St. John's Seeded Second in Division 1A Hockey

Midway through the season, following a 7-4 loss to Malden Catholic, the St. John's Prep hockey team had a 5-4-1 record and seemed an unlikely candidate to achieve its pre-season goal of qualifying for the elite Division 1A Tournament.

Today, after winning nine of their final 10 games, the Eagles (14-5-1) are the tournament's No. 2 seed behind No. 1 Malden Catholic, the Catholic Conference champion. During their second-half surge, St. John's outscored opponents, 44-11, and counted two wins against perennial power Catholic Memorial.

The second, a 3-1 decision in Friday's regular-season finale, resulted in Catholic Memorial missing the 1A tournament for the first time since it began in 1991 and failing to earn a postseason berth for the first time since 1984. Freshman Shane Eiserman had one goal, junior Sam Kurker added two, including an empty-netter, and scoring leader Colin Blackwell picked up a couple of assists to give St. John's the win.

Under the 1A Tournament format, the Prep will play three round-robin games. The top two teams in each of two four-team brackets advance to the single-elimination semifinals with those winners meeting for the championship on Sunday, March 20 at TD Garden.

Six teams – Malden Catholic (16-2-2), St. John's (14-5-1), B.C. High (13-4-3), Weymouth (17-3-2), defending champion Hingham (13-5-4) and Needham (12-6-4) – are automatic qualifiers for the final eight-team draw. Two play-in games – Woburn (17-3-1) vs. Springfield Cathedral (12-9-1) and St. Mary's of Lynn (14-5-3) vs. Central Catholic (16-5-1) – will be played Monday night to determine the final two teams in the field. The brackets and schedule will be set upon completion of those games.

Danvers boys face Lynnfield tonight

The No. 16 Falcons (9-6-5) concluded their season with two ties at the Newburyport Bank Classic against Newburyport in the semifinal, 3-3 (Newburyport won the shootout), and against Lincoln-Sudbury in Friday's consolation game, 2-2.

Danvers takes on No. 17 Lynnfield (9-7-5) of the Cape Ann League Monday night at Salem State University (7:30 p.m.) in a preliminary round game in the 20-team Division Two North Sectional. The winner advances to Wednesday night's quarterfinal game against No. 1 Wilmington (16-2-2), the Cape Ann League champion.

Tough draw for Beverly-Danvers girls

The combined Beverly-Danvers squad finished 13-7-0 and is seeded 16th in the 23-team Division One State Tournament. The Lady Panthers face off against No. 17 Shrewsbury (12-6-2) in a preliminary round game Tuesday afternoon at Talbot Rink (4:30) in Gloucester.

The reward for the winner is a first-round date with three-time defending State Champion St. Mary's of Lynn on Saturday, March 5 at Connery Rink in Lynn (TBD). The No. 1 Spartans (19-0-3) enter the postseason with a 99-game unbeaten streak during which they have compiled a 95-0-4 record.