Hockey: Despite Judge’s winning OT goal, O’Hara ‘proves something’ in loss

HAVERFORD — Father Judge captain Gavin Ammlung never considered that the Crusaders would lose to Cardinal O’Hara in overtime a second straight year. He gave the thought no credence whatsoever.

Ammlung ensured that another bitter defeat to O’Hara in the Philadelphia Catholic League playoffs wouldn’t happen again Monday evening at the Skatium.

Ammlung’s slap shot from the top of the right faceoff circle found a way through traffic and past O’Hara goalie Liam Schickling. With their 5-4 overtime win, the second-seeded Crusaders will play No. 1 Salesianum in the Catholic League final.

“You want to use those defensive players as your screens. They might be trying to block your shot, but once you bump out it’s a wrap every time,” Ammlung said. “You just want to get it on net and if you see a hole, like through someone’s leg, you always want to shoot for a deflection or toward the hole. You never want to go high, you always want to go low.”

The strategy worked to perfection.

Last March the Lions won the league trophy when Luke Melito scored on the power play in the extra period. It was the only goal of the game. In the 2022-23 regular season the Crusaders dominated the head-to-head series, capped by an 11-3 Judge rout of O’Hara last Thursday night.

“From the jump, I didn’t really stress out because I know how it is. O’Hara had our number in the playoffs and especially in overtime,” Ammlung said. “To me it was nothing different, just the same old, same old. I was expecting a (good game) the whole time. The playoffs are just a lot different.”

Ammlung and junior forward Anthony Casper accounted for all five Father Judge goals. Casper crashed the net to deposit a loose puck in the first period to give the Crusaders 1-0 lead. He scored in the second period to tie the game at 2-2 and evened things up again 39 seconds into the third period.

“Last year, it didn’t feel good losing to them,” Casper said. “We got the monkey off our backs.”

The Lions forced overtime with 1:16 left in regulation. The speedy Melito skated coast to coast and fired a wrister past Judge goalie Dave Marcellino. In a game of swings, the Lions headed into OT with momentum on their side.

“He is the heart of our team,” O’Hara senior defenseman Connor Pennese said of Melito.

But the Lions were dealt a blow when co-captain Finnegan Plummer took a hard fall along the boards. He was helped off the ice with a lower-body injury. Judge won the ensuing faceoff and unleashed heavy artillery in the Lions’ defensive zone. Within seconds, the game was over.

“I think (Plummer’s injury) really fired us up. We wanted to really win it for him at that point,” Pennese said. “It didn’t turn out that way but I do think that it didn’t take the wind out of our sails. We still wanted it to the very end. Their lucky goal in overtime … we had a lot of traffic in front and they probably got a lucky bounce.”

The freshman Schickling was outstanding in goal. Early in the first period he was the recipient of a brutal collison precipitated by Judge’s Matthew Moser, who crashed the net with a full head of steam and failed to pull up. It was ruled incidental contact by the officials, but Schickling stayed down on the ice for several moments. He is the only goalie on the O’Hara roster. Schickling, who recorded 32 saves, was able to continue.

“This was his best game of the season,” Pennese said.

Melito scored the first of his two on the night with 4:27 left in the first. The Lions went ahead 2-1 on a power play goal by Plummer. Bode Peterson found the back of the net with 34 seconds left in the second period to give O’Hara a 3-2 lead.

The Lions will turn the page and prepare to compete in the Flyers Cup tournament next week.

“This regular season wasn’t really our best,” Pennese said. “We had a lot of losses, but I do think we came through it and we came here thinking this was our last chance to really prove something. I think we did. We went out there and I thought we proved something tonight.”