Coming off their sixth straight Jesuit Cup victory, the St. Louis U. High hockey team hoped to carry its momentum into the game this past Monday night against Kirkwood High School. The Jr. Bills, who lost to Kirkwood 4-2 on Jan. 2, tied Kirkwood 0-0 in a game characterized by strong defensive performances and a lack of offensive opportunities.
The game included five power plays, three for the Jr. Bills and two for the Pioneers. 

Despite having two power plays in the first period, the Jr. Bills were unable to jump out to an early lead.

“We were missing our three centers,” said head coach Steve Walters. “And it just threw a wrench into our offense. There is no excuse, we should be able to overcome that, but the takeaway is that our team needs to do the hard ugly work if we are going to win.”

With a new power play unit on the ice, the lack of familiarity and chemistry between the lines showed.

“We were able to set our power play,” said senior Joey Perotti. “But we were not moving the puck around, not getting shots on net nor getting bodies in front of the (Kirkwood) goalie.”

The Jr. Bills carried their first period struggles on the man advantage with them into the second, unable to convert on a second period power play. However, the Jr. Bill defense accounted for the lack of offense, holding Kirkwood scoreless on their power plays in the second period as well. 

“(Kirkwood’s) second power play, we started to chase the pucks on the point and got a little sloppy,” said Perotti. “It almost got us into some trouble a couple times.” 

 But thanks to a strong penalty kill,, the Jr. Bills held the Pioneers scoreless, and salvaged a tie to move to 5-5-4 on the season. 

“There were some good opportunities for both sides but our goalie, Jake Buttice, played great,” said junior John Loretta. “We just couldn’t get a lot of offense going.”

After the game, the team felt as if they had left a win on the ice.

“The message is, let’s come and get it,” said Walters. “We are at the end of the season and I hope to see some energy going into the last few games of the season.”

SLUH looks ahead to its remaining two games of the regular season, against Marquette Friday night and Vianney on Saturday. Following the weekend, the Jr. Bills will prepare for the postseason, trying to capture the Challenge Cup for the third time in four years. 

“We are hoping for two big wins to secure the third seed and play whoever is the second seed on our journey to State,” said junior Max Sextro. “We are looking forward to the playoffs and think we have a really great chance to make it to the State game and bring home another title. I’m pretty hopeful and I think we look very good this year.”

“This senior class remembers when we won our state final in ’18,” said Walters. “Our short term goal is to get to the semis. From there, we match up against our opponents. But our task in hand is Marquette tomorrow night.”