John Millea: Cadets respond to heavy lifting

The key to St. Thomas Academy’s second Class 1A hockey title in three years was turned on Jan 14. That’s when the Cadets were locked out of their own locker room.

Duluth Marshall came to the St. Thomas Ice Arena in Mendota Heights on Jan. 12 and put an 8-2 Saturday afternoon licking on the Cadets. When the boys returned to the rink for practice two days later, the coaches had sealed the locker room tighter than Grant’s Tomb.

For a week, the Cadets lugged their gear in and out of the five-year-old rink instead of storing the stuff in its usual place. The message got through.

Before the Cadets met Marshall in Saturday’s rematch at Xcel Energy Center, they spent some time in the locker room discussing the earlier loss to the Hilltoppers, as well as the bag-dragging aftermath. Then they went out on the ice, banged home two first-period goals and cruised to a 5-1 victory over the same team they beat for the 2006 championship. It was Marshall’s third title-game defeat in three years.

“We really took it to heart. It was kind of embarrassing,” said James Saintey, who scored two goals Saturday. “We skated extremely hard that whole next week, and it was so hard on us. We had to bag our stuff, like most teams without a locker room do. We didn’t like that feeling at all.”

The feeling Saturday was a little different. With Saintey and Christian Isackson each scoring twice, the Cadets put the final seal on a 26-5 season and got some double-edged revenge on the Hilltoppers.

In last year’s 1A semifinals, Marshall defeated the Cadets 3-2 in double overtime. That, coupled with the January game, gave St. Thomas Academy all the incentive it needed against the smallest school in the tournament.

“When they beat us 8-2, I don’t think we were ready to play,” said Cadets goaltender Kurt Altrichter, who stopped 13 shots Saturday. “And [the January game] was a little bit fluky; we didn’t get any bounces in that game. In this game we left it all out on the ice. “

The Cadets needed only 37 seconds to get on the big board, and they scored again with 39 seconds left in the first period. Those goals, by Isackson and Saintey, put the Hilltoppers at the bottom of a big, steep, mountain.

“We gave them a goal in the first minute of the first period, and we gave them a goal in the last minute of the first period,” Marshall coach Brendan Flaherty said. “Any hockey person knows you’ve got to protect the beginnings and the ends of periods. We protected the middle.

“We didn’t execute perfectly, but that team is just a machine. That team is comprised of some of the very, very best players in the entire metro area, to be honest. We would have had to play perfect. We didn’t play perfect.”

St. Thomas Academy capped a season to remember. The Cadets went 10-3 against Class 2A opponents during the regular season; they beat 2A state tournament teams Benilde-St. Margaret’s and Blaine while losing twice to Hill-Murray (once in overtime).

And then they ran roughshod through the state tournament, winning three games by a combined score of 19-6.

“I think we’re a contender. We can play,” said co-coach Tom Vannelli. “I’m not going to say anything stupid, but I really think … we won the Schwan Cup, beating Benilde and a pretty good Blaine team and Cretin. Yeah, we’re there. We’re a good team.”

That’s what you call a lock.

John Millea • jmillea@startribune.com