End of the road

Prairie Ridge's Nick Samuels is closely defended by St. Rita's Daniel Foley during Thursday's AHAI Blackhawk Cup Red Division semifinal at the Edge Ice Arena in Bensenville. (Jeff Krage – For the Northwest Herald. )

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BENSENVILLE – Prairie Ridge desperately wanted to punctuate its first season as an independent by venturing where no Wolves’ hockey team before had gone.

St. Rita would not let that happen.

Prairie Ridge was equal to the Mustangs in most areas except where it was most important Thursday night. St. Rita made its first-minute goal of the third period stand for a 2-1 victory in their AHAI Blackhawk Cup Red Division State Tournament quarterfinal game.

The Wolves, who never have made it past the quarterfinal round in the Red Division tournament, lost to St. Rita for the third time this season.

“This was by far the best we played them,” senior defenseman Jeff Ramsey said. “The last two times, the focus wasn’t there. We went at it as hard as we could and gave it our all. We just missed a couple chances to put the puck in the net.”

St. Rita (46-9-7) advances to the semifinals at 6:40 p.m. Monday against New Trier Green, which defeated York, 3-2, in overtime Wednesday night. The Wolves finished 26-20-7 playing one of the state’s toughest schedules.

“We hung with them, we were pretty even,” senior defenseman Johnny Pottala said. “A couple bounces went their way and didn’t go ours.”

The Mustangs scored first on a shot from Michael Tisoncik that slipped past Wolves goalie Cory Simons early in the first period. Simons blamed himself for that goal, but was solid the rest of the game with 26 saves.

The goal came on a power play.

“They had a 2 on 1 and I played too much in the middle,” Simons said. “I had it with my [left] elbow, but it trickled through.”

Prairie Ridge tied the score midway through the second period when Pottala fired a shot that left wing Mike Kurek deflected past Mustangs goalie Sean Gerich for a power-play goal. St. Rita’s Daniel Foley scored the game-winner 28 seconds into the third period, tapping in a pass from just left of the goal.

“It was a great hockey game, end to end,” Prairie Ridge coach Casey Van Damme said. “We just couldn’t get another one in. [St. Rita] played sound defense and was always in position.”

Gerich had 27 saves for the Mustangs.

“It was a little sloppy, but our penalty-killing was strong and our goalie was really good,” St. Rita coach Craig Ferguson said. “We held on. It seemed like sometimes the ice was tilted for us, and other times it was for them. We haven’t been giving up a lot of goals, and to hold these guys to one goal is a good game.”

Prairie Ridge finished second in the High School Invitational Tournament, reached the semifinals of tournaments at Bartlett and Jamestown, N.Y., and reached the state quarterfinals. The Wolves did not compete in the Chicago Metro Central Division this season, instead scheduling as many of the state’s top teams they could find.

“We did really well,” Simons said. “We were better than last year, we showed a lot for the club. This season was a good step for the program.”