Santa Margarita Ice Hockey Meets Its Waterloo

The ice hockey club at Santa Margarita Catholic went to Kearns, UT, looking for a national championship. It came back with good results and a great experience.

But no championship.

The Eagles were beaten by Waterloo, IA, in the quarterfinals of the High School National Championships, 2-1.

Waterloo went on to the finals where it was defeated by Regis (CO) Jesuit, 4-3.

Santa Margarita, which defeated San Jose Bellarmine to , opened with three victories in the tourenament. The quarterfinal loss was tough on the Eagles, who failed to score in any of their seven power play opportunities.

Although Connor O'Brien turned back 30 of 32 shots on goal, his rival in the opposing net, Chance Kremer, turned back 38 of 39 shots.

All the scoring took place in the third period, with two scores coming in the final minute. Waterloo scored on a power play—one of four opportunities—to go up 1-0 with 15 minutes 48 seconds left on the clock, and made it 2-0 with 36 seconds remaining.

Trailing by two goals, Max Kilkuts scored his fifth goal of the tournament with 13 seconds left in the match off assists from Kyle Conway and Brian Desmond.

Kilkuts led Santa Margarita with five goals and an assist in four games, and Desmond had three goals and three assists.

Santa Margarita opened the tournament with a 4-2 victory over Plano (TX) West, followed by wins of 3-2 over North Broward (FL) and 4-3 over Newark (OH).