In game two of the 2021 – 2022 Sault Ste Marie High School Hockey League season, the St Mary’s Knights hit the ice on Wednesday, November 17th coming off a 5 – 0 shutout win over the Korah Colts on Sunday, November 14th against the Superior Heights Steelhawks who were opening their 2021 – 2022 high school hockey season at the John Rhodes Centre.
With a scrum in front of Steelhawk netminder Tyler Greco, St Mary’s Darion Perrault lifts in the opening goal over Greco’s blocker to give the Knights a 1 – 0 lead at 4:43 of the opening period. Nik Vecchio drew the lone assist on Perrault’s powerplay goal. All alone in front of Greco’s net at 2:07 of the first, Nick Kelly fires a wrist shot over the Steelhawk netminder’s blocker to give the Knights a 2 – 0 lead. Nathan Palmer added the helper on St Mary’s second goal. Johnny Ivic fires a wrist shot from the left blueline at 3:38 of the second with Dylan Murphy picking the rebound off of Knight goaltender Joel Belec to pull Superior Heights with one. At 2:45 of the second and the Steelhawks and Knights four on four, Carter Lidstone slides a loose puck around the right post to give St Mary’s back a two goal lead. Caden McInnes and Nicholas Delorenzi notched the contributors on Lidstone’s goal.
With 1:55 remaining in the game, Cale Irwin skates from his own end to cut in front of Belec’s net to slide the Steelhawks second goal under the Knight goaltender right pad. Connor Ouimette registered the lone assist on Irwin’s goal. With 1:10 and 48 seconds left in Wednesday afternoon matchup and Greco on Superior Heights bench for an extra attacker, Perrault and Christian Omollo sink empty net goals for the Knights to give St Mary’s a 5 – 2 win over the Steelhawks.
Steelhawks coach Chris Hales told Saultsports that “I thought the first period we looked like a team that has not played a game in a year and half. After the first we settled down, and the game was more even. One area that needs to change is our discipline. Taking a penalty while on a five on three powerplay is something that can’t happen. Overall and all things considered there are things that we can build on. We will get back to practice and have film review to get ready for our next game.”
“Today’s game was very undisciplined. We need to be way better at keeping our composure and just letting our skill and our play on the ice do the talking. That certainly was not the case today as we found a way to negate two potential power plays by chirping and showing unsportsmanlike behavior. It’s unacceptable and to be a better team, we need to have our leaders step up and lead by example. That’s on me, I have to do a better job keeping my guys in check and focused on playing the game and to filter out all the noise. We realize every team is going to be gunning for us, but we can’t retaliate and play half the game short handed. It would be a lot better if we could get a three man referee system in play but it is my understanding that there aren’t enough referees out there. Moving forward, we are 2-0 but there is much room for improvement, so we’ll put our boys to task and try to clean things up and get ready for the next game,” said Knights coach Frank Medaglia.
Check out Sault Ste Marie High School Hockey player stats and goaltender stats.
The next high school hockey game will take place on November 22nd with the (0-1) Korah Colts facing the (0-1) Superior Heights Steelhawks in a 3:30 p.m matchup at the John Rhodes Centre while the Knights next opponents will be the Korah Colts on November 28th in an 8:00 p.m start at the Memorial Gardens.
