Original Article

MANCHESTER • De Smet had an unusual group of fans cheering it on in the form of conference rival Chaminade on Thursday night.

While the Spartans already had punched their ticket into the Mid-States Club Hockey Association Challenger Cup quarterfinals, the Red Devils needed De Smet to beat a desperate Edwardsville team in the final preliminary round pool play game at the Queeny ice rink.

De Smet took care of its long-time rival by beating the Tigers and ending their season with a 6-3 win.

“We knew they (Chaminade) were going to come out and support the team because they knew if we won they moved on,” De Smet senior Joshua Abel said. “They were definitely rooting for us tonight.”

Jacob Kausch scored twice, Carson Wilhelm had a goal and two assists, and Colton Walpert and Abel each had a goal and an assist for De Smet (14-5-3), the No. 3 seed in the Challenger Cup playoffs. Daniel Kinzel also scored for the Spartans, while Jakub Dobes made 17 saves.

“There’s a lot of guys in our locker room who are playing for playing time so to say this was a meaningless game wasn’t in our narrative at all,” De Smet coach Christopher Durso said. “There were guys playing for playing time in the next round, it’s a playoff game, let’s treat it as every other playoff game.”

William Schuster scored twice and had an assist and Sam Gibbons had a goal and an assist for Edwardsville (6-13-2), which needed a win or a tie to advance. Mason Young made 24 saves for the Tigers.

“These guys work incredibly hard 11 months out of the year to play at this level,” Edwardsville coach Jason Walker said. “We’re disappointed in the way that it ended but we’re proud of the effort that we gave.”

De Smet scored the game’s first two goals and never trailed.

Kinzel scored off of a faceoff to give De Smet a 1-0 lead just 81 seconds into the game. Walpert and Michael Mullen got the assists.

Walpert made it 2-0 Spartans 3 minutes, 15 seconds into the first period scoring his first of the postseason from Abel.

“It’s important because they’re fighting for their season with everything they got,” Wilhelm said of the fast start. “It was good to put them down early.”

Schuster got Edwardsville on the board by finishing a perfectly-executed two-on-one with Gibbons at the 6:12 mark of the first.

Abel got it back for De Smet late in the first as his shot deflected off of a stick and into the net to make it 3-1 with two minutes, 12 seconds left in the opening period. It was his first ever varsity goal.

“It was kind of a grimy goal,” Abel said. “It was a deflection off of their team but it was a lot of fun.”

The whole Spartans bench was happy to see him rewarded.

“He’s a senior, been through the grind all four years,” Durso said. “You should have seen the look on his face when he came to the bench.”

Edwardsville benefitted from a fortunate bounce to cut the Spartans’ lead to 3-2. Gibbons riffled a shot over the net, but the puck bounced off the end boards and off of Dobes’ back and into the net at the 3:38 mark of the second period.

De Smet needed just six seconds to answer on an unassisted goal by Wilhelm to restore the two-goal advantage.

“We saw some to the Chaminade guys and the coaches (in the stands),” Durso said. “A couple of times when the game got within one goal you could see some anxiety on their faces, but we’re through and they’re through.”

A Schuster wrister found its way through traffic to once again get Edwardsville to within one just 23 seconds into the third period.

True to form, De Smet answered as Kausch found the upper near corner to make it 5-3 at the 1:47 mark.

Kausch put an exclamation on the win with a late goal in the third.

“The games will only get tighter, the mistakes will only get more glaring,” Durso said of the next round. “We’ve got to make sure we clean up some things in our defensive zone and get rolling on offense.”