La Salle shuts out Archbishop Ryan in Flyers Cup AAA quarters

HATFIELD TWP. >> When the final horn sounded, and the teams met at center ice to shake hands, the final score read 5-0 La Salle, as the Explorers battled past Archbishop Ryan to advance in the AAA Flyers Cup.

However, if it was not for goalie Harrison Feeney’s early heroics, the game could have turned out completely different.

“We got off to a little bit of a slow start and Harrison (Feeney) really was able to keep the guys in it,” La Salle head coach Wally Muehlbronner said. “Once we finally got going I think we pretty much controlled the game the way we wanted.”

It was not just one save Fenney had to make either. For the first five minutes of the game,La Salle looked flat, and Ryan was bringing the action to them.

Just a minute into the game, Tyler Giwerowski broke out past the Explorers defense for a clean breakaway, but Feeney was there with the pad to stop a nice deke from the Raiders’ forward.

Not much later, it was Feeney again stopping another breakaway chance from Ryan, setting the tone for his squad and allowing the Explorers to settle in.

“Ryan had some really good saves early and Harrison kept us in it, it could have easily been 2-0 them real early if he hadn’t,” Muehlbronner said. “He’s been a rock for us all season long and he just bailed us out early and let the guys get going.”

With about eight minutes left in the first, La Salle managed just three shots  to Ryan’s six and was looking slow, but a Raider penalty ended up being just what the Explorers needed to get going.

Joseph Mancuso managed to light the lamp for La Salle on a pretty power play goal as he streaked towards the net, got the pass from the defender and lifted the puck top shelf to end the scoreless tie.

“The puck went D to D and they were able to get me the puck,” Mancuso said. “I got it on the wing, came out to the middle of the slot and was able to get it high and get it past him.”

From there it was all La Salle, as it outshot the Raiders 27-8 over the remainder of the game on its way to its convincing victory.

Mancuso was not done, either, lighting the lamp one more time and adding an assist on his way to a game-high thre points as the La Salle offense looked to be firing on all cylinders.

“I felt good tonight,” Mancuso said. “I just wanted to work hard, keep my feet moving and it all worked out well tonight and we got some good production.”

Besides Feeney’s hot start and Mancuso’s strong effort, the special teams play really hurt the Raiders in this one.

La Salle was by far the less disciplined team, committing seven penalties to Ryan’s three, but the Explorers’ PK unit killed every short-handed opportunity, and they also converted on 2 of their 3 power play chances.

“We’ve killed a good amount of penalties this season and we’ve been doing that pretty consistently,”  Muehlbronner said. “To see the power play get some goals though is great because we haven’t been that good on the power play of late, so it was good to see.”

This win propels the Explorers to the next round of the AAA Flyers Cup, where they face either Malvern Prep or Archbishop Carroll.

For Ryan, the loss obviously stings, but it was still a hugely successful year for them, as they look to build their program to a perennial contender.

“One of the things I told the team in the third period was to play like champions, because they are.” Archbishop Ryan head coach John Hunter said. “We won the Philadelphia Catholic League and I told them to go out there and play like it. There was one champion in the building tonight and it was us, they played that final period to a 0-0 tie so I liked how we closed it out even though we didn’t win.”