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EAST ALTON – Edwardsville hockey goalie Mason Young has been one of the Tigers’ best players thus far, and on Thursday night at the East Alton Ice Arena, he came through again, making 36 saves on 40 DeSmet Jesuit shots.
But a pair of early first period goals 32 seconds apart and a pair of third-period power play goals spelled the difference as the Spartans defeated Edwardsville 4-1 in a Mid-States Club Hockey Association Municipal Division game.
Young has been a difference maker for the Tigers in the first month of the season, often coming up big to keep Edwardsville in close games.
“Mason played well, and made a lot of good saves tonight,” said Tigers’ coach Jason Walker, “especially on our penalty kills.”
Overall, the Tigers played well, limiting DeSmet’s quality scoring chances. But Edwardsville just quite couldn’t get over the hump, thanks mainly to freshman goalie Harrison Brown, making his first start in the nets for DeSmet.
“I thought we did a pretty good job in limiting their quality scoring chances,” Walker said. “Most of their shots were from further out, so Mason could see and control them. We had the opportunity to make it a one-goal game multiple times in the second period, and you have to give credit to their goalie (Brown). He played a great game.”
The Spartans, who lost in last season’s St. Louis Blues Challenge Cup final to St. Louis U. High, played a good game themselves, and DeSmet coach Chris Durso was happy with their effort.
“It was a pretty good effort all around,” Durso said, “especially from our younger players. We had a freshman goalie who got his first varsity win for us tonight. We did have a little too many penalties to my liking, though. We need to be more disciplined.”
Durso also took his hat off to Young for his efforts in goal.
“I thought their goalie played really well tonight,” Durso said.
The Spartans dominated play for the first period, getting the first 14 shots on goal, and got the first goal at 4:41 when Michael Mullen put the puck past Young to give DeSmet an early 1-0 lead, Jack Estes assisting. Estes then doubled the lead for the Spartans as he skated in alone and put the puck into the right-hand corner unassisted at 5:13 to make it 2-0.
The Spartans didn’t allow an Edwardsville shot until 9:56 elapsed in the period, with Brown making the save. DeSmet outshot the Tigers 18-3 in the period.
Both teams had solid chances in the second, but both Young and Brown were equal to their tasks, Young coming up with a couple of big saves in the period, while Brown came up with a few of his own. The period ended scoreless with the Spartans outshooting Edwardsville 14-5.
DeSmet made it 3-0 early in the third with Tyler Berry off for hooking. Thomas Kampmeinert took a pass from Estes and scored at 2:44 to extend the Spartans lead. The Tigers pulled to within in 3-1 on a power play with Ben Lodes off for tripping. Mark Tucker fanned on his original shot, but when a Spartan defender missed a poke check, Tucker shot again and put it past Brown on a trickler at 4:53. The Spartans scored again on the power play, with Connor Hinterser off for slashing. Lodes took Jacob Kausch’s pass and scored at 7:16 to make the final 4-1 score.
The Spartans outshot Edwardsville 8-7 for the period and 40-15 for the game.
The win made DeSmet’s record 6-1-1 for the month of November, a very good start, and Durso hopes to keep things going along for his team.
“We’ve been going pretty strong,” Durso said. “We’re 6-1-1, and that’s a pretty good start to the season, but the toughest part of our schedule is coming up. We need to be ready for that, absolutely.”
Meanwhile, the Tigers go to South County to play Oakville tonight in another division game, and Walker is raring to go.
“We’re pretty excited to get back at it tomorrow night,” Walker said.Chris Rhodes also contributed to this story.
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