Photo Credit: Freeze Frame Photos
The (3-0-1) St Mary’s Knights took to the ice on Monday, December 18th to open week eight of the 2023 – 2024 Sault Ste Marie High School Hockey League to face the (0-6-2) Superior Heights Steelhawks at the John Rhodes Centre.
3:32 into the opening period, Owen Case picks up a turnover in front of the Knights net to lift the first goal of the game over St Mary’s goaltender Liam DuBois’ left shoulder to give the Steelhawks a 1 – 0 lead. Cameron Knox drew the lone helper on Case’s goal. At 7:40 of the period, Lucas Green picks up his own rebound in front of the Superior Heights net to backhand the tying goal over Steelhawk netminder Jacob Nelson’s catcher to pull the Knights even 1 – 1. Kiran Juma and Daniel Guzzo notched the assists on Green’s goal. Carter Doucette catches a pass from behind the net from Nicholas Vecchio to lift the Knights’ go-ahead goal over Nelson’s right shoulder at 5:07 of the first. Guzzo added the other contributor on Doucette’s powerplay goal. With the Steelhawks on a powerplay their powerplay line out too long, Guzzo picks up a turnover at Superior Heights blueline to skate in and slide the Knights shorthanded goal through Nelson’s five hole to bring St Mary’s lead to 3 – 1 at 1:54 of the first. Christian Sartor registered the assist on Guzzo’s shorthanded marker.
Eight seconds into the middle stanza, Connor Breault catches a cross ice pass from Green to fire St Mary’s fourth over Nelson’s blocker from the right faceoff circle to increase the lead to 4 – 1. Guzzo finds Green in front of the Steelhawks net from behind Nelson’s net to sink the fifth into Nelson’s net at 14:07 of the second to give St Mary’s a 5 – 1 lead. At 12:13 of the third, Green fires a pass to Anthony Blonda at the top of the left faceoff circle to rifle the Knights sixth of the contest through Nelson’s five hole. Tye Rushon picks up a rebound off of Knights goaltender Grant Matthewson to the Steelhawks second over the blocker to close the gap to four for Superior Heights. Knox had the helper on the Steelhawks second of the game at 5:52 of the second. From just inside the centre of the Knights blueline, Cam Hernden fires an unassisted Superior Heights goal through the air into the back of DuBois’ net over the St Mary’s goaltender’s left shoulder at the 9:56 mark of the period. Cole Cond rifles a slapshot from just outside of St Mary’s blueline to find the back of Dubois’ net at 6:31 of the period unassisted to bring the game to 6 – 4. With Nelson on the Steelhawk bench for an extra attacker, Nicholas Vecchio skates across the Steelhawks blueline to find an empty Superior Heights net unassisted with 47 seconds remaining the game to give St Mary’s a 7 – 4 win.
Visit Freeze Frame Photos by Bob Davies photo gallery of the St Mary’s Knights versus Superior Heights Steelhawks photo gallery.
The Knights will now face the Korah Colts on Wednesday, December 20th in a 3:30 p.m puck drop while the Steelhawks will take on the Knights on Friday, December 22nd at 7:30 p.m. Both games will take place at the John Rhodes Centre and will be broadcasted live on Saultsports TV.
