Coming off a Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association B Conference title, the St. Paul’s ice hockey team had the look of a championship-caliber team early this season.
The Crusaders jumped out to a 4-0-1 record, beating Glenelg Country twice, Loyola Blakefield and Gilman by at least three goals while tying A Conference foe Mount St. Joseph.
St. Paul’s, however, was humbled by Iona Prep, of New York, 7-1, Friday at Patterson Park’s Mimi DiPietro Skating Center.
Forwards Christian Van Hecke and Luke Damiano each scored two goals as Iona outshot St. Paul’s, 61-12.
Crusaders senior goalie Mason Koster made a whopping 54 saves.
“They fore checked well and when they got the puck in the offensive zone, we were really flat footed,” St. Paul’s third-year coach Sam Kaplan said. “We had one guy battling and they did a good of establishing the cycle. It made it difficult for us.”
St. Paul’s defense of Michael Blandino, Mitchell Haigley, Spencer Horwitz, Gage Iglehart and TJ Kaplan faced relentless pressure from the opening minutes.
Iona (9-4) amassed 19 shots in the first period and Koster saved 10 shots before Van Hecke scored on a feed from Jake Trotta with 7:31 remaining.
“Their goalie played great,” said Iona coach Charles Berger, whose team plays defending A Conference champion Calvert Hall at Mount Pleasant Ice Arena Saturday at 9 a.m. “It was only 1-0 after the first period.”
Iona’s Peymon Farjam made it 2-0 less than eight minutes into the second period, scoring on a crossing pass from Brad Cingolani.
Damiano scored two goals in the 10 minutes of the same period to boost Iona’s lead to 4-0.
“We were so focused. The guys were looking forward to this trip for a month,” Berger said of the 3½ hour drive from New Rochelle, N.Y. “The last half hour of the ride, it was dead quite. Honestly, I think that had a lot to do with it.”
Trotta beat Koster early in the third period to push the winner’s lead to 5-1 before Breitzka’s wrist shot to the lower right corner of the goal beat Nic Buongiomo.
“We knew this would be a really challenging team because of their speed, and if we made a lot of mistakes it would be really tough. I think we gave them too much respect each period. Once the puck came across the red line, we gave them too much time and space to make plays.”