St. Anthony's stoked to be in CHSAA hockey final

After missing the playoffs in its first CHSAA season, St. Anthony's has advanced to the A Division finals, where it will face either Farrell or Iona Prep for the CHSAA hockey crown.

The Friars beat Fordham, 6-2, on Friday and, 3-1, on Saturday to lock up the championship berth.

Game 2 of the best-of-three Farrell-Iona series is at 4:20 p.m. Monday at the Ice Hutch in Mount Vernon. Iona won, 7-3, in Game 1.

If Farrell advances, it will be the culmination of a yearlong fight for first place between the schools. After losing to Farrell early in the regular season, St. Anthony's won the last two meetings, capturing sole possession of the regular-season title in the process.

"We're totally pumped to get to the final," coach Jeff Stelmok said. "We worked really hard and we're just glad to get the opportunity. But we watched Iona [Friday] night and they looked like a completely different team than when we played them."

Middle Country climbs ladder

When the Suffolk finals start Feb. 22, No. 6 Middle Country will still be skating. After going just 7-12-0 in the regular season with 15 points, the Cougars defeated No. 3 Connetquot-Sayville, 4-3, in a quarterfinal and No. 1 Sachem (a 17-win team), 6-3, in the semis. Middle Country was 0-5 against those teams in the regular season. The Cougars will face No. 2 Smithtown (15-3-2) in the best-of-three finals.

Success for Middle Country is predicated on the effectiveness of James Hall and Thomas Telesca, the scoring leaders in Suffolk. Hall has 38 goals and 16 assists (54 points) in 16 games, pulling off five hat tricks. Telesca has 23 goals and 26 assists (49 points) in 16 games and four hat tricks. The two have accounted for 57 percent of the team's 107 goals.

But Middle Country's weakness during the regular season was defense, allowing 122 goals, and Smithtown is no slouch when it comes to scoring (106 goals).

The teams tied the season series with Smithtown losing, 6-4, on Oct. 28 and winning, 6-5, on Jan. 11.