ORIGINAL ARTICLE

ST. PETERS • Lafayette freshman James Vermeersch has scored big goals throughout his life in club hockey, but nothing compared to the feeling he had Friday night.

Vermeersch scored the tying and game-winning goal, capping a furious third-period comeback for the Lancers in a 4-3 win against Summit in Game 2 of a Mid-States Wickenheiser Cup semifinal at the St. Peters Rec-Plex.

Lafayette (18-7-2), which won Game 1, 2-0, advanced to the championship game against Duchesne (19-5-3) at the Enterprise Center on March 13.

After each goal, Vermeersch celebrated by jumping into the glass in front of a boisterous Lafayette student section.

“That’s probably at the top,” Vermeersch said of his fellow students. “When I play for club there’s not many people there, just the parents. When the student section’s crazy like that and you get a good goal and send the team to the finals, it’s an amazing feeling.”

Sam Rubenstein and Colin Stewart also scored for Lafayette, while Calvin Rogers made 14 saves.

Salvatore Cerrato, Ryan Francis and Andrew Koutsogiannis scored. Tyler Catalano had two assists and Bailey Marler made 26 saves for Summit (17-7-2).

The game appeared destined for a winner-take-all mini-game after Lafayette went down 3-1 thanks to a Summit goal early in the third period.

But Stewart redirected a Logan Bayless shot into the net with 8 minutes, 4 seconds to play to draw Lafayette within one.

“It seemed like they kind of stepped back a bit and we put full pressure on,” Stewart said. “The next thing you know we’re up 4-3 and we won the game.”

Vermeersch drew the Lancers even with 5:49 left with his sixth goal of the postseason.

“The boys didn’t want to quit,” Lafayette coach Jim Carrico said. “That’s been our motto the entire playoff run. They are not giving up. On the bench it was positive, let’s get the next one.”

After winning Game 1, the Lancers needed a tie to advance. But Vermeersch banged home a rebound with 1:03 left to give Lafayette the outright win.

“We were all tired and that’s the last thing you want to do is put your backs against the wall without any momentum in a mini-game,” Vermeersch said. “We clutched up in the third.”

Cerrato deflected a Christian Issa shot into the net to give Summit the lead midway through the first period.

Both goalies took turns thwarting 2-on-1 breaks in the final seconds of the first.

Rogers started it, denying Summit’s Koutsogiannis. Not to be outdone, Marler made a sliding pad save on Lafayette’s Jacob Rosomoff to preserve the lead.

Rubenstein evened the game for Lafayette off a fortunate bounce midway through the second. Shane Robinson’s centering attempt popped up into the air and deflected off Rubenstein’s arm into the net.

Francis put Summit back on top with 4:40 left in the second.

Koutsogiannis made it 3-1 with a power play goal 4:22 into the third. Catalano and Michael Lane got the assists.

Lafayette did not play Duchesne during the regular season.

“Don’t’ stop,” Carrico said. “We’re having great goaltending. Calvin made some great saves on some breakaways in the first two periods to keep us in the game. We didn’t quit. We’ve got to bring the same intensity against Duchesne.”