St. Viator wins first Blackhawk Classic title
Two down, three to go.
That’s the new, current battle cry for St. Viator after the Lions on Thursday cruised past Christian Brothers College of Missouri, 7-2, to win the championship of the 18th annual Blackhawk Charities Holiday Hockey Classic, played at The Edge Ice Arena in Bensenville.
This was St. Viator’s first championship in this post-Christmas tradition and follows the team’s title in the 40th annual Loyola Thanksgiving Tournament, when the Lions defeated St. Rita in the finals.
Now the Lions are eyeing title wins in the upcoming Scholastic Cup (awarded to the Metro League playoff champions), the Kennedy Cup (Catholic League) and the Blackhawk Cup (state tournament).
“There are three more (championship) for us to get,” said St. Viator’s Michael Decker. “This (win) was a great one, a great feeling.”
CBC (19-4-1) has been a dominant force over the past decade in the Blackhawk Charities tournament, winning the title four times, most recently in 2008, and advancing to the championship game 8 times in the past 12 years.
The Cadets advanced to Thursday’s championship game after a come-from-behind 5-3 semifinal win over New Trier. And CBC looked ready to re-claim the title from the Lions.
CBC, in fact, struck first and ultimately led 2-1 at the end of the first of two 22-minute periods.
But then the roof caved in for the Cadets.
The Lions (37-10-4) are riding a 7-game winning streak, including 3-1 semifinal win Thursday morning over Sandburg. They struck 6 times in a 14-minute stretch of the second half against CBC, anchored by 3 powerplay tallies and 2 goals, including an upper-corner highlight reel score from Rob Renner.
“This is a big, big win for us,” Renner said.
How big?
As good an overall game as the Lions have played all season, especially since CBC is a hockey dynasty in Missouri, winning 11 state championships since 1983, including 3 straight (2001-2003 and 2007-2009). The Cadets finished second in 2011.
“I told them (at halftime) to stick with the game plan,” said St. Viator coach Chris Lappin. “I felt we dominated the whole game; we just weren’t burying it (during the first half). I told them that we have to stop giving up blatant mistakes, which led to their goals, and that we had to capitalize on their mistakes.”
Sam Deihs got the Lions rolling in the second half, tying the score 2-2 with 18:52 remaining. Renner scored the game-winner with 15:34 left to play on an assist from Decker with an upper-corner tally past Joe Staely (33 saves).
John Campanelli made it 4-2 at 13:55 off assists from Decker and David Kellner.
Michael Haubner scored at 10:31, followed by goals from Renner and Kellner to close out the victory.
“We couldn’t really get anything going in the first half, but came out in the second half, stayed with the system, forechecked (well) and got pucks to the net — and they went in,” Renner said.
“(Coach Lappin) fired us up (at halftime) and we just went out there and did what he told us,” said St. Viator co-captain Jeremy Linzing, who assisted Kellner’s goal. “(Lappin) kind of yelled at us (during halftime), and I think that fired us up. We didn’t really have a full effort by the whole team in the first half; we weren’t sticking to the game plan.
“That second half was some of the best hockey we’ve played all season.”
St. Viator goalie Robert Schmidt only had to make 14 saves.
“It was great that we didn’t get frustrated because we did have so many chances,” in the first half, Schmidt said. “They have so many talented players, so, beating them really shows that we can compete with the top teams.”
CBC coach John Jost admitted that the Lions, “definitely outplayed us in the second half; they played a heckuva game.”