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EAST ALTON – Monday night was certainly a night to celebrate for the Mississippi Valley Club Hockey Association.
The league's Class 1A all-stars came together for the first of two games this week to show their skills and celebrate hockey – and the players on both teams certainly did that Monday night at East Alton Ice Arena.
The six Class 1A teams (based on where they stood in the overall league standings in early January, when the MVCHA split into two classes for the remainder of the season) were divided into Red and Blue teams, with players from Alton, Edwardsville and Highland playing on the Red team and East Alton-Wood River, Triad and Bethalto on the Blue team.
The game was an entertaining one, highlighted by the Blue team's Kaleb Harrop of East Alton-Wood River scoring five goals on the night, including a power-play goal and a shorthanded goal, to help stake his team to a 6-3 lead through two periods. The Red team had other ideas, however, and roared back from being 7-3 down early in the third period to take an 8-7 win before a large crowd at EAIA.
“It was a great game,” said Highland coach John Criswell, who coached the Red team. “It was one of the best all-star games we've had in a long time.
“He's a great player,” Criswell said of Harrop, “but that's what the all-star (game) is, it's all the good players and it's fun to watch see all the players just jel together and come together before the playoffs start (the MVCHA's playoffs start later this week in both Class 1A and 2A and run until the end of February); it's just a fun thing to watch and a fun thing to be able to coach.”
“It was a great game,” said Bethalto coach Brayden Emerick, who coached the Blue team on the night. “We're here to have a lot of fun and they really enjoyed it; it was a nice change of pace to see the sport move a lot faster.
“Kaleb played really well; he didn't really let the pressure get to him with all the people here and just went out and played his game and had a lot of fun. It was really exciting to watch, it was a lot faster than any of our normal games; there was a lot of skill out there, it was exciting to watch.”
Highland's Lucas Korte got the scoring started with a goal nearly four minutes into the game for the Red team, assisted by Edwardsville's Nathaniel Frey and Ethan Bogner, but Harrop countered that goal with his first goal of the game at 9:25 of the first, with assists going to Triad's Cole Ebersoldt and Nicholas Evenoff. The Reds took the lead back with 10 seconds left in the first when Highland's Devin Korte scored thanks to helpers from Bulldog teammate Ryker Grove and Alton's Hunter Goodman.
Harrop took over in the second period, scoring the next three goals – one a shorthanded goal - for his Blue team after a goal from Bethalto's Nolan Kahl to open the period; the Reds got a late-period goal from Alton's Jacob Eppel while Triad's Drew Parres had a goal with 55 seconds left in the second from an assist by Bethalto's Alex Winter to make it 6-3 heading into the second intermission.
Harrop got his fifth goal of the game early in the third period, a power-play goal from Parres to up the lead to 7-3 before the Reds came alive, starting with a goal from Edwardsville's Logan Corzine to make it 7-4 before goals from Alton's Connor Neely and Lucas Korte cut the Blue lead to 7-6 about midway through the period. Edwardsville's Justin Harper, off an assist from Highland's Brock Troxell, tied the game at 7-7 with 7:48 to go; the Tigers' Corzine then scored what turned out to be the winning goal with 3:20 left, an unassisted goal. The Blues did what they could to try to tie the game in the late going, but couldn't find the range as the clock ran out.
The Blues had 47 shots on goal for the night, while the Reds got 42 shots on goal. Edwardsville's Jonas Akeman, Highland's Cody Blackburn and Alton's Caleb Vitali each played a period in goal for the Reds, while EAWR's Matthew Shea, Bethalto's Kyle Wesoloski and Triad's Logan Tester all saw time between the pipes for the Blues on the night.
The Class 2A all-stars are scheduled to be on display at 7:30 p.m. at the new McKendree Rec-Plex rink in O'Fallon.
