Published in the March 19, 2020 edition.

By STEPHEN MARTELLUCCI

FRAMINGHAM — It was a heartbreaking end to the season for the St. John’s Prep hockey team, which features two players from Wakefield, on March 11 as they lost 3-2 in overtime to Pope Francis at Loring Arena in Framingham in the Super Eight semifinals.

Jack Kennedy was the hero for the Cardinals as he wrist shot took a funny hop off the ice and found the back of the Eagles net 4:37 into the 4-on-4 overtime session.

With the loss, the Eagles ended the year at 16-6-5. The Cardinals, meanwhile, improved to 16-5-2 and, due to the COVID-19 virus, were named Super Eight co-champs along with Arlington as the title game was canceled by the MIAA.

The Cardinals score the game’s first goal 3:04 in as Jake Iby put hone a rebound.

On a 4-on-4, later on in the first, the Eagles tied it as Ned Malolepszy redirected a shot by Will Perry past Cardinal net minder Ben Zaranek with 6:35 left.

St. John’s took their first lead with 5:33 left in the second when Patrick Moran scored off a faceoff.

The Eagles then committed two penalties early in the third as the Cardinals had a 5-on-3 advantage just 1:50 in. They capitalized just 14 seconds later as Logan Drapprich scored on a wrist shot. Kennedy assisted.

Eagles’ goalie Noah Dorsey-Sorofman made 23 stops while Zaranek made 25 saves.

“Our kids competed,” said Prep head coach Kristian Hansen, whose squad beat the Cardinals 2-1 back in December. “It is a disappointing ending but they left it all out from start to finish,”

The two Eagle players from Wakefield are Nick Townshend and Josiah Brown. Townshend is a sophomore center while Brown is a senior defenseman.

“Nick had a knee injury and only played the final seven games of the regular season,” pointed out Hansen. “He had a big tournament game against Catholic Memorial for us with his two goals.”

Including the playoffs, Townshend had five goals and five assists for 10 points.

Brown was teamed up with Jack Gilligan on the first defensive pairing.

“He is an important piece to our puzzle,” stated Hanson. “We use him on penalty kills and for power plays.”

Brown had 12 points this year with one goal and 11 assists.