Sunday, January 20, 2002
Luke Johnston scored six goals in the 9-7 loss.
By GREG GULAS
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
BOARDMAN -- Luke Johnston scored six goals and added an assist, but his seven points were not enough as the Harborcreek Huskies defeated Mooney-Ursuline 9-7 in high school hockey Saturday at the Ice Zone.
His seven points were still well short of the record 12 points his coach, Todd Smith, recorded in a game during his stellar scholastic career.
Smith promised Johnston a steak dinner after his sixth goal in the second period if he should break his record, a dinner he would gladly have sprung for considering the outcome of the game.
"Penalties hurt us tonight, especially in the third period," Smith said. "It is tough to mount any type of attack when your line is not in order. Still, we had several outstanding individual performances despite the final score."
Mooney-Ursuline (6-3-0) had a four-game winning streak come to an end after a sluggish 2-3 start. Johnston's individual performance was overshadowed by a Huskie offense that produced four players with two goals apiece, three players who registered three points on the night.
Early scoring: Johnston staked Mooney-Ursuline to an early 2-0 lead, but Harborcreek's Brian Bator matched Johnston with two goals of his own in the first period to knot the score 2-2. When Sean Murphy scored the first of his two goals with under a minute to play, the Huskies took a short-lived 3-2 lead.
Phillip Colucci then scored with eight seconds remaining in the period, and after the first 15 minutes of play the game was knotted 3-3. In all, three of the six first period goals (two by the Huskies) were scored in the final 30 seconds of play.
Two goals by Johnston in the first minute of the second period pushed the Mooney-Ursuline lead to 5-3, but Harborcreek scored five unanswered goals (two coming off the stick of Alex Jovanovich) to take an 8-5 lead, which it would not relinquish the rest of the way.
Shadyside Academy 3, Boardman 2 (OT): FOX CHAPEL, Pa. -- Pat Rafeedie scored both goals, while Josh Congelio, Jeff Evans, Jonathan Poma and Derek Allen had assists for Boardman.
Chris Collins had 17 saves in goal for Boardman (10-9-2).