St. Charles East falls in Cougar Cup opener
The St. Charles East Hockey Club fought back during Thursday's night's opening game in the 2009 Illinois Suburban Hockey League Cougar Cup Championship, but Lyons Township was able to strike back and post a 5-3 victory.
St. Charles East now has its back against the wall when it returns to action in this best-of-3 championship at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Fox Valley Ice Arena in Geneva.
The Saints, who beat the Lions 4-2 when the teams last met earlier this season, jumped ahead on Michael Jimenez's goal at 8:28 of the first period.
The momentum and lead lasted less than 3 minutes though as Lyons answered on Adam Zielezinski's first of 2 goals on the night.
"They just played better than we did," St. Charles East's Matt Sylvester said. "They played better positional hockey and more as a team and we played more as individuals."
Lyons broke the 1-1 tie by scoring a pair of goals in the second period to take a 3-1 lead.
It was the Appleyard brothers who teamed up to hurt the Saints as Anthony Appleyard scored the Lions second goal of the evening while Tim Appleyard scored the team's third.
"Setting the tone early was big for us," Lyons Township coach Doug Bosse said. "It got us more relaxed and allowed us to sit back a bit."
Perhaps maybe a bit too much as St. Charles overcame a two-goal deficit in the third period to rally for a 3-3 tie at 5:07 of the third period. Onofrio Lorusso found the back of the net 24 seconds after Anthony Appleyard was sent to the penalty box for slashing to make it 3-2.
Later, at 5:07 of the final period, an onslaught of Saints attacked the net and Jordan Hayes scored the game-tying goal, assisted by Lorusso and Jimenez.
"I think when you play good team defense and get it to the forwards and get the puck up front good things will happen," Jimenez said. "Unfortunately once we came back and scored it seemed like we just stopped."
Lyons took the lead for good with 4:38 remaining and then made it awfully difficult for the Saints to comeback when Adam Yocius found the net with 3:21 left.
"Being on the home ice and having the crowd help out was big for the first game," Bosse said. "Now we have to go to their tough barn in Geneva and try to get one down there."