St. Anthony's wins Game 1 of best-of-three CHSHL final
St. Anthony's Casey McCormack (20) weaves through a crowd as his team battled Monsignor Farrell High School during game 1 of the CHSAA Hockey Finals at the Ice Hutch in Mt. Vernon Saturday, Feb. 20, 2010. Credit: Photo by CRAIG RUTTLE
MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. - Rusty or ready? The answer was both Saturday as top seed St. Anthony's rallied to beat second-seeded Monsignor Farrell, 6-2, in Game 1 of the CHSHL A division best-of-three hockey finals at the Ice Hutch.
Joseph Groneman and Chris Sabanos provided the spark for the Friars, who erased a 2-0 first-period deficit.
St. Anthony's will try to clinch the title in Game 2 Friday at 8:15 p.m. at the Abe Stark Rink in Coney Island. Game 3, if necessary, is scheduled for 7:45 p.m. Saturday at the same rink.
St. Anthony's coach Jeff Stelmok wasn't sure what to expect from his team, which hadn't played in a week.
"There is nothing you can do [about the rust] when you have a week off," Stelmok said. "We anticipated that as a coaching staff."
Joe Gambardella scored twice in the first 8:30 to give Farrell a 2-0 lead. Sure enough, the first period showed a rusty Friars squad struggling to overcome a weeklong layoff after sweeping Fordham Prep in the semifinals.
But the Friars came alive in the second period. Sabanos scored 19 seconds into the period to put the Friars on the board. Then Groneman scored two minutes later to tie it at 2.
Groneman scored the go-ahead goal off a rebound from Brendan Keating at 7:10 of the second period to give St. Anthony's its first lead at 3-2.
"We had to shake a little bit of the rust off and make some adjustments," Stelmok said. "The intensity needed to be picked up."
Keating scored at 10:58, assisted by William Pascalli, to make it 4-2 as the Friars scored four unanswered in the period to erase the 2-0 deficit.
Goals by Chris Wallace and Sabanos in the third period provided the final margin for the Friars.
"You definitely don't want your backs up against the wall," Stelmok said of the importance of winning Game 1.
Things got a bit heated late in the game.
With 6:24 remaining, a few skirmishes broke out, as the action spilled near Farrell's goal crease. Punches were thrown, as the referees attempted, in vain, to stop the melees.
Then, with less than a minute left, Pascalli attempted to weave his way into the Farrell zone, but took a hit in open ice, and another skirmish ensued.
Considered their most dynamic playmaker, Pascalli caught the brunt of Farrell's wrath, according to Stelmok and Pascalli himself. "I got hit from behind, so I went back at them," Pascalli said. "There was definitely something against me. They went after me more than usual."
After the game, both teams felt the opposition had played unnecessarily aggressive.
"Our team is not going to back down," Stelmok said. "We're not going to get pushed around. We won't allow that to happen."
There were three roughing penalties and 10-minute game misconducts on each squad in the final 6:24 of play, but neither team had a player ejected for fighting, which means there will be no suspensions when the two meet again Friday night.
"We're definitely going to just try and win," Pascalli said. "But if we get up a couple of goals and they get chippy, we're going to go back at them."
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