St. John's repeats as Red Division champion with 6-1 win over St. Francis

2/14/2014

St. John's Jesuit repeated as champions of the Northwest Hockey Conference Red Division with a decisive 6-1 win over rival St. Francis de Sales tonight.

The Titans led 3-1 after the second period and then scored three unanswered power play goals to run away with the NHC title.

St. John's junior forward Ian Rapp scored his team's first two goals, including one with 5.8 seconds left in the first period. Rapp also finished with two assists.

Junior forward Andrew Mancy, senior forward Caleb Hauenstein, and senior defenseman Dominic Horvath each scored a goal and each had an assist. Senior defenseman Ben Hamilton also scored for the Titans and junior forward Nick Baumgartner had an assist.

Senior goalie Mike Barrett finished with 24 saves on 25 shots for St. John's.

The Titans improved to 5-1-1 in the NHC Red Division and clinched the title with 11 points. Bowling Green (5-3-0) was second with 10 points and the Knights finished third (4-4-0). St. John's has one more league game remaining on Saturday night against Findlay (1-5-1).

St. Francis tied the game at 1 late in the first period. Sophomore forward Kyle Bloom scored on a nice assists from senior forward Matt Opblinger and senior defenseman Aaron Natyshak.

But St. John's scored in the waning moments of the first and never trailed again. St. Francis battled back in the second but the Titans added another late goal when Mancy scored with 1:10 left in the middle period.

St. Francis goalie Vinny Riccobene finished with 36 saves.

St. John's held a 39-25 edge in shots.