A goaltender can be a team's best penalty killer. For the Calvert Hall ice hockey team, that proved to be true Wednesday against Georgetown Prep in a Mid-Atlantic Prep Hockey League quarterfinal.
Senior Mike Finn made 32 saves — including 10 on power plays — to help Calvert Hall to a 4-2 victory over the Little Hoyas at Mount Pleasant Ice Arena.
The Cardinals racked up 18 minutes in the box on eight penalties.
"He kept us in this game," Calvert Hall coach Ryan Woodward said. "He made some big saves on the power play. It was one of his better games. He may not have had as many saves as he's had on other games, but they were all really timely saves."
Calvert Hall advances to play Gonzaga in a MAPHL semifinal Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Gardens Ice House in Laurel.
The game will be a rematch of the last two MAPHL championship games, both of which the Eagles won.
"It's become a great rivalry the past couple of years," Finn said. "We've got to play at the top of our game. We can't take penalties like we did today. I have to have a good game and our top scorers have to put the puck in the net."
Calvert Hall needed a strong performance against Georgetown Prep after losing in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference championship to Archbishop Spalding, 4-3, in overtime Friday.
Calvert Hall delivered, scoring three goals in the first eight minutes.
Matthew Curtin got the Cardinals rolling, firing wrist shot from the top of the face-off circle to the upper left corner only eight seconds into play.
Ryan Dieter made it 2-0 about five minutes later. He beat a defenseman, then deaked freshman goalie Will Boggs for an easy score.
Carter Taylor capped Calvert Hall's first-period scoring with 7:55 remaining. Corbin Hall and Dieter were credited with assists.
"Our mission at the beginning was to make sure we were getting the pucks in deep and play a physical game," Woodward said. "We executed on that and a couple of pucks found the back of the net."
After a scoreless second period, Georgetown Prep trimmed the lead to 3-1 early in the third on a two-man advantage. Sophomore Max Newnam beat Finn one-on-one.
The Little Hoyas, however, were able to take advantage of two other power plays as Finn made three saves.
Jed Manning finished Calvert Hall's scoring.
"The game on Friday was a huge heartbreaker," Finn said of the loss to Spalding in the MIAA A Conference final. "So now we are focused on the MAPHL championship."