By Michael Horan | Special to The Michigan Catholic

Orchard Lake -- Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard’s Tyler Staub wasn’t going to let anything stop him on a short-handed breakaway in triple overtime, not even a pulled muscle.



“Actually, I pulled a muscle in my leg right when I caught it,” Staub said. “I was just like ah, I got to keep going.”

Staub did just that.

He took an intercepted pass from his own blue line and netted the game-winner in the right upper-hand corner to seal a 4-3 triple overtime victory over Allen Park Cabrini for the Div. II Catholic League Championship.

CLICK HERE FOR A PHOTO GALLERY OF THE GAME

At the end of the second overtime, junior forward Hunter Braciszewski was called for an elbowing penalty that put Gabriel Richard down 4-on-3 a man to start the third overtime.

“The whole game has been a gut check, it really has,” Tom O’Brien, Father Gabriel Richard head coach said. “So the bottom line is if we could get a couple bounces one way, all we were trying to do was kill the penalty and go back four-on-four.

“It was a tough thing to start with going down by one man to start the thing, but at least we had a chance to get some wind and we had some guys out there that we knew could make some plays.”

Cabrini took an early one-goal lead in the first period when junior forward Dominic Nichols made a move around senior goaltender Colin McMahon. Mark Theisen scored a power-play goal with 1:05 left to tie the game at 1-1 going into the second period.

“We lost a few battles to the puck tonight, but as the game went on we started to get a little bit more composed, taking care of business on penalty kill,” O’Brien said. “It’s unfortunate, that game could’ve gotten way out of hand.”

In the second period, Cabrini took the lead once again after Nichols stole the puck at center ice and sent a backhand pass to a crashing Zachary Bess for a tap in goal, making it 2-1.

Theisen answered with his second goal of the game with 2:38 remaining, after capitalizing on a Cabrini turnover for a wrap-around goal.

Seconds later, Cabrini went back up when senior forward Daniel Sekerak drove into Richard’s zone with speed and sent a pass to junior forward Christian Belan who wristed a shot past McMahon for a 3-2 lead going into the third period.

With 10:17 left in the third, Braciszewski took a pass from sophomore forward Nicholas O’Brien and backhanded a shot over senior goaltender Ryan Adams to tie the game at 3-3.

The first overtime ended with just two shots combined from both teams and the score remained tied.

Cabrini had a golden opportunity to put Gabriel Richard away in the double-overtime with a 5-on-3 power-play opportunity, but was unable to capitalize on the two-man advantage.

Cabrini had another chance with 1:45 remaining, when senior forward Dominic Arevalo was in on a breakaway, but a diving play by junior defenseman Anthony Lupi broke the opportunity up.

Theisen finished with two goals and Staub and Braciszewski each had a goal for Father Gabriel Richard (13-5-3, 7-0 Catholic League). Nichols netted a goal and an assist and Bess and Belan each had a goal for Allen Park Cabrini.

“This is huge. This is what we play for all year long,” O’Brien said. “Being the Catholic League Champion is obviously our number one goal and coming into the season we have a very young team and it was doubtful, but this team had lot of composure and the skill level all season improved and we got to be very competitive.”