LOWELL — After allowing No. 8 Woburn to tie the game twice, Riley Prattson stepped up to lift No. 1 Springfield Cathedral to a 3-2 win in Game 1 of a first-round best-of-three series in the Super Eight tournament at the Tsongas Center.
Prattson blasted a one-timer from DJ Petruzzelli (two assists) past Woburn goalie Sam Best (32 saves) at the 5:45 mark of the third period.
“I was just coming off the bench, and I saw DJ coming around the net,” Prattson said. “I knew that (DJ) was going to find me, so I went to the net.”
John Leonard drew first blood for Cathedral on a nifty backhand on a shorthanded breakaway 9:45 into the first period. The Tanners (16-3-4) tied the game at 5:24 of the second, when Evan McDonald showed off his own breakaway moves to beat Panthers goalie Keith Petruzzelli.
Eleven seconds later, Cathedral (21-0-2) answered when Devon Tongue scored on a one-timer, but once again McDonald answered by blasting a slap shot home at 12:33. But Prattson made sure the top seed got off on a winning note.
Austin Prep 3, Central Catholic 0 — Eric MacAdams had a pair of goals and Mike Egan had a goal and two assists as the No. 3 Cougars (21-1) locked down Game 1 of a first-round series against the No. 6 Raiders (15-6-1), extending their winning streak to 19 games.
Egan scored his team-leading 19th goal of the season just 1:12 into play. MacAdams doubled the lead with six seconds left in the second period. In the third, the linemates were at it again, as Egan set up MacAdams at 7:43. Dylan Regan stopped all 21 shots he faced to earn the shutout.
Malden Catholic 2, Franklin 1 — Matthew Filipe scored 3:06 into the third period and the No. 2 Lancers (17-1-2) battled back from a goal down to rally past the No. 7 Panthers (16-2-3) in Game 1 of the first-round series.
“We got lucky, (Franklin) should have won the game,” said Malden Catholic coach John McLean. “I thought they outplayed us for the majority of the game. We’ll take the two points and hopefully play better on Wednesday.”
Franklin’s Alex Campbell started the scoring 1:06 into the second period, when he corralled a pass from Nick Downie and fired it past MC goalie Kyle Casey.
The Lancers tied it at 10:20 of the second, when Nick Botticellli knocked a loose puck past Franklin’s Ryan Shea. Filipe won it when he picked Shea’s top corner stick-side, on a give-and-go with Austin Goldstein.
Ryan Provencher and Robyn Hayes contributed to this report.
