Priory Hockey Takes Rough Loss Against No. 4 Westminster In Regular Season Finale

BRENTWOOD – On the bright side, heading into Saturday night’s Mid-States Hockey Association regular season finale at the Brentwood Ice Arena, the High ice hockey team knew it had one last chance to make a good enough impression on the seeding committee that would determine what bracket the Rebels should be in this playoff season.

Unfortunately, that last game though, was against a team that’s won 16 of the 20 games its played this season and is ranked No. 4 in the state, according to ushighschoolhockey.com – the .

And Westminster made sure to make its own statement about what its playoff placement ought to be, as it unleashed an offensive barrage on the Rebels, unlike anything that had been seen this season, which mercifully ended late Saturday night with the Wildcats claiming a 13-0 win.

“That was brutal,” Priory head hockey coach John W. Rourke said. “They’re a great, great team. They’re definitely a top-five seed, and they might be the best team in the state.

“They’ve got so much speed and so much firepower. They’re going to be a handful for anybody, that’s for sure.”

The Wildcats were certainly a handful for the Rebels on Saturday, scoring just 13 seconds into the contest to take the initial lead, and not letting up until they had scored 13 times.

Westminster star centerman Tate Matheny, a top college baseball recruit headed to Missouri State in the fall, might also be the best prep hockey player in the area. And he made his case for that honor, by scoring four goals and adding two assists for the Wildcats on Saturday.

For the season, Matheny now has 51 goals and 31 assists in just 21 games.

By comparison, Priory’s top player is senior Colin Kopsky, who has 10 goals and two assists this season.

The loss dropped Priory to 6-14-1 on the year, and left Rourke wondering if the Rebels hadn’t slipped all the way down to the Founder’s Cup bracket of this year’s playoffs.

The top 16 teams in the state, which includes local teams CBC (No. 1 seed), (No. 4), Westminster (No. 5), (No. 8), MICDS (No. 13), and (No. 15) each earned a berth in the elite St. Louis Blues Challenge Cup bracket, which means the best of the best will all face one another for the Mid-States Hockey Association’s top honor this year.

The second-best 16 teams were seeded in the Wickenheiser Cup bracket, while the bottom 10 teams in the state fall into the Founder’s Cup bracket.

And that was the scenario Rourke was hoping to avoid, even though the final impression his team made was a 13-0 loss to Westminster.

“I think we still fit in the ‘Wick’ this year,” Rourke said. “But I just told the kids not to dwell on this loss. No matter what, we’ll be playing playoff hockey next weekend, and if we dwell on this one game too long, we’re gonna get beat real quick.”

Turns out the coach was right, as late Sunday night, the final playoff brackets were announced, and Priory was named the No. 14 seed in the Wickenheiser Cup playoffs.

Game schedules haven't been released yet, but there is a strong chance that Priory’s first playoff opponent will be defending Challenge Cup champ Francis Howell Central, which is 12-8-1 this year and was named the No. 3 seed in the ‘Wick’ playoffs this year.

“It’s not about who we play,” Rourke said. “It’s about us playing better than we did tonight. We’ve had some injury problems and we had a tough time on our (defensive back line), but we’ve got a team that can be dangerous if we play like I know we can.”

Other local teams that made the hockey playoffs this year include, (No. 7 seed in Wickenheiser Cup); (No. 16 seed in Wickenheiser Cup); Ladue (No. 3 seed in Founder’s Cup); and (No. 8 seed in Founder’s Cup).