Photo by Rick Ulreich, STLhighschoolsports.com

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

MANCHESTER • Chaminade senior Adam Trunko wasn’t ready to hang up the skates quite yet.

Trunko scored three goals and Alexander Stewart and Vincent Servizzi each had one goal and one assist Tuesday to lead Chaminade to an 8-2 victory over Oakville in Game 2 of the Mid-States Challenge Cup quarterfinal playoff series at Queeny Park.

Chaminade (14-7-3) eliminated the Tigers (14-10-1) and will play St. Louis U. High in the first game of the semifinals Feb. 24 at St. Peters Rec-Plex.

“Obviously, it’s one of the biggest games of my high school career,” Trunko said. “I’ve been looking forward to it all week. There were some nerves with the crowd we had, but the first period we got them out and the second period broke it wide open.”

Timothy Delaney, Jimmy Pudlowski and Louis Aquino also scored for Chaminade and Jackson Kremer had three assists. Red Devils goalie Hampus Blomdahl made 13 saves.

Chase Bradley scored both goals for Oakville. Tigers goalie Chase Christopher made 16 saves.

Trunko broke a 2-2 tie with two goals in a 30-second span in the second period.

His first came off of sustained pressure in the Oakville zone after a pair of Tigers turnovers. Trunko ended the sequence by burying a feed from Kyle Crews with 7:20 left in the second.

“They were trying to get it out, we just had our fore-check that’s how we draw it up, we’ve really been working on it in practice,” Trunko said. “We were just able to get it in deep and keep it going and I was able to come back door and put it in.”

Trunko made it 4-2 at 6:50, capitalizing on a rebound off of a Michael Deelo shot.

Delaney made it 5-2 with 4:26 left, scoring his second goal of the playoffs.

Trunko completed the hat trick, scoring with 3:05 left in the second to give the Red Devils a 6-2 lead. He celebrated by jumping into the glass in front of a boisterous Chaminade student section.

Pudlowski and Aquino scored in the third for Chaminade before the game was stopped midway through the third by referee’s decision as emotions ran high.

“It was up to me whether to call the game and for the protection of my players right, wrong or indifferent, we weren’t going to go back out there when we have a lot more to look forward to against SLUH next,” Chaminade coach Kiley Hill said.

Oakville coach Tyler Sollberger understood the decision.

“I understand they’re in a position to protect everybody,” Sollberger said. “We called a timeout to stop the nonsense and we understand they have to do that to protect the players and that’s OK.”

The second period outburst broke open what had been an even first three-plus games between the two teams this season. The teams split a pair of regular season games, each of which ended in a 4-3 score, and then tied 3-3 in game one of the series making Tuesday’s game a winner-take-all.

Bradley gave Oakville a 1-0 lead at the 3:57 mark of the first period. Bradley used the Chaminade defender as a screen and his shot went off of Blomdahl’s shoulder and into the net.

Chaminade took advantage of a two-man power play to even the game as Stewart scored with 6:08 left in the first.

“That’s been one of our keys all year is getting goals back right after other teams score,” Stewart said. “That was probably one of the biggest moments of the game.”

Servizzi gave Chaminade a 2-1 lead with a short-handed goal with 2:54 left in the first. Servizzi used his speed to get past the Oakville defense and beat Christopher five-hole.

Bradley tied the game at 2-all just 36 seconds into the second. A Scott Douglas pass sprung him on the rush and Bradley scored on a back-hander.

Chaminade lost all four regular season games against SLUH (23-1), the overall No. 1 seed.

“If we play like we did tonight I think we’ll make it a good series,” Hill said. “Obviously they’re a strong team, lot of depth, but at the same time we’ve faced a lot of adversity this year and anything can happen in the playoffs.”