Captain Fisher Sellers had a hand in all three Salesianum goals and netminder Graham Burke registered 35 saves for the Sallies (7-9-0) in a gritty 3-2 victory over Delaware Military Academy (12-3-0) on Thursday evening (Feb. 22) at the Patriot Ice Center in Newark, Del.
After Joey DeFilippis put the Sallies up 3-2 with a short-handed tally midway through the second period, their blue-line core—anchored by top pair Dylan Johnson and Mike Nauman—stood out in containing the DMA transition game for the final 23:13 while Burke kept the Inter-County Scholastic Hockey League’s leading scorer Markus Cook silenced.
Sellers, only a couple weeks back from an upper-body injury, began the game on the second line but contributed both of the Sallies’ first-period goals. At the 8:20 mark, the senior received the puck from DeFilippis before carrying it through traffic and backhanding the puck over the blocker of DMA goalie Julia Emerich. Sellers followed it up with his 12th goal of the season—a strong wrist shot from the mid-slot at 13:15 off a centring pass from Cam Bergeman, who entered the Seahawks’ zone up the left-wing boards.
Down 2-0 late in the first period, DMA crashed the net in the final minute. Alex Maglio earned his 18th goal of the season with 30 seconds left when he batted a Cook centring pass from below the Sallies goal past Burke. Maglio accounted for the equaliser for DMA as well 6:04 in the second period with a hard one-timer from the right dot. Cook, despite being held scoreless in the game, accounted for the primary assist on the second Maglio goal as well.
Tied 2-2 in the eighth minute of the middle period after jumping out to the early lead, the Sallies were in peril of falling behind the Seahawks when Patrick Kelly was issued an interference minor. Unrelenting, Sellers and DeFilippis generated a two-on-one attack late in the penalty. While Sellers’s chance for a hat trick was stopped by Emerich, DeFilippis potted the rebound from the left edge of the crease for his eighth seasonal goal. Subsequent chances by the Seahawks to respond—led by their top two lines—were thwarted by a strong Sallies backcheck through the final period and a half.
Emerich fought gamely in defeat for DMA, stopping 34 of 37 total shots faced.
The Seahawks return to action Friday night (Feb. 23), when they face off against Kennett in their regular-season finale. Salesianum squares off with St. Mark’s in a friendly on Friday, March 2 as part of the Hockey for a Cause event supporting the Delaware Foundation Reaching Citizens with Intellectual Disabilities.
