By Larry Moko
Brand new St. John Henry Newman boys' hockey jerseys made their debut appearance on Monday. And to mark the occasion, the Cardinal players all posed for a team picture on the ice just prior to the opening faceoff at Parkdale Arena.
What followed during the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic game against the St. Mary Crusaders, however, turned out to be a less than picture-perfect performance by Newman.
St. Mary skated away with a 5-2 victory.
"We just got a new set," Newman coach Matt Pritchard said of the attractive sweaters. "They just came in from Litzen's (T. Litzen Sports).
"We were hoping to start the new year off looking good, but I think we looked better than we played. That was probably our worst game of the season."
Horizontal striping, resembling a Detroit Red Wings retro style, surrounded 'NEWMAN' on the front.
"We're the only school that has red in our jerseys," Pritchard added. "We got some inspiration from the Red Wings. We wanted to go a little old school, so we looked at some older Red Wing jerseys and kind of built off that idea."
The loss, combined with Bishop Ryan's 4-2 victory over the St. Thomas More Knights, dropped the Cardinals into a first-place tie with the Celtics. Both have 5-2 records.
Fourth-place St. Mary evened its record at 3-3-2.
"I thought we played a great game," said veteran centre Caden Okis, who scored three goals for St. Mary and assisted on another.
Okis also hit the post with a shot in the final minute when Newman had pulled its goaltender in favour of an extra attacker.
"It was nice getting three goals and doing what I can for the team," Okis added. "But it wasn't just an individual effort. Everyone played their part on 200 feet of the ice.
"Newman was ranked No. 1 and we were near the bottom. So a win against the first-place team feels good. We've just got to keep that momentum going."
Okis scored the only two goals of the first period off the rush. He then assisted on Noah Nevins' marker and found the net again with two minutes, 27 seconds remaining in the third to give the Crusaders a 4-2 cushion.
Nick Napoleone added an empty-net marker to round out the scoring with 28 seconds left.
Newman got on the scoreboard when Brett Parker raced down the wing and launched a perfectly placed shot to the top corner on goaltender Michael Novak's stick side.
The Cardinals then crept closer on a power-play marker with just 2.8 seconds remaining in the second period. Sam Gall got the goal off the rush on a drop pass by Ben Skingley.
"Overall," Pritchard said, "we've been playing pretty good this year. Just a slow start in this game. St. Mary capitalized on their scoring chances and were definitely the best team today."
According to Pritchard, the Cardinals' goal is to finish either first or second in the standings to avoid having a quarter-final playoff game.
"In the last couple of years this league has shown that anybody can beat anybody," he said. "So if you don't have to play that extra game it goes a long way."
In the girls' half of the doubleheader, St. Mary (1-5-1) and Newman (2-2-1) skated to a 3-3 tie.
Elsewhere in girls' hockey, the Bishop Ryan Celtics won their sixth consecutive start, 9-4, over the St. Thomas More Knights (1-5).
Photos by R.F. (Bob) Butrym, RFB Sport Photography
More photos on HWCDSB Athletics Facebook page
