Loyola Gold, St. Rita advance

It was an unpredictable weekend at The Edge Ice Arena in Bensenville.

After Hinsdale Central shocked the high school hockey world Saturday when it rallied from a 3-0 third-period deficit with six unanswered goals – three of which came in 90 seconds – to beat Fenwick, the final two quarterfinal games in the Blackhawk Cup on Sunday followed suit.

Just when it looked as though the best Loyola Gold could hope for was overtime after shooting itself in the foot with four consecutive penalties late in the third period, the short-handed Ramblers scored the game-winning goal with a minute to play to beat Crystal Lake South 3-2.

Up next for Loyola is St. Rita (54-8-2), which managed to kill off three first-period penalties and advance to semifinal play for the second consecutive year with a 3-1 victory over Barrington (43-14-7).

“We played smart today,” said St. Rita coach Craig Ferguson, whose team will battle Loyola in Tuesday’s semifinal with a trip to next Monday’s title game at the United Center on the line.

Barrington, which dropped a heart-breaking five-overtime loss to Glenbrook South a week earlier in the Scholastic Cup title game, had three huge opportunities in the opening period to grab the momentum. But not only did the Mustangs manage to kill each of the Broncos’ opportunities, they also outshot Barrington 11-5 in the period.

“The first period was kind of frustrating for us, because there were some cheap calls,” St. Rita’s Alex Zemke said. “But we did what we had to and that was killing the penalties.”

Less than a minute into the second period, St. Rita’s Mike Ferguson gave the Mustangs a 1-0 lead. After Barrington failed to take advantage of two more penalties, Zemke made it 2-0 when he recorded a power-play goal of his own with 3:40 left in the period.

“That was a big goal,” said Ferguson, whose team will also battle Fenwick in the Kennedy Cup Finals beginning Thursday at Southwest Ice Arena in Crestwood.

Mike Tisoncik landed the knockout punch for St. Rita in the third period when he flicked a wrister past Barrington goalie Mitchell Saviola for the Mustangs’ second consecutive power-play goal and a three-goal cushion.

“It was a nice, easy goal,” said Tisoncik, whose shot seemed to surprise Saviola a little bit. “It was good to get, because it gave us a big lead.”

The Broncos’ lone goal came off the stick of Craig Caplin with 2:05 to play. St. Rita’s Ryan Carroll added an empty netter with 45 seconds left.

Loyola lived another day despite playing with fire in the third period.

After having three penalties called on them within a two-minute span with four minutes to play, Loyola was given a five-minute major for cross checking with 1:22 to play.

“I was thinking about overtime after that, hoping we could suck it up to get there,” Loyola coach D.J. Lavarre said.

But just when things seemed to be going Crystal Lake South’s (47-11-7) way, Loyola’s Gary Lee found a little space and made them pay.

“Once we were able to clear the puck out of our zone, all I was thinking about was taking the puck to the goal,” Lee said. “I knew it was between me, two defenders and the goalie. I knew the goalie was going to go down, so I decided to go top shelf.”

That shelf was wide open with 1:07 to play, which earned Loyola another semifinal berth. It was Lee’s second goal of the game, after recording the Ramblers’ first tally in the first period.

“We let him drive down the ice by getting to the outside,” Crystal Lake South coach Mark Zielinski said. “This one was tough, but it was everything a playoff game should be.”

Matt Doubek also scored for Loyola, while Scottie Stalo and Brian Lichterman had goals for Crystal Lake South.