FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS • Surely, Brad Burnworth figured it would never come to this.
The eighth shooter in a nine-skater rotation for the Althoff hockey team, Burnworth scored the winner in a long shootout round to lead the Crusaders to a 4-3 victory over O'Fallon in the decisive Game 3 of the teams' Mississippi Valley Club Hockey Association Class 2A South Division finals Thursday night at U.S. Ice Sports Complex.
"I started going down the ice, went to the backhand, it hit the post, it hit the back of the goalie and went in," said Burnworth, a senior forward with four goals this season. "It was kind of weird thinking at the end this could be the last couple minutes (of high school hockey). So, it's awesome that I get to keep going a little longer and maybe get a championship now."
The win means Althoff will play for the MVCHA Class 2A title for the sixth straight season. The Crusaders have won three times (2006-07, 2008-09 and 2009-10) during the stretch. Game 1 of the championship round against Edwardsville is set for 6:50 p.m. Monday at U.S. Ice.
"A couple of these boys play together on another team, so it will be a good, friendly matchup," Althoff coach Charlie Kassly said. "We're gonna have to hustle because Edwardsville is gonna bring a whole other intensity than even what O'Fallon brought us tonight."
O'Fallon finishes the season 1-5 against Althoff.
"I'm awful proud of the boys," Panthers coach Ken Barnhill said. "To go to an eight-round shootout with Althoff and to push them to a Game 3, you probably couldn't have asked for a whole lot more. It's a somber locker room in there, but we're not hanging our heads."
The Crusaders were dominant in the first period, outshooting the Panthers 16-3 and holding a 2-0 lead.
Adam Dettenmeier started the scoring with a goal at the 9:07 mark on a long rush from just beyond center ice. Sam Yauch then banged in a loose puck with 40.5 seconds left in the period for the second goal.
Althoff grabbed a 3-0 lead just 36 seconds into the second period when Sean Ditch tipped Jacob Switzer's drive from the right point past O'Fallon goaltender Justin Lewis.
O'Fallon finally lit the lamp with 6:00 to go in the second period when Austin Graf scored on a 4-on-3 man-advantage. Tommy Maggio's blast from just inside the blue line then cut it to 3-2 with 1:51 left in the period.
The Panthers completed the comeback just 1:52 into the third period when Graf knocked in a rebound from the left doorstep for his second power-play goal of the game.
"We came out slow and I don't think the game plan was to go down 3-0," Barnhill said. "But we stuck with it, we worked it north to south and it paid off. It was just a fantastic effort to get it back to 3-3."
There is no overtime in the MVCHA playoffs, so the game went directly to the shootout. But it wouldn't have reached that point if not for several outstanding saves down the stretch by Lewis, who stopped 39 of 42 shots in the game.
"I just talked to Justin Lewis, and he had a hell of a hot hand," said Kassly, whose son, Adam, is the Althoff goalie. "He's probably one of the best goalies out there. I really give congratulations to him for keeping them strong in the game."
The best-of-three shootout saw its first goal from Althoff's second shooter, Yauch, who buried a wrist shot. O'Fallon's second shooter, Graf, scored to tie things up.
And it stayed that way from shooters Nos. 3-7 for each team. With only freshman Max Sieron left to go for Althoff before the rotation would have flipped back to the first shooter, Burnworth finally broke the drought in the eighth round.
"Brad has been grinding out all year, so it was nice to see him get the winning goal," Kassly said.
O'Fallon had one more chance to keep the game going, but when the puck rolled off the stick of Nicholas Krivokruca, the celebration was on for Althoff.
