All Patrick Cullen and his Gonzaga teammates had talked about since Sunday's heartbreaking loss to St. Stephen's/St. Agnes was getting a second chance against the Saints later in the week.
The Eagles' wish was granted last night. And they wasted no time proving they were the Purple Puck tournament's best team, as Cullen and Keith Hall led a dominating 9-0 victory over the short-handed Saints in the championship game at Fort Dupont Ice Arena in Southeast Washington.
"We really wanted to go out there and control the game from start to finish," Cullen said. "We felt like we didn't play our best the first time, and that motivated us."
Cullen had a goal and three assists for the Eagles, who also got two goals from Hall and four points from Sean Dinn (two goals and two assists). Eagles goaltender Michael Clemente made 13 saves to collect his second shutout of the tournament.
Gonzaga, the host team, claimed its third championship in the tournament's 12-year history and its second in a row. The Eagles (10-3-1) went 4-1 in the Purple Puck, with their only loss this week coming against St. Stephen's/St. Agnes, 3-2, in overtime.
"St. Stephen's kind of snuck up and surprised us because the boys maybe took them for granted," Gonzaga Coach Paul Tilch said. "We wanted to prove tonight that was a fluky win [for the Saints]. . . . Everyone was scoring for us tonight. It was a total team effort. Top to bottom, it was total domination."
The Eagles' sustained that effort from the opening faceoff through the final buzzer. They outshot the Saints 44-13 and took a 5-0 lead into the third period.
But the game wasn't always so lopsided -- on the scoreboard at least. Gonzaga fired 18 shots on goal to the Saints' one in the first period, but the Eagles had only a 1-0 lead entering the second period. St. Stephen's/St. Agnes goaltender Andrew Abramson single-handedly kept the Saints in it early with several spectacular saves.
Abramson could only do so much, however. The Eagles scored three goals in the opening four minutes of the second period, including a short-handed score by Daniel Lechner.
Lechner and Ryan Holley were selected as co-most valuable players for Gonzaga; Abramson received the honor for St. Stephen's/St. Agnes, which was without its head coach and three of its better players. Two Saints were sidelined with concussions; another was suspended for accruing too many penalties during a game earlier in the day; and the coach, Joel Layton, was also suspended because his team was assessed too many penalties in the previous game.
"We wanted to play St. Stephen's in the championship so bad," Hall said. "Tonight we gave them our best effort, and it showed."
