EAST ALTON – Edwardsville's focus throughout the Mississippi Valley Club Hockey Association season has been to return to the league's Class 2A Final and successfully defend their league championship.
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The Tigers crossed another item off 
their checklist Monday night, eliminating Triad 10-0 to take the best-of-three MVCHA Class 2A semifinal series in two straight games at East Alton Ice Arena and getting to their fifth straight championship series, which gets under way Feb. 22.
“The boys played well tonight,” said Tiger coach Jason Walker, “they definitely were ready to go tonight. It was a good game.
“That's one of the things to check off our list, was to get to the finals, so we'll wait to see who we play (either O'Fallon or Columbia); we'll be ready.”
“Whoever's going to play them will have to figure out how to shut down their neutral-zone game,” said Knight coach Pat Culiberk. “You're not going to be able to two-line that team, and that's the best that we had, two lines. The first period wasn't so bad (where the Tigers took a 3-0 lead),
“They were able to move rebounds out of the way pretty quick.”
Reilly Patton opened the scoring for the Tigers just 2:25 into the game, scoring off an assist from Jordan Crow, with Tyler Hinterser and Jake Aurelio also scoring to give Edwardsville a 3-0 lead through the first period.
A second-period short-handed goal from from Carson Lewis extended the lead to 4-0, with a Colin Kelsey goal with 4:41 left in the second period put the Tigers up 5-0 and put the Knights on the ropes. An unassisted Trevor Henson goal seconds after Kelsey's goal gave EHS a 6-0 lead through two periods of play.
Henson scored again 32 seconds into the third period for a 7-0 EHS lead, with Kelsey scoring moments later to trigger the league's running-clock rule with an 8-0 lead for Edwardsville. The Tigers' final two goals came from Henson and from John Paul Krekovich to put EHS into the Class 2A Final.
The Tigers await the Columbia-O'Fallon winner; Game 2 of that series is set 8:15 p.m. Tuesday at Granite City's Wilson Park Ice Rink.
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