Three of the four SHL tournament quarterfinal series were settled Sunday, as New Trier Green, Loyola Gold, and Glenbrook North all punched their tickets to the league semifinals via two-game sweeps.

The lone outlier from Sunday’s games at American Heartland Ice Arena in Lincolnwood was in the series between St. Ignatius and Glenbrook South. GBS won to force a deciding Game 3 after St. Ignatius won Saturday’s first game of the series.

The grand finale of Sunday’s four games saw fourth-seeded Glenbrook North take on fifth-seeded Saint Viator in a game where “we’re basically mirror images of each other,” GBN coach Evan Poulakidas said.

Similar teams can make make for great hockey games and GBN’s 2-1 overtime win against Saint Viator was one of those.

After winning 3-1 on Saturday over the Lions, GBN got an overtime goal from Anthony Rafalowski to clinch Sunday’s game and the series for the Spartans.

The game-winning sequence started with Jake Semmelhack winning a puck in the neutral zone and sending it ahead up the right side. Semmelhack drifted to the left side and soon found a shot on his stick.

Rafalowski was ready, skating up on the right side.

“I was just staying as the third guy high and saw the puck was getting close to the net,” Rafalowski said. “(Semmelhack) shot it, and it got through the goalie.”

Semmelhack’s swipe from the left side hit Harer but the puck fought its way through to a wide-open far post. It trickled past the post, where Rafalowski stopped it, put it to his backhand, spun and fired the game-winner.

Beyond his game-winner, Rafalowski was a beast in the series.

“Tony was dominant in both games this weekend. He was superb,” Poulakidas said.

The game started with nearly 34 minutes of scoreless hockey before a goal was scored, with both GBN goaltender Micheal Reyderman and Saint Viator goalie Brock Harer handling whatever came their way.

The drought continued until Saint Viator took a 1-0 lead on the power play, with little more than one minute remaining in the second period. That goal came courtesy of a coast-to-coast jaunt by the Lions’ Sean Nutley.

From behind the Lions’ net, Nutley took off up the center of the ice through the neutral zone, cut left around a defenseman into North territory, and fired a low shot from the top of the left circle that zipped under Reyderman’s glove hand.

Ryan Loftus and Thomas Speck were credited with assists on the goal.

“I thought our power play was great right before they scored,” Poulakidas said. “(Harer) made two or three great saves with his legs and then they come down and scored. I thought we could have crumbled but we had a great third period.

“Going into the third period, we’d only given up ten shots, but that’s hockey. One shot and all of a sudden you’re chasing.”

There may be no team in Illinois more comfortable chasing a deficit than GBN, and nobody was hitting any panic buttons at the intermission.

“We’ve been in one-goal games the whole entire season, all our lives,” Rafalowski said. “We know we can get one goal in the third period. It’s nothing that we can’t do.”

The Spartans did just that. GBN tied the game early in the third period on the power play, on a fine play from Noah Masinter. From behind the net near the right corner, Masinter sent a puck with eyes through a crowd that found its way to the left-side post, where a charging Ryan Sandler deposited his backhand.

“I thought our first line of Smitty (Jacob Smith), Sandler, and Massy (Masinter) all did a great job of getting a lot of offense,” Rafalowski said. “They move the puck so nicely and they were able to get that goal for us.”

Both teams fought tooth-and-nail to the game’s final buzzer before giving way to overtime. Rafalowski’s game-winner came exactly five minutes into the 10-minute overtime period.

Poulakidas applauded the line of Rafalowski, Ryan Rossi, and Cooper Shalin for their play all night long, and Rossi passed credit along to various other teammates.

“I thought (Masinter) had a great game, and Sandler is battling some injuries but he was rock-solid,” Rossi said. “I think Semmelhack always has a good game. He’s always rock-solid on the back end, and Logan (Lyons) is always great with the puck.”

Reyderman also had a few accolades thrown his way.

“Reyderman is the best goalie in the state and he’s going to carry us through everything,” Rafalowski said. “He’s keeping us in it.”

North’s big senior also liked the fact that his side has taken four of five games from a tough Saint Viator team this year.

“We’ve had one-goal games with them every single time we’ve played. Every game was close,” Rafalowski said. “I think it’s been our will and tonight we worked harder. We were hard on the puck, we were forechecking, and they couldn’t make plays off our forecheck.

“We didn’t try to make too-risky plays, we played simple hockey, and just tried to wear them down with our will.”

Saint Viator and GBN could well meet again in the state playoffs, where Poulakidas would expect more of what he saw all season against a team that stacks up in starkly similar ways to his Spartans.

“They’re good defensively, they’ve got a good goalie, they struggle to score goals once in a while, and both teams play hard,” Poulakidas said.

“You’ve got to be super-patient against them. You have to leave that third guy back because they leave their zone, cut through the middle, and want to create an odd-man break. They want to score in transition and you can’t allow it. 

“That said, then you have to be patient with your own offense. You can’t sink that guy in low because then you get burned. So against them, it’s a real chess game. It really is. And credit our guys for sticking with the system tonight.”