SLUH advances to Challenge Cup semifinals by knocking CBC out of postseason

“I've told family members, I've told everyone that I'm not done here yet,” Petlansky said. “I'm not done until I raise that trophy up.”

Petlansky scored two goals and an assist and fellow senior Dean Lyon had a goal and two assists to lead SLUH to a 4-2 win over CBC in a Mid States Club Hockey Association Challenge Cup Pool A elimination game at Queeny Park.

“Those two in particular, the whole locker room lives around those guys,” SLUH coach Steve Walters said. “Dean's a quiet guy, but he riles the team up by blocking shots, taking hits, hitting guys, and then you've got Petlansky who's very vocal, he's one of our captains and really leads verbally and by example.”

Daniel Sendobry had a goal and an assist and Andrew Bely made 27 saves for SLUH (17-6-1 overall, 3-1 in the postseason).

Carter Clemons and Jace Jordan scored for CBC (18-2-4, 2-1-1). Richard Struckhoff made 17 saves.

SLUH improved to 4-1-1 against CBC, the No. 1 overall seed, in the last two years and handed the Cadets their only losses this season.

“That's a really good hockey team over there,” CBC coach John Jost said. “It was two good teams and that could have gone either way. I thought we played well enough to win and just didn't get the breaks.”

Petlansky’s power play goal gave SLUH a 3-2 lead at 9:25 of the second. It held up as the game winner.

“It came right to my stick, we score and it's just like once we got that that lead, it was just gamer over,” Petlansky said. “It was shut down from then on.”

SLUH’s defensive structure kept CBC from mounting a prolonged attack for much of the third period, before Lyon iced it with an empty netter with 30 seconds left.

“Right place, right time,” Lyon said. “Battling hard. Everybody's down there. Puck squirts out and I got lucky.”

CBC came close to tying it seconds before, but Bely made a big save with 50 seconds left to protect the lead.

“We had our chance to win it,” Jost said. “Their goalie made a really good save.”

Bely’s save was especially key because SLUH needed the outright win to advance. The Cadets would have moved on instead had they tied it up.

“Bely’s always been great, especially that save with 50 seconds left,” Lyon said “Right in front of the net, bounces off his shoulder. That was huge. That was the game right there.”

Clemons gave CBC the lead at 4:57 of the first. A Matthew Jost pass sent Clemons in on the rush where he went far post from the right circle.

Petlansky evened the game for SLUH at 11:50 of the first, ripping a quick low shot from the high slot off a Lyon feed.

Jordan gave CBC a 2-1 lead just seconds into the second period, roofing a wrister on a 2-on-1 break with Gavin McGrath.

SLUH needed just 39 seconds to answer as Sendobry made a nice power move off the boards for his sixth goal of the season and third in the playoffs.

Running the table

SLUH started off the postseason round robin play with a loss to Vianney, leaving it no room for error in its final three games.

The Jr. Billikens responded with wins over Parkway South and Chaminade to set up a win-and-in scenario against CBC.

“We have 15 seniors on this team and we knew that they weren't going to go down without fighting,” Walters said. “The first game we played after (Vianney), we struggled a little bit, but then we started getting into our groove and we were talking about how we need to get our confidence back, our swagger, and that happened in the Chaminade game. And then tonight, it showed through, because this is as tight a game as you're going to play. We were down, had to bounce back and then that third period, we had to weather them throwing everything they got at us.”

Up next

SLUH, the No. 4 overall seed, will play No. 3 Marquette in game 1 of their semifinal series at the Centene Community Ice Center at 7 p.m. Friday. Game 2, and if necessary a winner-take-all minigame, will be played on Saturday. The teams split a pair of regular season games.

No. 7 Vianney and No. 2 De Smet will play in the other semifinal series Friday and Saturday. De Smet won both regular-season meetings against Vianney.