Original Article

Coaches and players alike struggled to describe the scenario that played out Thursday night at the Kennedy Recreational Center.

Unprecedented, unreal and crazy were a few terms tossed around.

Unofficially, Priory and John Burroughs finished their game Saturday in the first round of the Mid-States Club Hockey Association Wickenheiser Cup playoffs. They officially ended it by replaying the final 6 minutes and 16 seconds Thursday, with the playoff hopes of both Burroughs and idle Fort Zumwalt South in the balance.

The ending to both games turned out to be the same, with Priory winning by identical 3-1 scores, ending the Bombers’ season and allowing Zumwalt South to advance.

“Everyone knew what we had to do and we came out ready to play,” Priory captain Nicholas Marcrander said. “It was awesome.”

The replay of the final 6:16 happened because Burroughs was granted an appeal to that portion of its 3-1 loss to the Ravens on Saturday because of a referee’s error.

Leading 2-0 in the third period, Priory’s Gary Gaertner was assessed a double minor that gave Burroughs a 5-on-3 power play. A minute later, Priory’s Patrick O’Keefe got another minor penalty.

Burroughs' Cooper Hyken scored during the first portion of the double-minor, meaning the second part of the penalty should have still been served. But the official directed the scorer to release O’Keefe instead of resetting the Gaertner penalty.

As a result, Burroughs had its two-man advantage cut short.

“Once in a lifetime situation here,” Burroughs coach Clayton Bury said. “I don’t know how many times a game has been protested in Mid-States or how many times it has been approved. So it’s kind of a unique experience.”

Bury said the referee admitted the mistake after the game Saturday.

“To his credit, he did apologize and told us there is an avenue of appeal we could take to Mid-States,” Bury said.

The Bombers contacted Mid-States on Sunday and prepared an appeal. It was officially filed Monday after Burroughs’ win against Zumwalt South, which made the result between Priory and Burroughs paramount as to which team advanced to the next round.

The teams got word Tuesday that the appeal was approved and the game would start at the point Burroughs scored its power play goal, with 6:16 left on the clock and the Bombers with a two-man advantage for 1 minute, 38 seconds.

“There was a protest,” Mid-States head statistician Ryan Harrison said. “It was ruled that there was an error with the referee in letting the wrong guy out of the box. The board that the appeal went through acknowledged the error of the referee and said there would be a replay of the last six minutes of the game.”

The Ravens already had the top seed in the next round clinched.

But they still played a full-strength roster for the rescheduled resumption Thursday.

“We discussed every scenario of what we could do and even inquired about different scenarios, but in the end, we just felt like we wanted to have some good karma on our side, and we didn’t want to get a reputation of a team that wasn’t going to show up and do it the right way,” Priory coach Jason Getz said.

John Burroughs had several chances to tie during the 5-on-3, but Priory goalie William Azrak made several tough saves and got help from his post on another Bombers’ drive.

“You’re trying to help guide the kids with their mentality,” Bury said. “Of course, they’re going to be nervous and they’re going to be fired up and we want some of that, but also on a 5-on-3 we want some calm and composure and it’s tough to find that happy medium, especially as a teenage kid.”

Marcrander ended the suspense with a goal 17 seconds after the Priory penalties expired.

“It’s not exactly what you want to do,” Marcrander said. “We knew we had to come out and work and make sure they didn’t get the positive results they wanted.”

Getz said he had never been in this situation as a coach or a player.

“Our whole game plan coming into this was, they have essentially 90 seconds, all the pressure is on them,” Getz said. “After that if they haven’t scored, the momentum goes our way.”

The biggest winner was the team that didn’t even take the ice.

With Burroughs’ loss, Zumwalt South advanced to play Fort Zumwalt West in a two-leg quarterfinal that begins Friday. A Bombers loss or tie would have sent them on and sent the Bulldogs home.

“We found out Tuesday about the protest,” Zumwalt South assistant coach Troy Watson said. “We relied on the league to do what was fair. They ruled that the error wasn’t fair to John Burroughs … we’re just happy it played out in our favor.”

None of the players or coaches have ever been in that type of situation or had even heard of such a scenario before.

“I was very shocked and to Mid-States’ credit they realized it was a big error,” Bury said. “It was the biggest moment of our season at that point. I’ve got to give them credit. They said, hey we screwed up and we’re going to rectify it and give you an opportunity. That’s the biggest thing about this is our kids got a sense of closure on this. Even though it didn’t go our way, we got to fight for our life.”