St. Anthony’s drew first blood in the best-of-three CHSHL Class A championship series, and there was plenty of bad blood after the Friars’ 4-2 win against Monsignor Farrell Sunday night at Abe Stark Rink on Coney Island.
Lions star Nick Thorgersen received a major and a game misconduct at the final horn for spearing St. Anthony’s Chris Sabanos in the neck in the closing seconds. The senior will miss the remainder of the playoffs.
“What the kid did from Farrell was blatant, it was in front of the league officials,” St. Anthony’s coach Jeff Stelmok said. “He speared one of my guys in the throat. That’s something that could be life-threatening. It’s a very big deal, not something that should be taken lightly. The problem that I have is that the coaches on the other team didn’t accept any responsibility for that.”
The incident led to an angry postgame exchange between both teams’ coaches.
“I’m not going to justify that. He’s got to justify that himself,” Monsignor Farrell coach Peter Jerabeck said of his counterpart’s words. “He knows what he said and I can’t repeat it. That would be libelous.”
Neither coach would elaborate on what Stelmok said.
“I said something to [Jerabeck], I didn’t say anything to his players, by no means, absolutely not,” Stelmok said. “That’s a complete falsehood. I didn’t talk to any kids. I spoke to the coaches. It’s not my place to speak to any players in this league except my own. ”
The incident marred what was an otherwise well-played series opener. Top-seeded St. Anthony’s (15-4-0), which beat Monsignor Farrell in last year’s championship series, jumped in front on Chris Wallace’s goal 1:27 into the first period.
The Lions, who defeated rival St. Joseph by the Sea in an emotional three-game semifinal series, answered back on a goal from Chris Gambardella at 7:15 of the first period.
The score remained tied at 1 until Rocco Papapietro stuffed the puck in 3:50 into the third period to give second-seeded Farrell (14-6-0) a 2-1 lead.
“I thought we had many opportunities, and I thought better opportunities than they did,” Jerabeck said. “I thought we played very, very well, but unfortunately with two seconds left Thorgersen came around and hit the kid. They called it a spear. The referees never saw it. Apparently some off-ice official made the call. It is what it is.”
The Lions lead was short-lived, though, as Brent Diorio tied the game less than two minutes later and Mike Marnell put the Friars ahead for good when he scored on a rebound with 4:51 left in regulation.
Steve Sedlmaier made 28 saves, including a few key stops in the final four minutes to keep his team in front.
“It’s a terrible/great thing when you have the two best goaltenders in the league, in my opinion,” Stelmok said. “I could be wrong and I’m certainly biased, but when you have [Sean] Keating and Sedlmaier, they’re both terrific. You could pick your poison any night.”
Wallace iced the victory with 1:12 remaining, beating Stephen Cappas (28 saves) on a breakaway after Mike Defranco misplayed the puck at the Friars blue line.
“Our key plan was to get the puck deep and I saw the puck squeeze through,” Wallace said. “I had a clear breakaway and I knew I had to bury it.”
St. Anthony’s can clinch a second consecutive CHSHL Class A title with a Game 2 win Friday night at the Ice Hutch. If necessary, a decisive third game will be played at the Ice Hutch Saturday night.
But the Friars are anxious to put the Lions away while they have them on the ropes.
“I think the biggest thing in the second game is to put Game 1 out of our heads and just come out as strong as we did today,” Sedlmaier said. “That’s the most important thing.”