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Round 1 of Kennedy Cup goes to Benet
Updated: March 25, 2013 10:23PM
BENSENVILLE — Game 1 of the 50th Kennedy Cup turned into a battle of goalies.
Benet’s Kevin O’Hara and Fenwick’s Zachary Danna made several great saves for their respective teams before Benet finally scored in the third period and went on to capture a 2-0 victory on Saturday night at the Edge in Bensenville.
Game 2 will be at Seven Bridges at 7:20 p.m. Tuesday.
“You had two Catholic League all-star goalies battling it out tonight,’’ Benet coach Jon Grzbek said. “O’Hara had a tough loss (to Glenbrook North) in his last start but he can play.’’
Patrick Hodgman finally broke the deadlock for Benet (29-13-5) with 11 minutes, 57 seconds to play in the third period. He slapped a backhander off a feed from Kevin Sunyog that hit the crossbar and bounced down into the net. Sunyog took the puck all the way up the ice along the right wing boards and then hit the brakes behind the Fenwick (39-14-5) net before feeding Hodgman.
“I didn’t see the puck go in,’’ Hodgman said. “I just saw the ref and everyone else’s reaction. I was just trying to get the puck on net.’’
“When I stopped behind the net, the defenseman followed me,’’ Sunyog said. “I saw him out of the corner of my eye. That goal was so big in a game like this.’’
Evan Langer added an empty-net goal to ice the victory with 27 seconds remaining.
O’Hara stopped 28 shots, including 14 quality scoring chances. His biggest save came off a penalty shot in the first period by Ben Kohen. The puck drilled O’Hara in the right shoulder to deny Kohen.
“I thought that I would be a lot more nervous than I was tonight,’’ O’Hara said. “Since I was calm, I was able to absorb a lot more shots. If you’re nervous as a goalie, you give up a lot more rebounds.’’
Danna saved 20 shots, including two point-blank chances by Langer in the second period.
