Friars ice Rams at Coliseum
St. Anthony’s Brian Schuck takes a shot in the game against Fordham at Nassau Coliseum (Denis Gostev)
There have been two players from St. Anthony’s who have made it all the way to the NHL – Los Angeles defenseman Rob Scuderi and Toronto defenseman Mike Komisarek.
For the others, professional hockey is only a dream.
On Saturday afternoon, the Friars got a little taste of NHL life, playing Fordham Prep in a CHSHL Class A contest at Nassau Coliseum.
“When you think of it, Mike Bossy played out there, Wayne Gretzky played out there, Mario Lemieux,” St. Anthony’s coach Jeff Stelmok said. “They took face-offs at the same spots and scored goals from the same spots. It’s really pretty wild, the nostalgia of the building itself, too. People knock the Coliseum, but a lot of stuff happened here.”
On Saturday afternoon, it was where the Friars came from behind to defeat the Rams, 5-4, to remain atop the ‘A’ division. It’s the second straight year St. Anthony’s has won a league game at the Coliseum. Last year the Friars defeated rival Chaminade.
While Stelmok admitted to being in “awe” of standing on the same bench once occupied by the great Al Arbour, he wanted to make sure his team wasn’t too bright-eyed about playing on the Islanders home ice.
“We told our guys to remember that the rink is still 200 feet long and the nets are 4×6 and to stay focused on that,” he said.
What St. Anthony’s (8-1-0) was most focused on was continually clawing itself back into the game. The Rams had a 2-1 lead after one period on a pair of goals by Chris Smith, a 3-2 edge late in the second and had a 4-3 advantage on Joe Regan’s shorthanded goal at 3:45 of the third period.
But Chris Wallace tied the game for St. Anthony’s less than two minutes later and Nick Randazzo scored what proved to be the game-winner with 3:30 left.
“It was special,” Friars co-captain Joe Groneman said. “We played Fordham, which is a good team and to play at Nassau Coliseum in front of a bunch of our fans and a bunch of kids from our school was an experience. It’s fun.”
While Brian Shuck wasn’t getting caught up in the nostalgia of the building, he saw the game as another chance to put St. Anthony’s hockey on the map.
“Our school is mostly focused on football so this shows our friends how we’re a dominant team in hockey, too,” he said.
While St. Anthony’s, which also received goals from Mike Marnell, Alex Camera and Evan Katz, is trying to win a second consecutive CHSHL Class A title, Fordham Prep (4-6-1) is desperate to make the playoffs, which made Saturday’s loss that much more devastating. On Friday, the Rams also lost to Monsignor Farrell by one goal.
“That hurt,” Rams coach Alan Pilla said. “But when we get an effort like we got tonight – if we’re going to play St. Anthony’s 15 times and we have an effort like that, we’ll win our share of games. That’s all you really ask for.”
Fordham Prep, though, did have a golden chance to take control against the Friars. A power play goal by Brendan May gave the Rams a 3-2 lead at 6:29 of the second and 30 seconds later Fordham Prep had a 3-on-1 break. But St. Anthony’s goalie Steven Sedlmaier, who split time with Sean Keating, made a spectacular save.
“If we went up by two goals, it definitely would have changed the momentum,” Smith said. “They would have been a bit down and we definitely would have had all the momentum.”
Instead, St. Anthony’s stayed in the game and rallied to win it in the final five minutes of the third period. Smith, a Devils fan who has now played at Madison Square Garden as a sophomore and Nassau Coliseum as a senior, is trying to draw positives from a lost weekend.
“It’s disappointing, but it’s also kind of a positive because we know we could play with them,” Smith said. “They’re at the top of the league and that shows we could play with anybody if we play the way we’ve played the past two nights.”
