Shattuck Boy's Prep Wins the Gold @ WSSC in Calgary, AB Canada

Submitted by Faribault Daily… on Mon, 01/02/2012 – 22:41

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Willie Raskob scored a hat trick as the Shattuck-St. Mary’s boys prep hockey team avenged an earlier loss to Finland to capture the inaugural gold medal at the World Sport School Challenge in Calgary, Alberta.

Just two days after losing 4-3 to the Fins, the Sabres (32-4-1) came back with a 5-3 win in the gold medal game on Saturday, their third-straight win in an elimination game. Despite going just 1-2 in pool play, the Sabres got hot at the right time and rode a wave of goal-scoring to win the first-year tournament.

“We were on the puck all week from game one to game six,” said SSM assistant coach Des Christopher, who was coaching for Tom Ward. “The guys played very, very hard and worked together as a group. We played very well offensively in this tournament.”

Finals SSM 5, Finland 3

The Sabres fell behind 1-0 in the first period before Raskob, a defenseman, scored his natural hat trick, including goals just 57 seconds apart spanning the first and second periods. All three of Raskob’s goals came on the power play.

“Willie is a very skilled player,” Christopher said. “He understands the offensive side of the game. We activate our defensemen and give them the opportunity to jump in on the rush when it’s available and he was able to do that.”

Zach Stepan put SSM up 4-1 before Finland scored two goals to pull within one with 16 minutes to play. Hunter Fejes added an empty netter in the final seconds.

“They’re a very good hockey team and it was going to be close either way,” Christopher said. “I think we got a couple of bounces and a couple of breaks. Our power play was clicking very well.”

The Fins had come into the game 4-0 in the tournament and had out-scored their opponents 36-7. The Sabres had success in mixing up their penalty kill.
“We haven’t seen that team before and we noticed they were doing some different puck movement and we decided it was better to change our rotation in the box,” Christopher said.

Semifinals SSM 7, Slovakia 5

For the second time at the WSSC the Sabres took down Slovakia. Thanks to seven different players scoring — and two other notching assists — SSM built a 7-3 lead with 20 minutes to play behind four second-period goals.

The Sabres scored twice in the opening five minutes, then after Slovakia tied it at 2-2 the Sabres scored five straight times. Hunter Fejes had a goal and two assists and Noah Henry, Tyler Vesel and Stepan each had a goal and an assist. Anthony Brodeur made 21 saves as SSM out-shot Slovakia 68-26.

Quarterfinals SSM 12, POE 0

There wasn’t much excellence from the Pursuit of Excellence Hockey Academy as Shattuck peppered the net with 71 shots and 12 goals, including a hat trick from Fejes.

SSM scored four times in the first period, five in the second and three in the third. They scored eight times on 10 power plays. Noah Henry had two goals and an assist and Carter Lukenda had three assists. Brodeur had an 18-save shutout.

Pool play

The Sabres opened pool play on Dec. 26 with a tough 7-5 loss to Okanagan Hockey Academy. After SSM jumped out to a 3-0 lead, Okanagan tied it up with three second-period goals. Fejes tied the game at 5-5 with 2:54 to play, but Okanagan’s Joseph Hicketts scored the game winner with 1:36 to play.

“We probably played one of our best games in the first game,” Christopher said. “We just didn’t get the outcome. It was a really fluky game. It was odd.”
Hayton finished with 28 saves and Raskob, Vesel, Fejes, Truman Reed and Sabastian Lemm all scored.

The next day, SSM beat Slovakia 9-3 behind Stepan’s four goals. The Sabres led 6-2 after a second period that saw the two teams combine for seven goals. Brodeur finished with 25 saves.

In their final pool play game, the Sabres lost a lead to Finland and fell to 1-2.

Up 2-0, SSM led Finland score three straight goals before Jake Montgomery tied it in the second period. But Finland scored short-handed with eight minutes to go. Hayton had 17 saves and Fejes and Stepan scored.

The Sabres are off until they travel to Chicago for an HPHL Showcase on Jan. 13.

— Sports editor Brendan Burnett-Kurie may be reached at 333-3129.