Original Article

MANCHESTER — For Ladue’s Dylan Stern, it was all instinct.

Stern’s third period goal helped earn a 4-4 tie for the Rams against Priory in a Mid-States Club Hockey Association Central Division game at Queeny Park on Thursday night.

Stern scored twice for Ladue (7-1-2), whose lone loss of the season came against Priory on Nov. 27. Patrick Brown and Michael Gakhutishvili each had a goal and an assist and Maksim Bely made 18 saves.

Stern’s goal at 5:57 of the third erased a Priory comeback and shifted the momentum back to the Rams.

“I got the puck on my stick and I just looked up, saw the perfect opportunity,” Stern said. “I let it go.”

Charles Walker scored three times and Henry Leritz also scored for Priory (9-1-3). Cody Schwoeppe made 22 saves.

Ladue had several chances to take the lead, including a shot midway through the third that glanced off the top of Schwoeppe’s glove and bounced perilously close to the goal line before the Ravens netminder was able to pounce on it.

“Cody is new and we're asking him a lot of him right now,” Priory coach Jason Getz said. “He's a rookie goalie. We expected that this would be our more veteran goalie’s night, but he wasn't able to go. So, he stepped in and did a great job.”

Walker had several chances down the stretch to regain the lead for Priory, but Bely was equal to the task.

Stern’s goal thwarted what would have been an impressive comeback for a shorthanded Ravens squad.

Priory erased a 3-1 deficit with a pair of goals in a 64-second span late in the second period.

Leritz got the comeback going by poking home a rebound off a Patrick O’Keefe shot with 5:25 left in the second. Walker followed by roofing a backhander after using his speed to get around the Ladue defense to even the game at 3-3.

“We just sat on the bench and said we need to change this, we need to win, we aren’t going to take a loss,” Walker said. “We just kind of put it on and put some goals in.”

Walker wasn’t finished. The 5-foot-11 forward again showed his speed and hands, using a quick backhand-forehand combination to complete the hat trick and give Priory a 4-3 led with 5.9 seconds left in the middle frame.

“I was just getting good passes from my teammates,” Walker said. “Just good teamwork.”

Stern gave Ladue the lead just 60 seconds in, scoring unassisted after creating a turnover.

Walker evened the game for Priory with 2:10 left in the first period, finishing a perfect give-and-go with Cole Clinton.

Goals by Brown and Gakhutishvili gave Ladue a 3-1 lead in the second period.

A strong forecheck by Jack Deutsch and Gakhutishvili led to Brown’s goal at 5:01. Gakhutishvili’s wrister glanced off the post before hitting the net three minutes later.

“We're getting the puck deep and we we're putting some pressure on them,” Stern said. “They were a really fast team though, so it was hard to stay in the offensive zone. I think that was probably our hardest struggle.”

Bely kept Priory from taking control early with several tough stops. The Rams goalie stoned Priory’s Ryan Lally on a point-blank chance and made a sweet glove save on a Montana Vacha chance.

Schwoeppe did his part to keep Priory close early on, including a nice save on a partial break by Jack Deutsch and getting in front of a Tyler Deutsch slap shot moments later.

The tie extended impressive unbeaten streaks by both clubs, neither of which haven’t lost since November. Priory hasn’t been defeated in 10 games (8-0-2), while Ladue hasn’t been on the downside in its last eight games (6-0-2).

“We like where we are right now and we got some things to learn defensively still, so we got to clean up a few things, but I think our game is starting to get there,” Getz said. “Right now, we just want to get healthy.”