ARLINGTON — Curt Colarullo couldn’t have asked for a better response.
Just three days after the Arlington Catholic boys hockey team was trounced by six goals against Xaverian, celebrations flooded the walk from the ice to the locker room Tuesday afternoon following a 3-2 upset win over St. John’s of Shrewsbury — the reigning Div. 1 state finalists — in its next game.
The Cougars (2-2) scored two power-play goals in a game the Pioneers (1-2) couldn’t stay out of the box (eight penalties), and got a strong effort in net from Henry Naylor (25 saves) as they look for a consistent starter to replace departed star Patrick Clair.
Senior Alex Frost and sophomore Brayden Boczenowski scored in the third period for AC.
“It doesn’t get much lower than a 7-1 loss,” Colarullo said. “We worked really hard the last two days. They put a lot of work into it. We did a lot of video, we did a lot of stuff on the ice. I think the emotion is, that’s a complete (180) for us. … We went back to the drawing board and we talked about all the little things. What it takes to win a hockey game.”
“It’s a huge win,” Frost added. “We had a rough game on Saturday, and I think it brought the intensity in practice. And we really took it into this game. We haven’t beat this team in five years, so, it’s a huge win for the guys.”
St. John’s put Arlington Catholic in an early hole that could’ve snowballed, as Jayson Wrzosek tallied a shorthanded goal with 8:47 left in the first period.
Instead, the Cougars applied pressure around Pioneers goalie Colin McCarthy (24 saves). Cael Colarullo potted the neutralizer a few minutes in the second period on a power play, sparking three straight goals AC scored over the next 20 minutes.
With the score tied at 1-1 after two periods, the Cougars came out firing. Their all-senior top line needed just 25 seconds to grab a 2-1 advantage, with Frost finishing off the goal in front.
“It’s tied up, we knew had to come out hard, fast,” Frost said. “My linemate Stephen (Constantine) popped it up front, a little snipe, and all the boys on the bench were hyped. It really set the tone for the rest of the period.”
Four minutes later, another St. John’s penalty came back to bite them when Boczenowski fired a shot off McCarthy that trickled in for a 3-1 Arlington Catholic lead on the power play.
“That was something that we worked on a lot the last two days, was our power play,” Curt Colarullo said. “Just getting kids moving. We couldn’t be standing still, we got to get them moving and get pucks to the net, and get a body in front.”
The Pioneers kept fighting out of a timeout, though, drawing a power play with 8:22 to go.
Naylor couldn’t deny a Kaden Rorick goal that cut St. John’s’ deficit to 3-2 with 4:37 left, but he did enough to keep St. John’s off the board across its four power plays.
“Naylor stepped up,” Curt Colarullo said. “That was exactly what we needed today from him. He made some really big saves, he kept the puck out, he had some timely freezes when you need a whistle.”
