With winter showing its nose, the St. Louis U. High hockey team's season is in full swing. Over Thanksgiving break the team saw ups and downs with a close 4-2 defeat to CBC, a 12-0 blowout win against Lafayette, and a loss in the Jesuit Cup for the first time in eight years. SLUH came back from the break with a 0-0 stalemate against Chaminade, a team that they handily defeated 3-0 earlier in the season.

On Nov. 18, the Jr. Bills kicked off their Thanksgiving break stretch of games against the CBC Cadets in front of a packed crowd at the Barn. With multiple players out of town, the team would need to rely on their depth in order to get past a CBC squad whom they have not beaten since 2019. This was SLUH’s third test in the MCC, having defeated Chaminade and tied Vianney, and first game against the highly touted Cadets. 

 The game started off with SLUH getting on the board early as junior Dean Lyon capitalized on a breakaway off a pass from senior Mack Eisenbeis to put the Jr. Bills up one just two minutes into the period.

However, the rest of the first period was dominated by the Cadets as they outshot SLUH 11-4 and evened up the game with 30 seconds left when a CBC forward caught the defense off guard with a shot to the near post that eluded goaltender Max Bely. 

CBC continued their advantage into the second as the Jr. Bills struggled to mount a counterattack and suffered from multiple failed clearances. Under pressure, SLUH allowed two goals in quick succession just minutes into the second, putting the Cadets up 3-1 with plenty of time left in the period. 

After generating some pressure of their own, junior Kai Duncan broke through with a goal assisted by junior Logan Petlansky ten minutes into the second period. The second period would end 3-2 with CBC outshooting the Jr. Bills 8-4.

The third period was tightly contested from the start with the third goal eluding the Jr. Bills as they tried to tie it up. CBC, once again, controlled possession with SLUH seeking their final chance. As the clock dwindled down into the final minutes, SLUH pulled Bely for a 6-on-5 skater advantage, but CBC closed out the game with an empty net goal from mid-ice. SLUH fell 4-2 to the Cadets—their first loss of the season—and were outshot 28-12.

Coming off the loss, SLUH encountered a much easier opponent in the Lafayette Lancers the following Monday. The Jr. Bills came out firing nine seconds into the game, with junior Daniel Sendobry easily beating a defender and slotting it past the goaltender, assisted by Serafin. Havoc ensued for the Lancers. In the next five minutes, Finn Barry, Hank Fusco, and Serafin all netted goals of their own. Two more goals followed before the end of the period, one by Colin Duffy and another from Barry to lead 6-0 into the second period.

For the rest of the game, the Jr. Bills were completely uncontested. SLUH put up an overwhelming 39 shots to Lafayette’s seven. Throughout the second and third periods, the Jr. Bills scored an additional 6 goals and Bely maintained the shutout for a 12-0 final.

After steamrolling the Lancers, the Jr. Bills turned their attention the following Wednesday to the Jesuit Cup against the De Smet Spartans. The J-Cup brings out an intensity and desire to win from both SLUH and De Smet second only to the Challenge Cup. SLUH had retained the J Cup for eight consecutive years and looked to defend it for a ninth. The Spartans had other plans.

In the first period, SLUH produced key defensive stops but seemed unable to get past the De Smet defense for a goal despite numerous possessions close to De Smet’s goal, though De Smet outshot SLUH 8-1.

De Smet capitalized off of SLUH’s ineffective offense with two shocking goals in the final two minutes of the period. The first came immediately after a faceoff in SLUH’s defensive zone where a De Smet attackman gained possession and quickly fired off a well placed shot to the upper left corner. Bely was unable to react as the puck flew past him and put De Smet on the board. The Spartans scored once again a minute later when a De Smet attacker wrapped a shot around a SLUH defender once again to the left corner and past the reach of Bely.

De Smet skated into the second period with a comfortable 2-0 lead that forced SLUH to play more aggressively. In the second minute, the Jr. Bills got their best chance yet when a De Smet player attempted to body a SLUH player after the play had ended, resulting in a power play. SLUH spent the power play moving the puck around the goal, but the De Smet defense didn’t let up, holding back SLUH until the power play ended.

The Jr. Bills turned up the heat offensively compared to the first period with an improved five shots on goal, nearly matching De Smet’s six. SLUH also held De Smet scoreless for the entirety of the period. As tensions ran high, both teams started to get chippy with multiple fights breaking out and players being sent off to the penalty box. 

In the third period, hope at equalizing the game waned for the Jr. Bills with just 15 minutes to score two goals. Again, SLUH simply seemed unable to string together effective plays for a goal despite a constant presence in the offensive zone. SLUH finally scored in the eleventh minute when Lyon beat his defender and delivered a bullet past the De Smet goaltender, assisted by Sendobry. 

With this sliver of hope, the Jr. Bills became aggressive as ever, pulling the goalie and charging the net. The aggressiveness produced no results, though, as De Smet held off the attack to win 2-1 and capture the J-Cup for the first time in eight years.

“What went wrong is that everybody on the team acted as an individual instead of a team. There was no incentive and no sense of urgency. The only sense of urgency that came came in the last five minutes,” said Bely. “That's when we kind of realized, like, I would think we have to pick it up if we want to score anything but too little too late, and that's why it ended up the way it did.”

“We are still coming off that high of winning state,” said senior Luke Gund. “That’s the reason it’s so hard to go back to back in any sport. We’ve had trouble during the start of the season finding that stride again but we've talked to our guys and identified the problems. Now we just have to work as a team to solve them.”

Following a heartbreaking loss to De Smet, the Jr. Bills looked to rebound against Chaminade this Monday  in their second matchup of the season. The first game went SLUH’s way as they beat the Red Devils in a decisive 3-0 victory. Positive results had been nonexistent for Chaminade this season as they had gone 0-8 to start the season only scoring three goals throughout. Nonetheless, SLUH was looking forward to a beatdown.

The game started off strongly for the Jr. Bills as they created chances, but Chaminade showed early that they would not go down easily. After a penalty late in the first period to Gund, SLUH successfully killed off a Chaminade power play, but was not able to create additional chances and ended up being outshot 6-5 by the Red Devils. 

The second period started off similarly to the first as SLUH pushed the pace of play down the ice getting shots off early but Chaminade's defense held strong. Even with a power play opportunity three minutes into the second, the Jr. Bills still came up short of that elusive goal. Late into the period, SLUH gave up a penalty of their own. The second period ended with SLUH outshooting Chaminade 9-5. 

“There’s a fine line between working hard and taking dumb penalities,” said Gund. “Calls don’t go our way sometimes but it’s still important to put in the work on the ice. We also need to work on focusing in as a team before we step on the ice to limit those dumb penalities.”

The third period started and SLUH was desperate for a goal but once again, an early penalty forced the Jr. Bills onto defense. Near the end of the game, SLUH raked in multiple great scoring opportunities but fell short as Chaminade escaped 0-0 after a tough, physical showcase. SLUH outshot the Red Devils 25-16 but with three penalties they fell short of knocking that final puck in.

“It's not the good teams that are the problem. We're the problem. We have some structural issues,” said senior Tyler Woodcock. “Basically, it comes down to effort. We have to put in more effort as a group unit in order to get better results.”

The Jr. Bills face off against the Vianney Griffins for the second time this season tomorrow at 7:50 pm at Affton. 

“We have one mindset—to win,” said Gund. “We know what is expected and what we need to do on and off the ice to make it happen.””

“Nothing will be acceptable besides a win and the humiliation of Vianney, we need to make a statement with this win,” said Woodcock.