ORIGINAL ARTICLE

ST. PETERS • St. Louis U. High junior Patrick Simoncic did not particularly enjoy the beginning of the Mid-States Club Hockey Association playoffs last month.

The Junior Bills had a tie and a loss in their first two games and faced early elimination from the five-week postseason grind.

But the mini-skid turned out to be just what Simoncic wanted.

"I think we needed a little adversity," he said. "Made us work harder."

SLUH, the defending Challenge Cup champions, have bounced back in grand fashion.

Simoncic scored twice and senior goalie Brendan Rasch made 21 saves as the Junior Bills advanced to the title game with a hard-fought 3-1 win over Kirkwood in the conclusion of the semifinal series Saturday at Rec-Plex South in St. Peters.

SLUH (22-3-2) has won its last five games by a combined 20-2.

The Junior Bills will be searching for their third title March 13 when they face rival De Smet in the championship tilt at 8 p.m. at Enterprise Center.

Senior standout Henry Wagner, who is headed to Yale, also scored for the winners.

Like Simoncic, Wagner felt the tiny winless streak was a necessary evil.

"It showed us that this is playoff hockey, you've got to play tough every shift," Wagner said. "I think we got our killer instinct back — and at the right time."

SLUH needed to be at the top of its game to knock off the pesky Pioneers (15-10-3), who beat the Jr. Bills 3-1 in the second game of round-robin playoff play on Feb. 4.

"That gave them confidence and they sure played like it tonight," Wagner said. "This was a battle."

It was a battle, thanks in part to Kirkwood goaltender Mitchell Day, who made several key saves over the first two periods to keep his team in the contest.

Rasch also came up big, especially in the third period. He made four successive highlight-reel stops over a period of 4 minutes, 11 seconds while nursing a 2-1 lead.

"This is a much different team from last year," SLUH coach Jack Behan said. "We're built on defense and goaltending. We play hard, solid hockey and work for some scrappy goals."

Wagner and Simoncic scored in a 115-second span late in the second period to break open a scoreless game. Wagner blasted a high shot past Day for his 21st goal of the season. Simoncic coverted off a tape-to-tape pass from Matthew Warnecke.

Trevor Buchanan answered for Kirkwood by tipping in a shot from the point from Connor Morgan late in the second period.

That set the stage for a nail-biting third period as Rasch came up with one big save after another.

"We harped on digging in in the (offensive) zone and trying to make things happen," Kirkwood coach Mark Fischer said. "We did that in the third period, just a little too late."

Wagner likes the way his team is playing going into the biggest game of the year.

"We're sticking with our systems and we're pretty much in sync," Wagner said. "If we keep doing that, we know that we can eventually wear down the teams that we're playing."

SLUH, which beat De Smet 4-0 in last year's title game, is 3-1 against the Spartans this season including 4-1, 5-1 and 3-0 victories.