Photo by Michael R. Gulledge, STLhighschoolsports.com

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

ST. PETERS • CBC senior Eric Brown was the team’s go-to goal scorer during the regular season. He’s raised it to an even higher level in the postseason.

Brown scored his sixth goal of the Mid-States Club Hockey Association Challenge Cup playoffs, easily the most among any player remaining in the Challenge Cup, and Anthony Andrews had a goal and two assists Saturday to lead CBC to a 5-1 win over De Smet in Game 1 of their best-of-3 semifinal series at the Rec-Plex.

“It’s just something about putting this jersey on in playoff time,” Brown said. “It’s a feeling like no other and I love coming to the rink with these guys. It’s a lot of fun.”

Riley Howse scored twice and Grant Kleinschmidt also scored for CBC (21-3-3), the four-time defending MSCHA champions. Jack Caruso made 25 saves.

Nickolaus Thorpe scored his team-leading fourth postseason goal for De Smet (17-6-4). William Oliver made 24 saves.

CBC scored on its first two shots on goal of the game.

Brown gave CBC a 1-0 lead just 21 seconds into the game, beating Oliver short-side at a sharp angle.

“A great pass by Michael Deeba, a chip off the boards and I throw it on net looking for a rebound and it snuck through,” Brown said.

Howse doubled the Cadets’ lead just 54 seconds, also scoring from an awkward short-side angle.

“That hasn’t been the way it’s gone for us recently,” CBC coach John Jost said. “We haven’t gotten off to that strong start. We’ve been playing from behind a lot so it was great to get off to that start.”

Andrews gave CBC a 3-0 lead with a short-handed goal 5 minutes and 2 seconds into the second period. Andrews picked off a De Smet pass at the blue line and ripped a slap shot into the upper corner.

After the shaky start, Oliver settled in making 11 saves before the short-handed score including a pad save on a Brown breakaway early in the second.

Thorpe went top corner to get De Smet on the board with 3:01 left in the second. Owen Benben got the assist.

Caruso made several tough stops as De Smet put 14 shots to the net in the middle frame, including a slick poke check to thwart a Spartans’ point blank chance.

“He was really the difference,” Jost said. “They had some opportunities in the second period. Without him we’d be in trouble.”

Kleinschmidt’s power play goal just 20 seconds into the third period gave CBC a 4-1 lead and Howse added an empty-netter with 1:01 left.

“That gave us insurance toward the end of the game,” Andrews said of Kleinschmidt’s goal. “It was a great goal, he was calling for it and was wide open.”

CBC went 1-for-4 with the man advantage, and De Smet went 0-for-3 and gave up the short-handed goal.

“It’s tough with ourselves digging a hole right at the beginning,” De Smet coach Christopher Durso said. “I thought we turned it around there and had the better play. We just couldn’t pop one in.”

CBC beat De Smet once in the regular season and the teams tied twice in the other meetings, so nothing is guaranteed in Game 2 at 8:30 p.m. March 3 back at Rec-Plex.

“We’re very even, I don’t know if the score was necessarily indicative of the game,” Jost said. “But we know they are going to come out hard next Saturday and we need to answer that.”