EAST ALTON – East Alton Ice Arena played host to a deciding Mississippi Valley Club Hockey Association Class 1A semifinal game three on Monday evening. The Alton Redbirds faced off against the Belleville Hockey Club, having forced the third game of the series with a 5-4 come-from-behind win in game two.
In a game Belleville coach Nick Harbenko “expected to win” in his own words after game two, Alton came out with energy in front of a packed home crowd at EAIA and came away with a 3-1 win to send the Redbirds to the Class 1A finals.
“I think their coach gave us a little bit of motivation with some of his postgame comments after game two,” said Alton head coach Bryan Clark. “I think that helped fuel us.”
The energy was apparent from the opening faceoff, with Alton looking their most dynamic breaking forward in attack with their star players, Caden Clark and Keller Jacobs. Both goaltenders, Alton senior Logan Seymour and Belleville junior Barron Arbeiter, were up to the challenge, but the latter was the busier of the two all evening.
“[Clark and Jacobs] attract so much attention,” said Bryan Clark of his dynamic duo. “But they’re still able to make things happen. It’s a testament to them, the talent they have, and the hard work they put in.”
Neither team could find the scoresheet in the first period. After a clean, goalless, penalty-less first, the second saw both teams get opportunities on the power play. Both teams rattled the crossbar with the man advantage, but the goalies continued to keep both teams in the hockey game.
Barron Arbeiter might have had the save of the game late in the second, denying Alton’s danger man Keller Jacobs from point-blank range with a sprawling save with the right pad. Alton had a commanding 33-14 shots advantage after two periods, but Arbeiter kept the score goalless heading to a third period that would make or break the season.
As the game wore on, both teams started to get chippy, both teams started pushing and shoving a lot more, and the game became more and more physical down the stretch. After a mostly clean opening 30-plus minutes of hockey, Belleville went two players down in a matter of seconds with around 11 minutes to play in the game.
Alton’s offense, which was dominating the shot chart all night, found the opening goal of the game with the two-man advantage. Keller Jacobs, as he has done so much in a Redbirds sweater, fired a shot to the top corner that Belleville goalie Barron Arbeiter couldn’t reach in time.
Alton had the game’s first goal with 10 minutes to play. 10 minutes to hold on and make the finals.
As the physicality picked up, the referees picked up the whistle a bit more. Keller Jacobs went to the box just moments after he opened the scoring for slashing, which resulted in a quick four-on-four and a Belleville power play.
Logan Seymour in goal came up big during the penalty kill, a lunging save denied Belleville a tying goal. Two minutes later, Alton doubled their advantage.
Alton star Caden Clark whipped a wrist shot over the shoulder of Barron Arbeiter, who stopped all but two of the 43 shots he faced on the evening. The Redbirds had a two-goal lead with six minutes to play, and their packed student section was rocking and banging the boards.
“It was an awesome student section that came out today,” said Alton head coach Ryan Clark postgame. “They’ve supported us all through this series and it gave us the needed energy at the very end.”
Alton would need all the energy they could get. After an interference call put the Redbirds down a man with 3:16 to play, Belleville found the net for the first time just 20 seconds into their power play.
“We took a penalty which we can’t take in that situation,” said Bryan Clark. “But I was pretty confident that we could still finish it out.”
Belleville sophomore Carson Markwell was the one who finally beat Logan Seymour in the Alton goal, assisted by Miles Browne and Mason West. At 2-1 with 2:56 to go, Belleville was right back in a game they seemed out of just three minutes prior.
A tough tripping call against Belleville’s Mason West with 1:37 left in the third put Belleville on the penalty kill for the remaining time. Alton’s Keller Jacobs seemed to fall over West’s stick, but the ref’s hand went up for the penalty regardless.
That sent the Belleville bench into a fury and took a possible comeback out of the hands of the Belleville Hockey Club. With less than a minute to go, Belleville’s leading goalscorer Grant Hubert picked up a game misconduct with a hit from behind and was given his marching orders to the fourth locker room at East Alton Ice Arena.
Following him was head coach Nick Harbenko, who had a few choice words with the officiating crew that saw him ejected from the Belleville bench. Tempers had boiled over from the ice, and Belleville’s season was coming to an unfortunate end.
Tyler Morelli tallied an empty netter in the final seconds to provide the 3-1 final score. There were jubilant scenes on the Alton side of the ice, players and students celebrating after the final horn, but heartbreak and agony on the Belleville side.
“It’s part of hockey, right?” said Bryan Clark on the chippy third period after the win. “You’re playing in front of the students, your buddies, and everyone that goes to school with you, so I get it. Thankfully, we didn’t take penalties that hurt us too much, and we took advantage of opportunities when they arose.”
Alton lost game one, was down 3-0 in game two and came back to win. After a decisive and at times dominant game three, head coach Bryan Clark said his team was playing with a bit extra energy.
“I think we had a bit of a chip on our shoulder after the first game,” Bryan Clark explained. “I definitely thought we were the better team the first game, and there were a couple situations that didn’t go our way… When you can play on emotions and passion, good things can happen, and you can beat better-skilled teams by out-hustling, out-working, and tonight, that’s what we did.”
With the victory, Alton will face Columbia in the MVCHA Class 1A finals starting Tuesday, February 25 at the McKendree Metro Rec Plex.
“[Columbia] beat us all three games during the regular season,” Bryan Clark recalled. “They’ve got a couple of players that you gotta look out for, and after that, it drops off a little bit. It’s fair [to say that about Alton as well], but I think every team has that across the MVCHA.”
“But [Columbia] is a good hockey team, we’re going to have to bring our best selves every single night. We’ve got a few things that we can work on to combat them, and we’ll see where it goes.”
