St. Andrew’s College Saints near top of CISAA hockey standings through first month

December 17, 2014 · 0 Comments

By Jake Courtepatte

Last year’s CISAA champions are looking to prove their dominance once again this season, doing so in a brand new, state-of-the-art on-campus arena.

The First Hockey Saints took to the ice at the LaBrier Family Arena for their fifth league game of the season last Wednesday, playing host to the Ridley College Tigers.

After a scoreless opening period, it was the Saints who found the back of the net first, with Aurora-native Quentin Campbell notching his first league goal of the season in the second period.

While the St. Andrew’s squad peppered the Tigers’ net with shot after shot, Ridley’s Christian Girhiny managed to tie the game at one, less than a minute into the third period.

It was St. Andrew’s Mitchell Martan that broke open the scoring with less than ten minutes to play, scoring two goals to guarantee a Saint’s victory, their third of the year.

While Saints goaltender Matthew Galajda made a remarkable 28 stops on 29 shots, Ridley’s Evan DeBrouwer was equally impressive stopping 54 of the 57 pucks the Saints put on net.

“We threw a lot at the net, but they’ve got a great goaltender,” said head coach David Manning. “He made it difficult on us for sure.”

Prior to Wednesday’s win, the Saints had lost their last two CISAA matchups over the course of busy weekend at S.A.C. at the end of November.

The First Hockey team played a marathon three games over the course of just over 24 hours, shutting out St. Michael’s College before succumbing to New York’s Nichols School and Appleby College, 4 – 2 and 5 – 4, respectively.

The fatigue certainly did not find its way to the Saints sticks, outshooting their opponents in both losses, including 45 shots on net against Appleby.

But Manning said it was just “one of those days.”

“Sometimes things just don’t go your way. You’ve got to look past it and move on.”

Despite a mediocre 3-2 record in CISAA action this season, an overall record of 17-3-2, including exhibitions and tournaments, gives much more credit to the talented team.

“Our league is competitive,” said Manning. “We play 55 games, so you’re not going to win them all.”

S.A.C.’s premier hockey club is now heading to St. Sebastian’s School just outside of Boston for a weekend tournament from Dec. 19-21, a tournament they have won the last two years.