Extra: St. Anthony's thrilling state title

Here’s more from St. Anthony’s last-second 4-3 victory in the CHSAA State Championship Sunday night, with an extended version of the game story printed in Monday's Newsday and more quotes from players and head coach Jeff Stelmok after the game. Enjoy:

Coming off two straight seasons of one-goal defeats in the state title game, St. Anthony’s hockey finally flipped the script and wrote the perfect ending for its made-for-Hollywood season.

St. Anthony's had blown a 3-1 lead and the score was tied at 3 with 10 seconds left in regulation of the CHSAA state championship game Sunday night, when Friars forward Mike Marnell controlled the puck following a faceoff in his own end. Marnell skated past the defense deep into the offensive zone where he flipped a backhanded saucer pass toward Chris Wallace at the edge of the crease. The pass got through to Wallace, who drove the puck home with a second left to give the Friars their first CHSAA state championship.

Wallace recorded a hat trick with Marnell assisting on all three of his goals as St. Anthony’s beat St. Francis (Athol Springs), 4-3 Sunday at Nassau Coliseum.

“Right off the draw I told [our guys], ‘we’re getting this one,” Wallace said. “It was unbelievable.”

“It was crazy,” Marnell said. “I knew I had to beat the guy up the ice and just put the backhand saucer pass over to [Wallace] and he put it in. It’s such a blur but it’s crazy.”

St. Anthony’s became the first downstate team in the CHSAA to win the state title since the game’s inception nine years ago and finished with a perfect 21-0 record, all while remembering their late beloved general manager, Marie Drisco, who passed away after the team’s fifth game this season.

Honoring Drisco with ‘Mrs. D’ stickers on their helmets, the Friars played inspired hockey yet again. 

“We were hoping this would be a year that we’d finish strong and keep [Drisco’s] memories alive,” coach Jeff Stelmok said. “We talk about it all the time, ‘go win one for Mrs. D’, she’s in our hearts and minds of course and she would have wanted this more than anybody.”

After going down 1-0 early. Wallace and Marnell teamed up to jumpstart the St. Anthony’s offense. With 11:00 left in the first, Wallace got the puck from Marnell and put a quick wrist shot past St. Francis goalie David Nowak to tie the score. Just minutes later, Marnell and Wallace completed a beautiful two-on-one rush to go ahead 2-1.  Christian Habberstad scored with 4:54 left in the period to give St. Anthony’s a 3-1 lead at the first intermission.

“When you put [Wallace and Marnell] together, they just have another gear,” Stelmok said. “Something special happens. They feed off each other.”

St. Francis cut the lead to 3-2 on a powerplay goal by Brendan McCabe midway through the second, and tied the score at 3 with 3:42 left in the third on a one-timer by Tyler McTigue on the powerplay, but St. Anthon’s goalie Daniel Peterson made a number of strong saves down the stretch to set up Wallace’s winning tally.

“Did we want to avenge losses from the last two years, absolutely, did we want to be the first team to win from down here, yes. But still, the state championship is a state championship and that’s period,” Stelmok said. “Obviously this is one of the most eventful seasons we’ve ever had, but the irony is we walked away with perfection and were able honor [Drisco’s] memory with that.”

Quotes:

Coach Jeff Stelmok:

Reacting to the win… “It’s incredible. The whole season has been like a fairytale. The resolve of this group… We have a lot of players here that are third-year players, that lost in the state title two years in a row and I think that experience really helped them to excel, to understand the magnitude, keep the composure and have the mental toughness they needed tonight to survive the game. That’s what we did. St. Francis played a great game but we outlasted them and it came down to the last second of the game."

On the last-second winning goal…”I haven’t seen anything like this ever. It’s an even bigger thrill for us because we’re the first [downstate] team to win and it just means the world to us. It means the world to the organization and we know that we got some help from upstairs. This one was for Marie.”

On Wallace and Marnell… “I’ve been telling everybody they’re not from this planet, they’re superheroes from somewhere else. Whenever this team needed somebody to jump on someone’s back it was one of those two guys, an night after night they show up and that’s why we are 23-0.”

On physical play in championship game…”We prepared for that all year because we knew what to expect. We prepared for everything. This was the kind of game that we knew we’d have to be mentally tough and disciplined but it’s a hockey game. You have to be prepared to get hit and fortunately we had just enough composure to pull it off."

Final words on his team… “The message I try to relay as best I could was just how proud we are of them. This team was completely self sufficient. I think they could have gone out there and done this without [us coaches]. They were a pleasure to coach, didn’t give us a single problem all year, the captains were great leaders, the new guys were great learners and they just gelled. Everything just worked out from start the finish. From the night we picked the team to right now it’s all just fit into place. It’s like a miracle this season.”

Mike Marnell:

On the winning goal…  “It was a blur but it was amazing.”

On the chemistry with his line…“All game we were putting the puck in the net so our chemistry is amazing."

Chris Wallace:

On the winning goal… “We had 10 seconds left and a face-off in our zone, and right off the draw I told them, ‘we’re getting this one,.’ The puck came out, Marnell went down, we got on the 2-on-1, and he was on his backhand, flipped it to me and I put it home back door. It was an unbelievable finish. It’s incredible, I can’t even explain it.”

On playing with Marnell… “It’s a pleasure playing with [Marnell]. We read off each other and we just see the ice well together. It’s fun.”

On Marie Drisco… “Ever since she passed away we dedicated our season to her and in past seasons we came up short and we finally got it. This one was for her.”