Jacobs blanked

Jacobs' Jeremy Gottardo watches his shot during Tuesday's Blackhawk Cup White Division State Championship against Niles Notre Dame at the Edge Ice Arena in Bensenville. Notre Dame won, 5-0. (Jeff Krage – For the Northwest Herald)

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BENSENVILLE – A helpless feeling engulfed the Jacobs bench midway through the third period.

The Golden Eagles’ hopes of grabbing a state title, which had looked so promising two periods earlier, had dissipated.

Niles Notre Dame, leading by three goals to start the period, added two more in the third to defeat Jacobs, 5-0, in the AHAI Blackhawk Cup White Division State Tournament championship Tuesday at The Edge. The White Division tournament is for those teams that did not qualify for the Red Division.

“If we played as well the whole game as we did in the first period, we easily could have had this,” Eagles defenseman Justin Kloiber said. “They put one in, and it burst our bubble and took momentum. Then we started taking dumb penalties.”

Notre Dame’s end of the ice was strewn with gloves, helmets and sticks after the Dons’ victory celebration. On Jacobs’ end was Alex Crescenti’s broken goalie stick alongside his glove and blocker.

“The first 10 minutes we were peppering them, but their goalie (Ryan Maize) made the key stops when he had to,” Jacobs coach Chip Anderson said. “If one of those goes in early, it could be a whole different ball of wax.”

Instead, Jacobs (26-20-4) had 1:08 of a 5-on-3 advantage in the first period, then another 1:30 in the second, and could not score.

“We needed to capitalize and we didn’t,” defenseman Ed Weine said. “We fell apart in the second period.”

Notre Dame scored 27 seconds into the second period on a power play when Alex Murphy tipped in a pass. The Dons (17-33-5) scored again 27 seconds later on Tim Vandermeir’s goal.

“The first period was good, we were able to hold it to 0-0,” said Maize, who made 25 saves. “I did feel like I was on. Knowing it’s a state championship game gives you a little added energy. And that big win over New Trier White (1-0 in Saturday’s semifinal) helped.”

Maize wound up not allowing a goal in the semifinal or the state championship games.

“We weren’t getting any bounces, and their goalie played really solid,” Jacobs left wing Jeremy Gottardo said. “If we could have scored early, we would have kept on him.”

Jacobs finished third in the Metro Central American Division and third in the Metro Central Scholastic Cup playoffs before the White Division state tournament.

“I was surprised,” Gottardo said. “Once the playoffs started we came out strong and pushed until the end.”

Anderson didn’t think his team played poorly Tuesday.

“We just kind of got on our heels when their goalie stopped all our shots,” he said. “We couldn’t get regrouped. Overall it was a good season and I’m proud of these guys.”