Gallery • 3 Photos

Photo published with permission of Katie Braman

Sophomore Dev McCabe takes a faceoff. The Spartans committed five penalties on the night and were 0 of 3 on the powerplay.

Of the St. Paul Academy and Summit School boys hockey team’s first four games, three top 10 teams are on the schedule. There was no bigger game than the section 4A final rematch against 6th ranked Mahtomedi Zephyrs. As expected, goalies Will Swanson (Mahtomedi) and sophomore Andy Beran (SPA) were the focal points of the game, both making outstanding saves throughout the game, especially during a chippy second period. After two first period goals Beran was able to keep his net empty until early on the third period when Zephyr player Luke Posner buried a beautiful shot from right on the doorstep to take a 3-2 lead that would last until the final buzzer.

Going into the third period, the Spartans found themselves in a tie game with the reigning section 4A champs. They were being outbodied all night by big Mahtomedi forwards Jared Fladebo and Jack Heinsch. Then, 5:22 into the final frame, Mahtomedi junior Luke Posner buried his second goal of the net to take a 3-2 lead. After the goal, the Spartan offense was shut down, there were no SPA players unmarked into the offensive zone and there were very few chances. One of the few chances was created on a great individual effort from senior Justin Jallen, who displayed his fantastic skating ability and got a semi-breakaway that Mahtomedi goalie Will Swanson stopped easily.

With 7:38 left to go in the game, SPA got a power play, but the Spartans were unable to turn their fifth power play opportunity of the night into any offense (Both teams were a combined 0-10 on the powerplay). This effort was the least successful of the night and almost resulted in a dagger short handed goal, if not for great play from sophomore goalie Andy Beran, who kept SPA in the game all night. There was only one true rush up the ice into the offensive zone in the two minute PP, and there were no shots on goal recorded.

SPA was unable to really get very many good chances the rest of the game, and unable to tie the game.

The two main problems that the Spartans were unable to overcome Tuesday night were: miscues on the defensive end of the ice and the physicalness of Mahtomedi’s forwards. The defense had a tough time getting the puck going and getting talented forwards like juniors Jack Johnston and Will Kelly to break free on the rush. There were mishandles of the puck in key areas and several passes straight to Mahtomedi forecheckers.

The ability for SPA to break quickly led to both Spartan goals, in those cases SPA taking advantage of their speed advantage on Mahtomedi. On the first goal of the game, Jack Johnston took the puck at center after a quick break from the defensive end and had a great individual effort to deke his way through the Zephyr D to create a semi-breakaway and finished to goal off with a filthy move from his forehand to backhand to put the puck past Will Swanson.

Even though the Spartans are much faster than Mahtomedi, the Zephyrs are a far bigger team than SPA. Most notably, the Mahtomedi top line was able to physically neutralize the SPA top line after a big first period from the Johnston-Bowman-Kelly line. Where they found the back of the net twice. The second goal came from Will Kelly when the puck came to him after a net mouth scramble.

The physical domination of the Spartans by the Zephyrs led to most of Mahtomedi’s penalties and contributed to a very chippy second period with a couple dangerous hits being thrown by Mahtomedi skaters, as well as a lot of extra curricular activities after the whistle. There were five minor penalties for each team, with two coincidental minors called throughout the game, even though Mahtomedi skaters initiated contact and tried to incite conflict with the SPA skaters throughout the night.

Mahtomedi and SPA are the two topped ranked teams in Section 4A, and played against each other last year in he section final. Missing from the game on Tuesday was starting defenseman, junior Weston Lombard, who should play a major role the rest of the season. The loss was SPA’s first loss of the year bringing their record to 2-1. The Spartans play the reigning Class A Champions East Grand Forks on Dec. 5 at Drake Arena at 1 o’clock in the third of three games against top Class A teams.