| High
school hockey races heat up
Southlake Carroll beats Grapevine to take
Section 4 lead
12/10/2000
By Rob Harman / Special Contributor to The
Dallas Morning News
The Southwestern Bell Metroplex High School Hockey League's
Section 4 is the local high school equivalent of the National
Hockey League's Pacific Division. Going by inter-divisional
play, it is the toughest division in the league at the
one-third point of the 2000-2001 season.
Comprised entirely of Northeast Tarrant schools, Section 4
is 11-3-1 against teams from the other three divisions.
Similarly, the NHL's Pacific, which includes the Dallas Stars,
is 52-33-7 against the rest of the league.
Therefore, leading the Section 4 standings has to bring an
air of confidence and respect, as well as league bragging
rights. However, staying at the top may be harder than getting
there.
Southlake Carroll replaced Grapevine atop the standings
Thursday night, rallying from a 2-1 first-period deficit to
take a 4-2 victory at Dr Pepper StarCenter in Euless. Carroll
(4-1 in section play) has a one-point lead over Grapevine
(3-1-1) and Richland (3-1-1), a 4-3 winner over Hurst Bell on
Thursday.
"Both teams played well," Carroll coach Laddy Tresl said.
"It was a hard-hitting clean game. It's a big win for us. But
every [Section 4] game is important this year."
Grapevine coach Matt Canavan agrees.
"It's a very tough section this year," Canavan said. "The
off-season realignment definitely made this one of the
stronger sections in the league."
On Thursday, Carroll scored two goals in the final six
minutes to break a 2-2 tie. Guy Grivas scored on a rebound
with 5:43 remaining, and Dan Force scored the clincher with
1:18 to play on a backdoor pass from Eric Anderson after a
two-on-one breakaway.
"They are bigger and wore us down," Canavan said. "It's a
shame to lose like this, but we knew it would be tough playing
Carroll for first place."
Grapevine scored twice in the first eight minutes but
couldn't keep the early momentum. David Donaldson scored on a
slap shot 1:45 into the game. After Carroll's Geoff Eames
scored a shorthanded goal off a rebound, Matt Canning scored
unassisted on the same power play for a 2-1 Grapevine lead.
Carroll goalie B.J. Cotton shut the Mustangs out the rest
of the way.
"We need to score a lot of goals to beat Carroll," Canavan
said. "Two goals is not enough. B.J. is a great goalie."
Southlake tied the score when Ross Paradee found an opening
on the backside at 6:51 for the only goal of the second
period.
Grapevine had a couple of scoring opportunities early in
the final period before Grivas and Force scored to put Carroll
ahead to stay.
"We had the momentum but if we led only 3-2, they could
pull the goalie and make a late charge," Tresl said. "That
fourth goal broke it open."
The victory evens the competitive Highway 114 rivalry at
2-2 over the past two seasons. Carroll and Grapevine split two
regular-season games last year. Grapevine, which finished
third in the section to Coppell and Carroll, then edged the
Dragons, 3-2, in an overtime playoff game en route to a
winning the state championship.
"We're probably about the same as we were at this point
last year," Canavan said. "We had a good second half of the
season last year.
"It's still early enough that we can look at what we did
wrong tonight and build from there."
Tresl, who played pro hockey in the Czech Republic, has
only been coaching Southlake for three months, replacing Jeff
Baudin during the pre-season.
"The kids are showing a lot of progress and a lot of good
results. Hopefully, that will continue," Tresl said. "I'm
really happy with where were are right now. Who wouldn't be?"
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