EAST ALTON – If it's Mississippi Valley Club Hockey Association playoff time, Edwardsville is still the team to beat.
The Tigers proved that Thursday night thanks to a pair of Jordan Crow goals as EHS defeated Freeburg/Waterloo 3-0 in the opening game of their best-of-three MVCHA Class 2A semifinal series at East Alton Ice Arena. Game 2 of the series will be played at 10:05 p.m. Monday at Wilson Park Ice Rink in Granite City; a deciding game, if needed, will be at 6:50 p.m. Tuesday in Granite City, with the winner advancing to the MVCHA Class 2A Final beginning Feb. 16.
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“The kids played well tonight,” said Tiger coach Andrew Tucker, standing in for Jason Walker, who was coaching EHS' Mid-States Club Hockey Association team Thursday night. “We knew Freeburg was going to be tough to beat, so we had to play our best game; that might have been our best of the season.”
The Tigers kept the Raging Bulldogs' chances to a minimum, something that had been a point of emphasis in Edwardsville's recent practice sessions. “That's what we've been talking about the last couple of weeks in practice,” Tucker said. “Get the puck in, no turnovers in the neutral zone and make sure we make it hard on the other team.
“There was a little bit of concern about rust during the break (waiting for the first round to end), but our practices have been pretty up-pace. We were confident we'd be ready to go tonight.”
“That was a good team effort,” Crow, a junior, said. “We were moving the puck and just got in the right places and got those good bounces because we were winning the races (to the puck) and working hard.
“We got real pumped, real excited (on Crow's goals); it what we were grinding for and it fell through. Dylan (Twardy) played phenomenal tonight (in goal for EHS); he tightened up his game and got some big saves when he needed them.”
Crow opened the scoring 4:58 into the opening period when he fired a shot past Bulldog goaltender Peyton Hamilton off a Sam Gibbons assist to put the Tigers up, then scored at 2:12 of the second period with an assist from Mark Tucker; the final EHS goal came at 2:36 of the third when Collin Salter beat Hamilton after taking a feed from Logan Corzine.
Twardy turned back all 22 Freeburg/Waterloo shots he faced, while Hamilton faced 55 Edwardsville shots and had 52 saves.
“Big game on Monday,” Tucker said. “It's always tough to finish a team off and we're going to have to be ready to play as well as we did tonight on Monday. We've got a lot of young guys, so we have to make sure we're ready to go.”
