Complete and utter domination. The St. Louis U. High hockey team took down No. 1 seed CBC and No. 5 seed Marquette by a landslide in their first two games of the double elimination round of the Challenge Cup to clinch a spot in the semifinals.

The Jr. Bills faced off against the Cadets this past Tuesday in the Challenge Cup quarterfinals. Coming in with a season record of 1-2-1 against CBC, the path to the semis would seemingly be no cake walk for SLUH. 

Both teams started off the period aggressively with the threat of entering into the losers bracket looming. CBC produced the most chances on goal, but SLUH got on the board first. Six minutes in, junior Logan Petlansky tipped in a shot from junior Colin Duffy. Just two minutes later, the Jr. Bills separated themselves further from the Cadets off a bouncy shot from sophomore Kai Duncan.

After getting up on the board twice early, CBC seemed to step up their aggression on offense, constantly posing a threat to the goal. 

With five minutes left in the period, senior goal-tender Maksim Bely and a defenseman had a miscommunication, resulting in CBC’s Grant Dawe stealing the puck from Bely behind the net and scoring before Bely could get back in place. The confidence in the air for the Jr. Bills dissipated as CBC was once again in close striking distance. 

For the rest of the period, CBC and SLUH traded shots, but to no avail. SLUH ended the period up 2-1 with 7 shots on goal to CBC’s 10.

In the second period, the Jr. Bills once again came out and produced results early. CBC’s goaltender failed to gain control of the puck after sophomore Gavin Simon’s shot and senior Mack Eisenbeis capitalized, putting it back in the net for a 3-1 lead. 

Four minutes later, Petlansky piled on with a solo goal to give the Jr. Bills even more breathing room. 

Feeling the heat from a three point deficit, the Cadets seemed to just focus on getting to the net. Twenty seconds after Petlansky’s goal, CBC’s Carter Clemons sniped the upper right corner through the traffic in front of Bely to get within two. 

However, CBC’s close proximity was promptly ended two minutes later when senior Henry Serafin shot a low stinger past the Cadet goaltender off a fast-break. Facing a three-goal deficit near the end of the second period, CBC’s hope of seamlessly advancing to the finals dwindled. Thirty seconds after Serafin, Duncan buried the Cadets with his second goal of the night, earning him the U-Chain.

Going into the third period up 6-2, the Jr. Bills felt victory was imminent. With the comfortable lead, all SLUH needed to do was defend to seal the deal. SLUH shut out the Cadets until the twelfth minute, when CBC’s Brendan Korte found the net from far away during a power play. SLUH held on for the three minutes left in the game and secured a 6-3 win to earn a spot in the Challenge Cup semifinals.

“I think as the year has gone on, we’ve played more and more as a team, and going against a team like CBC, who have so many skilled guys, we had to work as a team,” said Duffy. “It really showed and we’re feeling amazing going into the semis.We’re starting to get some of our guys back healthy and we feel as though we can beat anybody whenever and wherever.”

Before playing CBC, SLUH matched up against Marquette. The Mustangs entered the preliminary round as the sixth seed, and after a 5-3 victory against lowly Seckman and a tie against Vianney—who failed to make it out—Marquette was matched up against SLUH.

Behind a large crowd, the Jr. Bills did not start out as strong as expected. While they held off the Mustangs, their first goal did not come until the 12th minute when Simon scored a breakaway shot off the right hash. His goal was assisted by senior Luke Gund and sophomore George Lyons. The period ended with SLUH up 1 and outshooting Marquette 11-6.

In the second period, the Jr. Bills broke away. Within 40 seconds, Petlansky put one away off of a smooth offensive series with passes from Vogl and Lyons. Two minutes later, Vogl got one of his own right in front of the goal, assisted again by Gund and Lyons. 

With the Mustangs feeling the heat, they began to play recklessly as one of their players committed a game misconduct penalty right after the goal, ejecting him from the game. Even with a five minute power play, SLUH failed to increase their lead and went into the third period up 3-0. 

The third started similarly to the second, with SLUH scoring early in the period. Junior William Peterson shot one in from long range to increase the Jr. Bills’ lead to four. Eisenbeis scored 20 seconds later off a quick shot from close range assisted by Serafin. 

Thirty seconds later, Marquette responded with a goal of their own which was followed by cheers from the SLUH student section. But Petlansky ended the game with another goal after a scramble in front of the net after passes from Duncan and junior Blake Geiser. The Jr. Bills won 6-1, outshooting the Cadets 30-19. 

Next, the Jr. Bills will play either Kirkwood or De Smet in the semifinals with a date to be assigned.

“The boys are buzzin’ but we know the job isn’t finished,” said Bely. “The Bills are going to stay rolling.”