win. But he noted there are areas where his team needs work, specifically inside its own blue line.
“I think there are definitely some concerns,” he said. “Things we have to clean up in the defensive zone, picking guys up on the backcheck. Our communication is not anywhere near where it needs to be, which is one of the areas were going to focus on moving forward.”

The Friars got a solid effort between the pipes from Dan Dougherty, who finished with 21 saves.

“We trust our goaltender just as much as our goaltender trusts us to go out there and get goals for him,” Washkalavitch said. “We’re a team, it doesn’t matter, he’s going to make saves no matter what. We’ve got to make sure we’re putting it in on the other end.”

Malvern Prep 2 3 1—6
Holy Ghost Prep 1 2 2—5
First-period goals: Kyle Washkalavitch (MP) from Charlie Andress and Andrew Harder, 3:03: Andress (HGP) from Chris Blango, 12:19; Evan Mudrick (HGP) from Eric Mark, 15:49.
Second-period goals: Thomas McNulty (HGP) from Sean Marshall and Richard Spor, 2:27; Matt Harris (MP) from John Dewey, 5:58; Nick Martino (MP) from Andress, 7:02; Byron Hartley (HGP) from Alex D’Angelo and McNulty, 11:51 (pp); Ryan Sambuco (MP) from Washkalavitch, 12:59.
Third-period goals: Mudrick (HGP) from Marshall, 1:55; Waskalavitch (MP) from Harder and Martino, 2:44; Hartley (HGP) unassisted, 8:59.