LOWELL – The stakes are bigger. The competition is tighter.
And for St. John’s of Shrewsbury’s Daniel Menyalkin, his legacy only continues to strengthen.
After a controversial 5-on-3 set up the No. 14 Pioneers (12-12) to rally from a two-goal third-period deficit Sunday night, Menyalkin (two goals) continued their Cinderella season by ousting No. 7 Arlington, 4-3, with a double-overtime game-winner in a Div. 1 state semifinal at UMass Lowell’s Tsongas Center.
The goal propelled St. John’s to TD Garden for a rematch with Catholic Conference foe No. 4 Catholic Memorial in the state final, just a few days after Menyalkin’s overtime winner in the state quarterfinals downed No. 11 Winchester.
The Pioneers are now winners of four straight after ending the regular season on a 1-9 stretch.
“(This game-winner) was that much better,” Menyalkin said. “The whole first half of the year, I struggled a lot. Probably one of my worst seasons in my life. To be honest, I just didn’t enjoy hockey. But after that Hingham win, (it) kind of all just changed, the love for the hockey came back and it’s at an all-time high right now.”
Teams traded opportunities in both overtimes, riding the experience both gained from each playing extra minutes in the second and quarterfinal rounds. Sophomore goalie Colin McCarthy (24 saves) had four saves between the two overtimes on Sunday, and Arlington’s John Snider (21 saves) had three.
With 3:15 left in double-overtime, though, Menyalkin gained the zone on the left wing, kicked the puck to the center, and wristed the game-winner from below the point past Snider, blocker side.
“I was gassed, to be honest,” Menyalkin said. “I was thinking about just dumping it in. I just shot it, used the defenseman as a screen, it somehow got in. It was kind of a flutter puck. And then after that, I don’t remember it.”
“When you’ve got a kid like Daniel Menyalkin, you’re pretty confident going into overtime,” added St. John’s head coach G. Michael Mead, an Arlington native. “He’s playing with a determination. … He’s a proven leader.”
Menyalkin gave St. John’s the lead with 2:13 left in the first. The first three games at Tsongas didn’t have a single penalty, but the second of eight called in the night-cap set up an Arlington power play that Drew Beck scored on off a rebound from brother Kurt Beck’s shot.
Penalties continued to rack up in the second period, once for St. John’s and twice for Arlington. The Spy Ponders didn’t waver at first,, scoring about five minutes into the second on Quinlan McNulty-Lu’s shorthanded goal to put them ahead 2-1. Four minutes later, St. John’s left JP Messuri alone in the slot, and he made them pay for it to eventually finish the second period with a 3-1 lead.
Arlington head coach John Messuri took great issue with what ensued.
Just 3:21 into the third, the Spy Ponders were called for a trip. Nineteen seconds later, Charles Shizas was called for interference out of the faceoff after a typical engagement with Menyalkin.
“It was too much, can’t be shorthanded like that in the third period,” Messuri said. “Same play happens on every faceoff. Two guys engage, they bump off each other, and they go play. That’s all that happened. … The (official) impacted the game, what are you going to do?”
Brady Chenevert scored on the 5-on-3, tipping home a Ryder Bisson shot from the point. Then, with one second left on the power play, Bisson’s shot got through traffic for the neutralizer.
“They’re a family, and they say it in every huddle,” Mead said. “They knew they had 15 minutes left of hockey for our eight seniors. We got fortunate with a couple of penalties, got on the 5-on-3, scored on each half of it, and tied the game. We’ll take that into overtime every day.”