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EAST ALTON – A pair of power play goals and another goal that just beat the second period buzzer helped CBC to a 5-0 win over Edwardsville in a Mid-States Club Hockey Association game Thursday night at East Alton Ice Arena.
It was the second straight shutout loss for the Tigers, who fell to Kirkwood last Saturday night 3-0. Edwardsville is now 1-2-1 on the young season, while the Cadets went to 3-0-1.
Several Tigers’ mistakes were very costly, according to Edwardsville head coach Jason Walker.
“Yeah, I mean, some self-inflicting wounds,” Walker said. “We took a couple of penalties there; you can’t take penalties against a team like that, they’ll make you pay. And they did tonight. We spent way too much time defending; we’ve got to be better in our own end as far as taking care of the puck, and getting out of our own end quicker.”
The goal at the end of the second period, scored by Anthony Andrews that barely beat the buzzer, was particularly big.
“Anytime you give up a goal with less than a minute left in the period, that kind of went along with some of the mistakes we made as far as not taking care of the puck in certain areas of the ice.”
Edwardsville goalie Mason Young had another great performance in net, stopping 43 of 48 Cadet shots, often making brilliant save and doing what he could to keep the Tigers in the game.
“Yeah, he made some good saves,” Walker said. “As much as they were in our zone in certain parts of the game, give him a lot of credit. Those were tough minutes. Even when he wasn’t getting shots, they were tough minutes because they’re in our end. He played well, he’s played well for us all year. We expect big things out of him.”
CBC was able to overcome a slow start and put its stamp on the game.
“Yeah, a little bit of a slow start,” said Cadet coach John Jost. “We thought we could have come out a little bit better; they’ve got enough talent there where they get the first one, it could have been a bit of a different story. We thought overall, though, pretty good game.”
Jost agreed that Andrews’ goal was was a difference maker.
“Yeah, it was,” Jost said. “We had a two-goal lead, and you make it three like that going into the third period, it’s pretty deflating. We’ve had it happen to us before, so I’m glad it went our way.”
This year’s Cadet team is very typical of the highly successful hockey program at the school.
“Kind of tonight, I think, sums us up,” Jost said. “We’ve got some veterans, with a good mix of young guys. I think slow starts are going to hurt us a little bit down the road; we’ve gotta change that. But overall, things are going pretty well. We’ve got a big game tomorrow against Chaminade. We’ve got to keep this thing rolling.”
The first period saw both goalies – Young and CBC’s Ryan Yaeger – come up with some big saves to keep both teams scoreless. Yaeger, in particular, made a big save about six minutes in, sliding across to make a big save on a Tiger rush.
The game remained scoreless until 3:34 of the second, where Trevor Jones took a pass from Tom Ramer near the right point, and fired a wrist shot that beat Young to the far post to give CBC a 1-0 lead. Mitch Feeney also assisted on the play.
The goal gave the Cadets momentum, but Young made some more good saves to keep CBC at bay. In the final minute of the period, with Mitch Oberlag off for hooking, Grant Kleinschmidt scored off a feed from Jack Ritter and scored at 14:07 to double the Cadet lead to 2-0. Ben Klleinschmidt also assisted.
The biggest goal of the night came just right before the second period buzzer. Andrews took a pass from Coby Weber and slipped the puck just inside the far post past Young into the net with 0.1 seconds left. The referee ruled the goal good, and the Cadets took a 3-0 lead after two.
Right at the start of the third, with Connor Hinterser off for checking from behind, CBC got its second power play goal of the game after only 55 seconds as Grant Kleinschmidt got his second on a two-on-one after getting a pass from David Myer to make it 4-0, Yaeger also getting an assist. Michael Deeba got the final Cadet goal 40 seconds later at 1:35, assisted by Andrews and Jackson Troll, to make the score the 5-0 final.
The Cadets outshot the Tigers in each period, ending up with a 48-16 edge in shots.
Both teams are in the Municipal Division, considered the best in the league, and Jost felt it was a typical division game.
“You better believe it,” Jost said with a smile. “Like I said, there’s no easy games in this division. The score was not indicative of this game. We’ll all going to beat each other up all year long, but that’s what makes us better for playoffs.”
Walker agreed that if the Tigers were able to score early, the outcome may have been different.
“Yeah, tough game,” Walker said. “I thought the first half of the game, chances wise, you’re right there or ahead, we bang in a couple, it’s a different game. But they showed how good they are as far as if you make mistakes, you’re going to pay for it.”
The Tigers play next at the Affton Ice Rink Monday night in another division game against Vianney in an 8:30 p.m. face off. Edwardsville then will have Thanksgiving off before returning to league play at home Nov. 29 against DeSmet Jesuit, also starting at 8:30 p.m.Steven Spencer also contributed to this story.
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