ORIGINAL ARTICLE

BALLWIN, Mo. – The Edwardsville hockey team wasn’t able to earn a victory Friday night against Chaminade, but compared to its previous game, it was a step in the right direction.

Trailing 2-0 after one period, EHS was able to salvage a 4-4 tie with the Red Devils at the Queeny Park Recreational Complex.

The Tigers (2-3-1) rallied to take a 3-2 lead in the second period and led 4-3 late in the third period, but each time, Chaminade (3-1-1) rallied to tie the score.

Still, it was a much better effort than Thursday’s 6-3 loss to De Smet at the East Alton Ice Arena. In that game, Edwardsville was outshot 36-13. On Friday, the shots on goal were much more even, with Chaminade holding a 27-24 advantage.

“We’ve gotten off to a little bit off of a slow start at the beginning of the season and to get this tie is pretty encouraging,” said Edwardsville’s Sam Gibbons, who scored two goals. “We started off slow again, but we came back and I thought the boys battled really well.”

As they did against De Smet, the Tigers found themselves with a two-goal deficit. Unlike Thursday’s game, which they never tied or led, they were able to gain some momentum against Chaminade.

“The second and third periods were two of our best periods of the year,” EHS coach Jason Walker said. “We dug ourselves in a hole again and against teams like Chaminade, it’s hard to dig yourself out of it. But we were able to do it and that’s a credit to the guys.”

Edwardsville’s comeback started one minute into the second period, as Gibbons took a pass from Mitchell Oberlag and beat Chaminade goalie Hampus Blomdahl with a wrist shot from the right faceoff circle to help the Tigers pull within 2-1. William Schuster got the other assist.

With 4:25 left in the period, EHS tied the game on another goal by Gibbons, who scored from in front of the net. Schuster and Oberlag again picked up the assists.

With 1:15 remaining in the period, the Tigers took a 3-2 lead on a goal by Schuster, who scored on a wrist shot from the right side after a pair of nice passes by Oberlag and James Akeman.

But Edwardsville’s lead was short-lived. Eighteen seconds later, with 57 seconds left in the period, Chaminade tied the score at 3-3 on a goal by Jimmy Pudlowski.

“I’m disappointed we weren’t able to pull out the win, but the line of Schuster, Gibbons and Oberlag was the best three guys on the ice for us,” Walker said. “We had some other big performers. Mark Tucker had a good game and played a lot of minutes and scored a goal to put us ahead.”

After withstanding some heavy pressure by Chaminade midway through the third period, EHS regained the lead.

With 5:39 remaining, Tucker took a pass from Jack Sumner, muscled his way past a Chaminade defenseman and beat Blomdahl with a shot from close range.

Once again, though, the Tigers weren’t able to hold the lead. After a scramble in front of the net, Chaminade’s Tyler Brown beat EHS goalie Matthew Griffin on a rebound to tie the score at 4-4.

“Even though we didn’t win, we played a lot better tonight,” Tucker said. “I thought we were moving our feet and getting the puck in deep and getting it out of our zone better.”

The game got off to a rough start for Edwardsville. With 13:48 remaining in the first period, Chaminade’s Alexander Stewart was pulled down from behind on a breakaway and the Red Devils were awarded a penalty shot. Stewart gave Chaminade a 1-0 lead when he beat Griffin with a wrist shot to the upper left hand corner of the net.

A goal by Pudlowski, with 1:21 remaining in the first period, extended Chaminade’s lead to 2-0.

Edwardsville returns to Queeny Park to play Kirkwood at 6:30 p.m. Monday.