Southie wrote:Holy Angles should beat Mt. Saint Charles. The Mount no longer what they used to be.
Minn. titan scales the Mount
07:59 AM EST on Tuesday, January 22, 2008
By JOHN GILLOOLY
Journal Sports Writer
Mount St. Charles goalie Jason SanAntonio denies Academy of Holy Angels defenseman Mark DeLude’s (right) third-period shot on goal, but the Mounties came up short against the Stars. Click here to see a gallery of game photos.
The Providence Journal / Bill Murphy
WOONSOCKET — They grow them tall and fast in Minnesota.
The Academy of Holy Angels, the team that won two of the last six Minnesota state high school hockey titles, gave Rhode Island hockey fans a demonstration of what size and speed can produce when the Stars posted a 5-3 victory over Mount St. Charles in an interstate nonleague game yesterday morning at Adelard Arena.
An open-net goal by Holy Angels’ Danny Mattson, with 14 seconds to play, took the final suspense out of what certainly was the fastest-moving high school hockey game played in Rhode Island this season.
Trailing 2-1 after two periods, Mount St. Charles tied the score only five seconds after the third faceoff on a sensational one-man effort by senior Jim Fuoroli.
But unfortunately for the few hundred Mount St. Charles fans who journeyed to Adelard for the 10 a.m. opening faceoff, the Mounties could stay even for only 30 seconds.
Holy Angels regained the lead at the 35-second mark of the third period, then increased their advantage to 4-2 eight minutes later. Mount St. Charles added suspense to the contest when the Mounties cut their deficit to a goal while on a six-man attack with 1:24 to play. But then Mattson, a speedy junior forward who was the star of the day with two goals and two assists, settled the issued with his open-net tally.
“We had our chances, we really did,” said Mount St. Charles assistant coach Dave Belisle. “That was great up-and-down hockey.”
Indeed it was.
For 45 minutes, Mount St. Charles, a team that has used its speed to amass a 9-0-1 record this season against R.I. Interscholastic League competition, went stride-for-stride with a team that has built a reputation in Minnesota for skating talent.
“We play a fast-skating game. We work really hard on transition,” said Holy Angels head coach Greg Trebil
“We’re kind of stubborn. We play our style of hockey up there, (Minnesota). Some of other teams play that way, but the majority of them do a lot of blasting and hitting. You know, kind of play the bully game. But we stick to our skating game and we have done really well,” Trebil added about the Stars, who have won four sectional titles in addition to their two state titles in the last six years.
But while Mount St. Charles could match Holy Angels’ speed, the Mounties couldn’t compensate for a height disadvantage.
The youngest team Trebil has had in his 13-year tenure as head coach, the Stars still lack bulk, but they possess the type of height and reach that constantly gave them an advantage over the Mounties when reaching for loose pucks.
The Stars’ height advantage was most evident during a consecutive four-minute period in the second period when Mount was on the power play, including two minutes of a 5-on-3 advantage. Trailing 2-1 at the time, Mount St. Charles fired seven shots at Holy Angels netminder Jon Boerger during the four-minute power play, but the Mounties couldn’t tie it mainly because the Stars outreached them for loose pucks in front of the cage.
“In that second period we just couldn’t find the rebound,” said Belisle, “Their defense did a great job of clearing it. They did a great job of triangling us out of the scoring zone. They’re tall, they have long reaches and they get their sticks in the lane.”
•Yesterday’s victory gave Holy Angels a 1-0-1 record in a three-day New England tour. Saturday at Harvard, the Stars battled Catholic Memorial, currently the top-ranked team in Massachusetts, to a 2-2 overtime tie.
