Benilde-St. Margaret's Boys' Hockey

Benilde-St. Margaret's gave up six power-play chances, three in the game's final seven minutes, but an outstanding effort by goalie Jacob Meyers and an early 3-0 lead enabled the 13th-ranked Red Knights to hold on for a 4-2 win over 17th-ranked Cretin-Derham Hall.

"This was a big early-season win for," head coach Ken Pauly said. "By no means are we even close to where we need to be as a team but our guys played well enough and earned a good victory against a quality program."

Things went well for BSM early in the game. Brett Patterson intercepted a pass along the left-wing boards, walked the puck into the faceoff circle and found Pat Borer at the top of the slot. Borer's shot through traffic beat Raider goalie Ben Walsh low on the stick side for a 1-0 lead.

It took just 25 seconds for that lead to go to 2-0 as Will Nelson won a faceoff in the left circle by kicking the puck loose and then immediately shot the puck through Walsh.

Just 2:40 into the second period, BSM went up 3-0 when David Tranvik forced a turnover behind the Cretin-Derham Hall net and passed the puck to Pat Cron in front of the net. Cron collected the pass and scored on the far side over Walsh's glove.

From that point, the momentum began to swing in the visitor's favor and, less than two minutes later, Tony Barbato intercepted a pass on the right-wing boards and connected with Bob Kinne, who came crashing down the slot and scored his third goal of the season.

Meyers, however, was up to the task as he stopped 14 of 15 shots in the middle stanza, including a scramble later in the period. After the Raiders won the faceoff to start a power play at 11:24 of the period, Meyers stopped Mychal Bangs twice on the doorstep and a follow-up rebound by Mark Alt.

"That was the biggest moment of the game," Pauly said. "Without those saves, the end result could have been very different."

However, those saves enabled the hosts to hold onto their two-goal lead and they were able to extend it late in the period with a short-handed goal.

Patterson tipped the puck out of the Red Knight zone and Patrick Daly picked up the loose puck, starting a 2-on-0 rush with Bryan Glynn. The duo worked a perfect give-and-go with Daly tapping home the return pass with one minute remaining in the period.

The third period turned into a defensive battle as the teams combined for just nine shots on goal. Four of the Raiders' six shots in the period came on the power-play as they had three chances, including a 5-on-3 with 1:26 to play in the game. They scored 20 seconds after starting the 5-on-3 but could get no closer.

Meyers finished the game with 26 saves. He stopped eight of Cretin-Derham Hall's nine power-play shots to pick up his second win of the season.

The Red Knights return to action with a home game Friday, Dec. 12, against Meadow Creek Christian at 7 p.m.