*Photos below courtesy of Jack Hirschritt

NORTHBROOK -- New Trier won nine straight SHL games to start the season, so the Green team was riding high back on Oct. 29 for its first game against arch rival Loyola Gold.

“Up until that point, we kind of thought we were invincible,” New Trier’s Charlie Fiske said.

Invincibility took a beating that day, when host Loyola won 5-0 over New Trier in the teams’ first of three SHL season showdowns.

Fast forward six weeks to Friday’s rematch on New Trier’s home ice. Revenge came in a 2-1 shootout win for the Green team and when it was over, whatever sense of invincibility Loyola may have had took a slight hit of its own.

“Honestly, it’s probably the first time this year when I truly felt like we were just outplayed,” Loyola coach Scott Ciraulo said. “There have even been losses where I felt like it was more of a coin-flip. But tonight we just got outplayed.”

A second-period goal from New Trier’s Aiden Nolan and a goal in the waning minutes of the game from Loyola’s Liam Finegan provided an overtime Christmas present for the large, raucous crowd at the Northbrook Ice Arena.

The scoreless 3-on-3 overtime period gave way to a shootout, and the Trevians got a game-winning goal in the shootout’s fourth round from Harrison Miller, and then a game-winning shootout save from goaltender Drew Durdov.

How could two Illinois heavyweights do anything else but take turns knocking each other to the canvas? 

Loyola is currently ranked No. 1 and New Trier is No. 2 in the state by My Hockey Rankings (MHR); Loyola sat atop the SHL standings heading into Friday’s game, but New Trier’s win leapfrogged Green to the top spot.

“I’ve been coming to Loyola-New Trier game since I was little,” Fiske said. 

“The 5-0 loss (stunk) but it was a wakeup call and it was a different mindset today. We were dialed in the whole time and I think that contributed.”

New Trier (32-6-2, 18-3-0 in SHL play) now holds a 36-34 edge in league points over Loyola (27-8-1, 16-5-0) after 21 SHL games apiece. 

New Trier coach Adam Cheris was happy to be on home ice for the rematch. He also liked the way his boys responded.

“They’re a great team so we knew after last time what we were up against,” Cheris said. “That loss was humbling, there was a lot of talk between these two schools, and our guys hear that.

“I loved our pressure tonight. Everybody bought in, the forecheck was great and we go a lot of good looks. But we still need to be better on finishing because we had a lot of good looks in front.”

In a revenge-fueled effort, New Trier came out flying. Green grabbed a 1-0 lead when Ashton Freel sent a feed from the left-side corner to the front of the net, where Nolan found himself isolated on Loyola goalie Charlie Trapp.

Nolan put New Trier up 1-0 from the slot with 12:22 remaining in the second period. Trapp stood tall throughout the first two periods as New Trier posted a 30-10 edge in shots.

But through 34 minutes of play, New Trier had most of the puck, more of the scoring chances, and the game’s lone goal. 

“I thought we dominated the first two periods and probably should have put a few more pucks in the net for sure,” Miller said. “The bounces just weren’t necessarily going our way. But the effort was there the whole time and we didn’t really give up any great chances.”

It wasn’t offense alone that carried the day for New Trier. Durdov and company pitched a shutout for two periods against a Loyola team unaccustomed to being kept out of net for very long. 

Asked to assess the primary challenge of Loyola, and Fiske didn’t hesitate.

“Baine,” he said.

That, of course, would be Loyola’s Charlie Baine, one of Illinois’ top players, who  is currently tied for the lead in points atop the SHL leaderboard. Baine and Glenbrook South’s Zack Freimuth share the lead with 34 points.

Baine went into the game with 12 goals and 22 assists. In fact, Loyola has three players currently in the top 10 in SHL scoring; Liam Finegan (28 points) is currently fourth, and Thomas Macina (22) sits eighth.

The defensive task of slowing down the Ramblers fell largely on the shoulders of three Green players: Hans Huber, Michael Pedraja, and John Curry.

That trio got it done against a Loyola line that features Baine and Finegan.

“That checking line was matched up against their top line, and they did a great job,” Cheris said of Huber, Pedraja, and Curry. “That’s just three guys that worked their tails off tonight. They’re the kind of guys that would step in front of a shot with no helmets on for you.”

Defenseman Fiske liked what he saw from his boys on Friday.

“Everyone was hustling and they couldn’t possess it in our zone for more than thirty seconds at most,” Fiske said. “So defensively, we were pretty locked down. And the big thing today was no penalties.”

Only three penalties were whistled in the game; two on Loyola and one on New Trier.

Chasing a 1-0 deficit at intermission, Loyola elevated its play in the third period. Durdov and Trapp took turns making a few quality saves and with less than two minutes remaining, Ciraulo pulled Trapp for the one-man advantage.

The move paid off fast, with Finegan burying a puck at the near post on a pass from behind the New Trier net from Baine. Thomas Macina also assisted on the play which effectively sent the game to overtime with only 1:23 left in the game.

“The momentum kind of swung in the third period,” Ciraulo said. “We changed a couple things and our boys didn’t want to quit, so credit to the for fighting back and tying the game, and getting us a (league) point out of it. I’m happy about that but at the same time we have to recognize that we got outplayed tonight.”

Ciraulo applauded the game Trapp gave him despite the loss, and with Mikey Baker back in the fold after another extended Loyola football season, the Gold team now has all the pieces in place to pursue its potential.

“I thought our Baker, (Cole) Joubert, and Macina line really played well,” Ciraulo said. “They won most of their shifts. We had some other contributions but they really seemed to shine the most.”

Baine and New Trier’s Brendan Heneghan converted their attempts in the first round of the shootout. Durdov then turned away the next three Loyola shootout attempts.

“Thank god for Drew Durdov,” Fiske said.

Trapp matched Durdov until Miller rose to the challenge for New Trier. Cheris assessed his bench before sending Miller out for the game’s biggest single moment.

Miller slow-walked his approach before going forehand-backhand for the game-winner.

“It wasn’t like I didn’t want to go but I knew I’d definitely be nervous,” Miller said. “But you take a deep breath, touch the puck, and then all of that kind of fades away.

“We do shootouts in practice all the time and I’ll do that move now and then. Trapp is a good freshman goalie so I took my time. Everyone else was kind of just going in and shooting but I thought I’d take my time and make a little move.”

Cheris said it was good to see the junior Miller rewarded on Friday.

“It was nice to see him go for the move. Could he possibly have gone any slower?” Cheris said. “But Harrison takes his role, whatever is given to him, and does his best. So I was really happy to see him get that goal.”

After Friday’s games, in a perpetually fluctuating league table, Glenbrook North (30-10-2, 16-5-0) currently sits third in the SHL standings with 33 points. Saint Viator (22-12-0, 14-7-0) is currently in fourth place with 29 SHL points and Glenbrook South (24-9-0, 12-4-0) sits fifth with 25 points; however, GBS has only played 16 games while the top four league leaders have all played 21 games.