Resurrection Christian beat Doherty in the first round of hockey’s playoffs on Friday. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
CENTENNIAL — Resurrection Christian is moving on in the hockey playoffs after upsetting No. 3-seeded Doherty in the first round on Friday afternoon.
The Cougars (15-5-0), a No. 6 seed out of the Foothills Conference, got two goals from Kyle Lish, went 2-for-4 on the power play and outshot Doherty 42-22 in the 3-0 win.
“Not seeing them all year, it’s kind of an unknown,” said Resurrection Christian coach Jake Pence. “They have some big scorers on their team. You watch their film and they’ve got some really good players.
“We wanted to go in like we were playing against the best team in the state. That’s playoff hockey. You play your best, and survive and advance.”
Lish scored the first goal 8:15 into the first on the power play. He was headed for a line change, but rocketed a shot from along the right boards — and beyond the faceoff circle — before he did. It rippled the top-right corner of the net after deflecting off the glove of Doherty goalie Jack Gault.
“I was ready to get off, and I just ripped a shot and it went under the bar,” said Lish, who now has 23 goals this season. “I think it calmed the nerves and helped the boys to get at it.”
Doherty responded with a number of chances in the second period, but wasn’t able to break through.
“That second period came around and they had a lot of opportunities,” Pence said. “I thought (we) weathered the storm really well. They jumped in front of a lot of shots to block them, and they just weathered the storm. That’s huge.”
Quinn Finer added a second power play goal with a nice deflection in front of the net. Lish then added the final score with 4:56 to play when he corralled a loose puck in front of the net and backhanded it home along the ice.
“He’s been just a force for us scoring goals,” Pence said of Lish. “He’s been consistent all year long with that.”
Doherty went 0-for-2 on the power play. Combined with the two power play goals that continued Resurrection Christian’s success in that area — the Cougars scored on 38 percent of power plays during the regular season — it made for a good special teams outing.
“Special teams is a big focus for us,” Lish said. “We have a good power play because our PK gives us a good run for our money in practice.”
Dylan Griffith stopped all 22 shots he faced for his fifth shutout this season.
Doherty ends the year 15-4-1.
Resurrection Christian advances to play No. 2 seed Regis Jesuit in Saturday’s second round. The Raiders beat Heritage 8-0 in the first round on Friday.
The two teams met during the regular season, a 7-1 Regis win on Feb. 7.
“Regis is a really disciplined team,” Pence said. “We lost to them pretty bad earlier in the year, so we need to come back with a different mentality against those guys.”