Henderson stuns Downingtown East in OT; Rustin rolls West Chester East to set up Ches-Mont final

EAST GOSHEN >> West Chester Rustin got there with relative ease. West Chester Henderson took the harder path.

Now, the two will play for a title.

West Chester Rustin took care of West Chester East, 5-1, and West Chester Henderson outlasted Downingtown East, 4-3, in overtime Wednesday night, in the Ches-Mont League semifinals at Ice Line.

Fourth-seeded Henderson will face No. 2 Rustin in Thursday night’s final, back at Ice Line at 6:30 p.m.

The higher drama Wednesday night came in Henderson’s thrilling upset of top-seeded Downingtown East, as Henderson’s Dylan Tench scored with 11 minutes left in the first overtime to put the Warriors in the final.

The first period was evenly matched, which was the story of the game, with no penalties or scoring for either team in the opening frame. 

The second period proved to be much of the same, at least until the halfway mark. That’s when CJ Boyd opened the scoring for Downingtown East. 

Henderson had a power play that quickly turned into four-on-four, and Patrick O’Connell scored for Henderson on an assist from Lukas Washco with 3:24 remaining in the second. The four on four would produce another goal for the Warriors just 50 seconds later, off the stick of Tyler Czukoski, assisted by Washco and Brendon Boyko to take the 2-1 lead going into the final period. 

The first 10 minutes of the third period proved to be just as devastating for Henderson as the last few minutes of the second period were for Downingtown East. Less than 90 seconds into the period, Ryan Prestayko tied the game at 2 on assists from Boyd and Mark Stankiewicz. About halfway through the period, Boyd notched another goal thanks to a pass from Sean Woods to take a 3-2 lead. With 3:11 left in the third period, Downingtown East was assessed a game-changing two-minute minor for cross checking. The Cougars nearly completed a clean penalty kill, but with just six seconds left on the power play and their playoff hopes on the line, Washco buried the equalizer to record his third point of the game and force overtime. 

In the five on five sudden death overtime, both teams registered secen shots and had their chances, but with just over 11 minutes left, Tench notched the winner with assists from Boyko and Czukoski to send them to the Ches-Mont Championship Thursday night. 

On Wednesday night, Rustin was the first team to punch its ticket to the Ches-Mont finals. Five different players scored for the Golden Knights as they held West Chester East to just one goal and outshot them, 40-22.

The first period started with Matt Owens scoring just 42 seconds in, assisted by Nicholas Ferraro. Play was physical but balanced and continued until past the halfway point in the period, and with 7:31 remaining, a pass from David Carney allowed Ferraro light the lamp with a goal of his own. A little over minute after the goal was scored, a fight broke out in front of the Vikings’ goal, leading to offsetting penalties and a game misconduct for Ferraro, who still managed to tally two points in the first 10 minutes of the game before getting the boot. 

The Golden Knights managed to kill the five minute penalty, and as a result, held a 2-0 lead at the end of the first period. 

Just when the Vikings thought things couldn’t get any worse, a holding penalty led to a power play goal by Brett Turner, with assists from Willem Einthoven and John Harkins. 

Just under four minutes later, Logan Gagliardi made it a four-goal lead, Einthoven and Harkins assisted on this goal as well with 6:16 remaining in the second period. The Vikings could not get past Joel Keller, who stopped the first 17 shots he saw in the first two periods. 

The third period did bring a glimmer of hope to West Chester East, just 12 seconds into the period, when Nick Castura broke the Vikings’ scoreless streak with a pass from Richie Mullineaux. Both teams had chances throughout the third, but a costly penalty ended the Vikings’ hope at a comeback, when Harkins followed up his two prior assists with the game-sealing goal. 

Note >> Thursday’s Ches-Mont final will be broadcast online at www.hockeytv.com.