Ladue shows off high-octane offense in win over MICDS

Vantine continued his sizzling play by scoring a pair of goals and two assists to lead Ladue to a 9-2 win over MICDS in a Mid-States Club Hockey Association Central Division game at the Queeny ice rink on Monday night.

“Theo is a great player,” Ladue coach Colton Schalk said. “He keeps growing and gets better every day. He's somebody who shows up every day wanting to work. He works hard and he's rewarded on the ice.”

Vantine now has eight goals and four assists in just three games for Ladue (4-0-1 overall).

“It's very fun,” Vantine said. “Moving the puck really well, just a great experience.”

Miles Acree had a goal and three assists, Jake McDonald scored twice with two assists, David Levinson had a goal and an assist and Ruilong Tang and Andrew Gakhutishvili also scored for the Rams. Nelson Vickar made 18 saves.

“We just have such depth of scoring, and we're even getting scoring from our depth players, which is really great,” Schalk said.

Chase Segal and Brayden Strait each had a goal and an assist for MICDS (1-1-1). Miles Jensen made 26 saves.

In a scheduling quirk, it was the second straight game between the programs, which battled to a 1-1 tie on Saturday night. Ladue was without some of its top players for that one including Vantine and McDonald.

“When we're snapping it around there's not a lot of people that can, like, go with us when we're all going,” McDonald said.

Ladue took control of the game with two goals in a 39-second span in the second period.

MacDonald got it started with his fourth of the season at 5:39 to make it 3-1 Ladue. Vantine followed moments later with his second of the game, the result of tic-tac-toe passing from Levinson and Acree.

Levinson continued the barrage, scoring off a Vantine feed with 5:41 left in the second to make it 5-1 Ladue. Acree added an unassisted tally for the Rams with 4:00 left.

“I've known these guys for a while,” Acree said. “Have a lot of trust in them. So, when I go up and play, I know I can count on them to cover me and if I make a move these guys, one of these guys are always open for a goal.”

Strait got one back for MICDS with 1:50 left in the second to cut the Ladue lead to 6-2.

McDonald, Levinson and Gakhutishvili scored for the Rams in the third.

“We are getting goals from our top line, goals from our bottom line,” Schalk said. “We just never gave up.”

Ladue pounced with a pair of early goals.

Vantine got the Rams on the board with his seventh of the season at 4:39 of the first period. The goal came just a minute after Ryan Wood almost scored for Ladue after hitting the post on a partial breakaway.

Tang’s shorthanded goal made it 2-0 Ladue at 5:19 of the first. Tang banged home a rebound of a McDonald shot for the Rams’ fourth short-handed goal of the season.

MICDS answered a couple of minutes later as Segal’s shot from the right point found its way through traffic and into the net to cut the Ladue lead to 2-1 with 7:14 left in the first.

Ladue is on a mission after losing to Clayton in the Wickenheiser Cup championship game last season.

“It means everything to us,” Acree said. “I was heartbroken after that game. We need to prepare better. We need to have a different culture around our game and we need to play every game like it's our last.”