March 30, 1982
By Mike Kern
After suffering its first loss of the season last Monday to upstart Archbishop Ryan in the opening round of the third annual Flyers Cup, you would have thought Germantown Academy’s hockey team would take the ice for last night’s rematch breathing fire. Instead, it was the Raiders who came out smoking, and for the better part of two periods it appeared that Ryan might pull off its second major upset in as many tries against one of the pre-tournament favorites. Ryan held a 3-1 lead entering the final minute of the middle period, but the Patriots’ J.J. Reydel took the first step toward restoring order when he scored on a breakaway just 34 seconds before intermission.
That momentum swinger opened the door, and Bob Brody waltzed right in at the outset of the third period. The junior winger knocked in a pair of shorthanded goals within a 23-second span to put GA in front, then he assisted on Reydel’s game-winner, also a shorthanded effort three minutes later, as the Pats escaped, 6-4. GA will now meet West Chester, which earned a bye to the finals of this “win three” format by sweeping its two games last week, tomorrow night for the championship.
“PSYCHOLOGICALLY, you never want to give up a goal in the first or last minute of a period,” said GA Coach Bruce Craig, a former player at Penn. “They Ryan] had to go into the locker room and think about it for the full 15 minutes. That may have taken the wind out of their sails.” It didn’t, then certainly Brody’s superlative effort did. With Ryan attacking on the power play and a chance to build a two-goal cushion, Brody turned the tide by taking the puck away from Fran Beck deep in the Raiders’ zone, circling out in front of the net, and beating goalie Vince Craven on the long side to tie the score. Moments later, after GA forced a face-off, Reydel won the draw and fed the puck to Brody in the slot. Craven never had a chance as the Pats went ahead for the first time, 4-3. “In that situation, you try to think defense,” explained Brody, whose hat trick and two assists boosted his tourney-leading stats to seven goals and four assists. “I knew if we stopped them from scoring, we’d have the firepower to come back. When the defenseman gets lazy with the puck, you have to jump on it.
It’s not something you plan; it just happens. “More than what it did to them, it picked us right up. We’ve come out flat both times against them, but in the last game, we couldn’t come back when they got ahead. Tonight, we were able to recuperate.” Last night marked Reydel’s return to the lineup after undergoing minor surgery on his abdomen 10 days ago. Craig feels that Reydel, the team’s leading scorer in the regular season, is the catalyst of his 27-1 squad.
“J.J.’S OUR HEART and soul,” lauded Craig. “He’s our game-breaker. Just having him back in the lineup was a spark. But Brody may be our most adept player around the net. He was frustrated at the beginning of the year because he couldn’t find his touch, and he wasn’t scoring that much. He’s got seven so far in this series, and if you leave him alone in front, he’ll kill you.” Craig then explained his team’s proficiency at playing a man down.
“When we’re on the power play, I tell the kids they have to work twice as hard at controlling the puck,” he said. “It works the same way in reverse when we’re shorthanded. When the other team is not working hard, we’ve got some kids with wheels who we can dangle. We can go with one kid who’s defensive-minded, and one who’s got those jets. You might come up big.”
ICE CHIPS: Rob Schlegel scored into an empty net to seal the win with 13 seconds remaining… GA outshot Ryan, 23-22, but both young goalies, freshmen Mike Richter of GA and sophomore Vince Craven of Ryan, came up with some big saves …Chris Checchia, Dan Palmer, Mike Roshko, and Chris Campagnola had goals for the losers… Attendance was a sparse 797… West Chester defeated Ryan, 7-3, in last week’s second-round match… In the all-star preliminary, the Inter-County League, led by Tim Brosious’ two goals, downed the Eastern League, 5-2. Tomorrow’s winner will travel to Johnstown over the weekend to meet the Pittsburgh champion for the second annual Pennsylvania Cup.
