When Gonzaga's Patrick Cullen scored early in the first period last night, the sophomore forward figured it was the start of another high-scoring performance for the Eagles in the Maryland Scholastic Hockey League semifinals against Bullis.
It was anything but. Cullen's score stood as the game's only goal before a packed rink at The Gardens Icehouse in Laurel. That, despite out-shooting the Bulldogs by an astounding margin of 44-5.
Arie Stock of Walter Johnson scores the final goal in a win over Howard in an MSHL public school semifinal. The Wildcats play Churchill in the final.
(Jonathan Ernst For The Washington Post)
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"All it would have taken was one bad bounce and we would have been tied," Gonzaga Coach Paul Tilch said. "As for us, we just couldn't get a bounce to go our way. . . . Anything can happen now that we're in the final."
Gonzaga (19-2-2) earned its first trip to the MSHL private school championship and will face defending champion DeMatha on Monday night at 7:30. The Stags (18-8-3) recovered from a two-goal, second-period deficit to beat Mount St. Joseph, 5-4, on a score by sophomore Scott Gray 23 seconds into overtime.
In the public school semifinals, Walter Johnson earned a trip to the final with a 6-4 victory over Howard. The Wildcats (11-2) got the go-ahead goal from sophomore Avery Hackett early in the third period and will face Churchill in Monday's championship game at 5 p.m. Churchill (15-2-1) won, 10-0, over three-time champion Sherwood (11-7).
Although the Gonzaga-Bullis game was the evening's lowest scoring, it certainly made up for it in thrills. Gonzaga's Cullen tapped in a perfect cross-ice pass from freshman defenseman Andrew Panzarella to put the Eagles ahead less than six minutes into the game. Bullis senior goaltender Cory Watkinson took it from there, thwarting 43 shots -- many of his saves were spectacular -- to keep the Bulldogs within striking distance. Gonzaga freshman goalie Michael Clemente had to make an impressive pad save in the final minutes to preserve the win.
"I never would have guessed we wouldn't have scored again," said Cullen, who tallied his second goal of the playoffs. "We kept shooting, and he kept saving them. [But] we are so pumped right now."
DeMatha's Gray, meantime, called his winning goal the biggest of his life, "by far." His left-handed wrist shot set up a third meeting against the Eagles. The rivals split two regular season games.
"I just cut to the net and waited for the pass," said Gray, referring to a perfect cross-ice set up pass by Bill Berman. "Then I waited for the goalie to go down and just wristed it up and in."
Walter Johnson led 4-1 early in its game, but Howard scored three consecutive goals in the second period to send it into the third period tied. But Hackett scored the game-winner on a snap shot from the slot and senior Arie Stock scored the clincher with 1:43 remaining. Howard got a hat trick from Dan Masiulis in a losing cause.
