Boys Hockey Downs #10 St. Thomas Academy With Ease
After crushing losses from Blake by a score 1-8, a comeback win by Lakeville North, and surprisingly being beat by St. Michael-Albertville in OT, the at the time #16 Holy Family Fire fell off the rankings. A dominating 7-2 win over Mound last week rose the morale of the team, almost as if a reset button was pushed. The next 4 days of practice was focused toward beating #10 ranked St. Thomas Academy. Coming off of wins vs top 15 teams in Benilde- St. Margarets and Minnetonka, the STA Cadets were on a roll. “The mindset going into the STA game was to get pucks deep, score some goals, and outwork them”, said sophomore forward Trey Fechko. “We had to get pucks to the net, and make sure our presence was felt.”
The presence was sure felt when junior Charlie Lindberg scored off of a power play halfway through the 1st period. A scoreless 2nd period set up what would be perhaps the most important period the Fire will play all year. 2 minutes in, junior Ben Reddan deflected a shot from Trey Fechko via Lucas Jorgenson to bring the lead up to 2. A few minutes after that, a goal by STA’s Jackson Hallum cut the lead in half. It would be the only goal that junior Dylan Halliwill would let up, saving 36 of the 37 shots he faced. A sizzling snipe from sophomore Nick Blood, his 3rd of the season, brought the lead back up to 2. Scoring wasn’t the only thing that helped the Fire Saturday. “[Senior defenseman] Jaden Anderson has really stepped up, blocking shots, and sacrificing the body for the team,” said Blood. “Offensively, everyone is putting up points and its looking good.” The Fire capped off the victory with an empty net goal by Reddan.
Looking forward to this week, the boys will face 3 top 20 teams, as Orono is ranked 4th in the state for A, along with Lakeville South and Holy Angels later in the week, who are ranked 15th and 17th in the state for AA, respectively. “Well obviously, Tuesday’s game against Orono is really important for us because its one of the biggest conference games of the year. They always put forth a good effort, so we will have to come up with a big win there.”, said Reddan. “On Thursday we move to Lakeville South, who is another good opponent, and a win against them would be another good top 20 victory.” Reddan also touched on the importance of the Catholic Cup game vs Holy Angels, as it will be held at the Tria Rink in St. Paul Saturday, as they lost last year there to Blaine. “Playing there last year was a really good experience, and we will be looking to change the outcome this year.”
