Original Article

BALLWIN • Persistence has been a motto for the De Smet hockey team all season.

It came into play on Monday night as the Spartans came back from a one-goal deficit to pull away with a 4-1 win over Marquette in a Mid-States Club Hockey Association Challenge Cup quarterfinal at Queeny Park Recreational Complex.

Jack Estes and Jacob Kausch each had a goal and an assist while Michael Mullen and Carson Wilhelm also scored for De Smet (17-6-3). Justin Reynolds added two assists and Jakub Dobes made 27 saves.

“We have really good captains on our team that keep us motivated and keep us going,” Kausch said. “We weren’t worried at all.”

De Smet advanced to face either CBC or Chaminade in a semifinal on March 1.

CBC will face Chaminade in a quarterfinal at  7 p.m. Tuesday. 

De Smet beat the Cadets in a semifinal last season before falling to St. Louis U. High in the championship game.

“Sometimes you’re not going to be your best and you have to find some guts and gut it out,” De Smet coach Christopher Durso said. “We were able to do that tonight and come out with the win.”

Adisen Brueck scored for Marquette (19-4-2) and Nicholas Stewart made 23 saves.

De Smet scored a pair in the second period after falling behind 1-0 in the first.

Mullen drew De Smet even at the 2 minutes, 21 seconds into the second. Reynolds and Estes set up the odd-man rush and Mullen went 5-hole for his third goal of the postseason.

Kausch gave De Smet a 2-1 lead 80 seconds later, showing off some nifty stickhandling to split the Mustangs defenders before scoring with a quick wrister.

“I practiced that a lot and I’ve dreamed about scoring a goal especially in a big game like this,” Kausch said. “I knew exactly what I was going to do and I was lucky it went in.”

Dobes got locked in for De Smet in facing 11 shots in the second period, making several tough stops including a pad save on Trevor Keune's point-blank opportunity.

“It was hard,” Dobes said. “I was telling myself to be focused, keep working and do my best and it worked.”

Dobes remained strong in the third. The De Smet net minder stopped Marquette’s Riley Brueck on a break early in the final period and made several tough saves during a late Mustangs' power play.

“That’s the most shots we’ve let up in awhile, typically we keep them under 20, but we had some defensive lapses today and he (Dobes) was there to back us up,” Durso said.

Estes and Wilhelm sealed the win with empty-net goals.

“We knew they were going to have a strong push early in the game and we just wanted to weather the storm and we did that,” Durso said. “We got through it down just by one and we wanted to turn it on. We never really turned it on but those empty-net goals at the end helped a lot.”

De Smet had the first six shots of the game, but Marquette took a 1-0 lead on Adisen Brueck’s goal with 5:12 left in the first period.

De Smet fired 11 shots at Stewart in the first, but the Marquette goalie was equal to the task, making consecutive pad and stick saves on a Spartans’ flurry late in the opening frame.

“I thought we played great,” Marquette coach Gary Tockman said. “Their goaltender’s superb. We played good, we carried play most of the time, a lot of up and down and it’s just the way it goes.”