GRANITE CITY – A four-goal first-period explosion for Belleville was all that they needed Monday night.
The four goals were enough to send Alton out of the Mississippi Valley Club Hockey Association Class 1A playoffs as Belleville swept the best-of-three semifinal series between the two teams at Wilson Park Ice Rink in Granite City.
Belleville advanced to the MVCHA Class 1A Final, where they will take on Triad, who eliminated Granite City with a 10-5 win in the second game of their series at East Alton Ice Arena Monday; the best-of-three championship series gets under way at 8:45 p.m. Thursday, with Game 2 set for 7:15 p.m. Feb. 20 and (if necessary) Game 3 set for 8:45 p.m. Feb. 21.
“That’s a good team; they’ve got a lot of skilled players,” said Redbird coach Steven Campbell. “Some play Central States (junior hockey); they have one player, Garrett Dahm, who’s playing Tier III juniors right now. That’s the caliber of team they’ve got, and you have to play your hardest every game.”
A Caleb Little goal from Justin Araiza just 20 seconds into the game set the tone for the game. “I don’t think it deflated our tires,” Campbell said. “The boys came back and tried for all three periods; we just couldn’t get a goal. I don’t think it was an effort problem, the kids tried their hardest. They (Belleville) were the better team in the series.”
Dahm scored the second Belleville goal just 1:51 after Little’s initial goal unassisted, with Little following up with his second goal unassisted with 4:38 left in the period and Matthew West sealing the deal off Dahm and Araiza assists with 17.6 seconds remaining in the period. From there, Belleville goalie Jordon Douglas held the Redbirds off the scoresheet.
Belleville held Alton to 12 shots on goal, Douglas recording all 12 saves; the Redbirds gave up 42 shots on goal, with Caleb Currie getting 38 saves for Alton.
Campbell enjoyed the experience of being the first-year varsity coach for the Redbirds. “It was a lot of fun” coaching the Redbirds, Campbell said. “I’ve coached three years, coaching the JV and coaching varsity now; it’s a whole different playing field out here. It’s a lot faster game and I’m just trying to teach the kids that JV and varsity are totally different.”
The Redbirds will be losing just three seniors, Tanner St. Peters, Bryce Simon and Mark Vitali, from this year’s team. “Overall, I think it was pretty good,” Campbell said when asked his thoughts on the season overall. “We’ve got a lot of freshmen, a lot of young guys; it’s just a young team and this is their team for three years; I said to them to enjoy it and have fun. High school’s a short four years, I told them to enjoy it.
“We’re looking forward to next season already. We’ll have to fill the void (being left by the graduating seniors) and the players are going to have to step up and play tough. They just have to play hard every game; once they get used to that, playing three full periods, I think we’ll be OK.”
