Benilde-St. Margaret's Boys' Hockey

Benilde-St. Margaret's found itself trailing, 5-2, just three minutes and 46 seconds into the second period and in a bit of a free fall after allowing three goals in less than five minutes.

But Red Knight co-captain Pat Steinhauser stepped to the forefront. After scoring two goals in the opening period, he would add two more before the night was over and set up two others for a six-point game as he led his fifth-ranked squad to an 8-6 win at 14th-ranked Holy Angels.

BSM, trailing 5-2 early in the second period, having allowed a power-play and two short-handed goals, scored four consecutive goals to close out the second period with a 6-5 lead but Mario Bianchi's second goal of the game for the Stars tied the score again at 6-6.

At that point, it was time for the seniors on the Red Knight roster to take over.

Chris Flood made a pass in the neutral zone to Mike Blessing, who skated into the Holy Angels zone and caught Holy Angels goalie Brett Pierce off guard, connecting for his second goal of the season at 7:08 of the final period.

With BSM clinging to the one-goal lead, Steinhauser once again stepped up, carrying the puck up the left wing boards before cutting into the faceoff circle before scoring on Pierce from the edge of the crease.

"You want seniors to step up in games like this," Red Knight head coach Ken Pauly said. "We asked the seniors to step up and take this game over in the third period and that’s what they did.

" It was really fitting that Michael Blessing got the game winner, and you can’t say enough great things about Pat Steinhauser’s game tonight. He was the best forward on the ice.”

BSM led twice in the first period as Steinhauser put his team ahead, 1-0, 4:23 into the contest with a power-play goal.

A Cullen Hurley goal, less than two minutes later, evened the score but 81 seconds after Hurley had knotted the score, Steinhauser collected another power-play tally.

The Stars, however, scored a power-play goal of their own, along with two short-handed goals to chase Red Knight goalie Justin Quale from the game.

Anders Jecha came on in relief and would go onto stop nine of the 10 shots he faced, giving his team a chance to overcome the three-goal deficit in which they found themselves.

The rally started when Jake Horton scored his 12th goal, and team-leading seventh power-play goal, at 6:24 of the middle period before Steinhauser's third goal, at the 9:00 mark, brough BSM to within a goal.

Grant Besse tied the score with 5:40 to play in the middle frame when he took a T.J. Moore faceoff in the right offensive zone, put the puck through the skates of linemate Dan Labosky and snuck a shot past Pierce for his 21st tally of the season.

With the second period winding down, the Red Knights found themselves on their sixth power-play of the game when Bennett Courrier-Oaster was called for holding with 2:40 on the clock.

With 12 seconds remaining in the power-play opportunity, Christian Horn took a pass from Besse and his eighth goal of the season sent BSM into the second intermission with a 6-5 lead.

"While it’s not the prettiest win, it is a very good win for our team," Pauly said. "The guys continue to put up big numbers against quality opposition.

"What is disconcerting is the six goals that we gave up. We have to tighten up in our end or we will have short run in the Section 6AA playoffs.”

But, as his team enters the final month of the season, sporting a 15-2-0 record, Pauly is happy with where the Red Knights appear to be going.

“We really are in a good position to continue to make a strong statement this season," he said "We have to take care of business against a pesky Chisago Lakes team and then we have a huge game up in Moorhead. It should be an exciting finish.”

For Pauly, the win over Holy Angels was a milestone. Now in his 18th season behind the BSM bench, the win was his 300th as the Red Knights head coach.

He now owns a 300-144-16 record, a .670 winning percentage, at BSM and has a career record, in 21 seasons, of 344-175-23.

Tuesday, the Red Knights will be home for the first time in three weeks as they return to North Suburban Conferece play with a 7 p.m. game versus Chisago Lakes.