St. Paul's ice hockey coach Sam Kaplan said there is no secret to the Crusaders' perfect record in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association B Conference this season.
St. Paul's is more physical, outworks opponents and gets timely goals against its league rivals.
Those skills were on display Friday night in the MIAA B final as the Crusaders repeated as champions with a 4-3 victory over Gilman at Mount Pleasant Ice Arena in Odenton.
"I love this group of players," said Kaplan, whose team also beat Gilman in the championship last year. "They put so much work into this season. It was pretty exciting to see them win this."
Ned Moreland, Steven Baker, Ian Powderly and Spencer Horwitz scored for St. Paul's (11-3-2 overall, 9-0 league).
Wiley Hopkins had two goals for Gilman.
Hopkins' goal early in the second period made it 1-1.
St. Paul's went ahead for good with 1:09 remaining in the same period. Powderly scored on a 2-on-1 break on a wrist to the upper left corner.
The Crusaders pushed their lead to 3-1 late in the second period. Two Gilman defenders knocked down Powderly as he tried to get off a shot, but Baker picked up a loose puck and beat Spencer Perry on a slap shot.
Gilman trimmed the lead to a goal twice, including with 44 seconds remaining in the final period when Jules Finney beat senior goalie Mason Koster (22 saves) between his pads.
The Greyhounds, however, didn't get off any shots for the remainder of the game.
"We grinded it out with them and gave ourselves a chance at the end," Gilman coach Zach Collins said. "Both teams are so talented, so good. A bounce of the puck here or there and the score could be completely different."
In the MIAA A Conference championship, senior forward Conor Sullivan scored with 2:18 remaining in overtime to lift Archbishop Spalding to a 4-3 victory over Calvert Hall.
The defending champion Cardinals (12-5-4) wasted the performance of senior forward Ivan Yuryev, who had a hat trick.
Calvert Hall was impressive in the first period, jumping out to a 2-0 lead. Yuryev knocked a rebound past Jacob Paprcka with 8:33 remaining in the first period and about five minutes later, he scored on a wrist shot to the upper left corner.
The Cardinals also led 3-1 in the second period, but Spalding got back-to-back goals 25 seconds apart late in the stanza from Jacob Hess and Brandon Knopf.
Spalding prevailed in the 5-minute overtime on a 2-on-1. Sullivan scored on a feed from William Eden.
"They just played a solid game," Calvert Hall coach Ryan Woodward said of Spalding. "They outshot us in the third period and just kept grinding. We executed the way we wanted to execute. We just didn't get as many pucks in the net as they did."
The loss was Calvert Hall's fourth in its last five games after an 11-0-4 start.
Woodward said his team has been hampered by injury and illness for a couple of weeks.
The Cardinals were missing standout forward Ryan Dieter (concussion) and defenseman Nick Schiavone (shoulder injury) for the championship game.
"We have been missing three guys in almost every game," Woodward said.