Original Article

MANCHESTER • De Smet forwards Jack Estes and Daniel Kinzel only needed a simple nod of the head to get on the same page.

Kinzel’s goal with 8 minutes and 1 second left in the third period broke a tie and propelled the Spartans to a hard-fought 2-1 win over Kirkwood in a Mid-States Club Hockey Association Municipal Division game at Queeny Park on Monday night.

Estes won a key faceoff to start the game-winning tally.

“Dan (and I) have been doing that all year,” Estes said. “We’ve been playing together for three years. (The chemistry) just builds up over time.”

De Smet coach Christopher Durso wasn’t surprised by the play.

“I just tell them to go in there with a plan and let the kids decide when they get out there what to do,” Durso said. “They did that on their own.”

Estes also scored for De Smet (11-4-2), which improved to 4-1-1 in its last six games. Goaltender Jakub Dobes, playing in just his second game of the season, made 18 saves.

“We’ve had some games where we’ve taken too many penalties for my liking, but tonight we were good with that,” Durso said. “We stayed disciplined and getting ready for the stretch run and the playoffs, it’s good sign.”

Andrew Herweck scored for Kirkwood (9-8-2), which lost to the Spartans for the second time this season. Mitchell Day made 24 saves for the Pioneers.

Dobes, a native of the Czech Republic, had to sit for the first part of the season after transferring from Chaminade. He made several timely saves throughout the game, including a couple on a late Kirkwood power play as the Spartans clung to their lead.

Estes’ unassisted goal gave De Smet a 1-0 lead with 3:15 left in the first period. Estes forced a turnover deep in the Kirkwood zone and scored with a forehand-backhand move.

“Playing hard, sticking to our systems, that’s the biggest thing,” Estes said. “Playing together, we needed to bounce back after (losing to) SLUH last week and this is great.”

Before the goal, each goalie took turns making highlight-reel saves.

Dobes made a pair of stops on Kirkwood’s Carson Day while the Pioneers were short handed. Mitchell Day followed with two quick saves on a De Smet two-on-one opportunity by Colton Walpert and Tyler Loughman.

“We have two goaltenders that are the foundation of the entire team and when they show up and play that way their energy exudes to everyone else and we try to feed off that,” Kirkwood coach Mark Fischer said.

Kirkwood drew even with a fluke goal on the power play after Dobes’ pass attempt went off a Spartans defender and into the net at the 6:05 mark of the second period. Herweck was credited with the goal.

Dobes made up for it with a glove save of Kirkwood’s Seamus Campbell and a pad save on a drive from Trevor Buchanan.

“He’s an experienced goaltender and he’s going to make mistakes and he just bounced back from that one,” Durso said. “We needed it.”

Not to be outdone, Mitchell Day denied De Smet’s Grant Ahlheim on a breakaway to keep it tied heading into the third period.

“I think tonight we had two mental breakdowns and they scored on both of those mental breakdowns,” Fischer said. “Those are mental lapses of guys either being fatigued, which is never an excuse, or not knowing what to do, which is also not an excuse. You're always trying to take the positives and know it’s not the end of the world.”