By Joe Harris, Special to the Post-Dispatch
MANCHESTER -- Priory forward JP Nadreau never lost faith.
"It looked doubtful going in and then we brought it back," Nadreau said. "We gave some heart, chemistry, everybody started giving 100 percent."
Nadreau's goal capped a late comeback as Priory forced a 4-4 tie against Clayton in a key Mid-States Club Hockey Association Central Division game at the Greensfelder Recreation Center on Thursday night.
Frederic Gaertner started the rally with a goal to cut the deficit to 4-3 with 3:18 left.
"Puck's just bouncing around in front," Gaertner said. "Nadreau made a great pass to me. I just put it top corner."
Nadreau finished the rally, leveling the game with 52 seconds off a Gaertner feed.
Priory coach Paul Cavallini pulled goalie Cadean Eilerts twice for the extra attacker and each time it quickly ended in the back of the Clayton net. Eilerts was pulled for a grand total of 15 seconds before Gaertner and Nadreau scored.
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"I consider it a character builder for them, knowing that when you're down and maybe you're not getting the right call, sometimes, you know, you got to look to each other to work harder and outwork the other team," Cavallini said. "And I think they know they can win now. They know they can come back."
Nadreau finished with a pair of goals and an assist, while Gaertner had a goal and an assist. Max Nadaud also scored and Eilerts had 39 saves for Priory (10-5-4 overall).
Daniel Clifford had two goals and an assist and Charlie Thompson and Stone Marbarger also scored for Clayton (12-5-3). Nick Schoemehl had 27 saves.
"That was a playoff atmosphere there," Clayton coach Cory Cannon said. "The big thing is, you know, we did it last year. We've been there. We've got a lot of guys that have played a lot of playoff hockey. They know what it takes to win when it ramps up."
Priory had the early jump. Gaertner set the tone in the game's opening seconds with a steal and a breakaway, but Schoemehl turned him away with a pad save.
Clayton found its offense after weathering the early flurry as Thompson banged home the rebound off an Ian Barnes shot to make it 1-0 at the 4:17 mark of the first period.
Clifford added to the Clayton lead with his first of the season, burying an Ethan Feinstein feed from the slot with 27 seconds left in the first.
Eilerts made several big saves during a couple of penalty kills to keep the Ravens in the game.
"We have great goaltending, and they keep us in a lot of games," Cavallini said. "He played great tonight. Players got left alone in front, and I think the puck went off of different things, who knows what it went off of, but he did great and we're proud of him."
Eilerts' effort was rewarded with a pair of shorthanded goals just seconds apart. Nadaud got it going with an unassisted tally at 7:33 of the second period and Nadreau followed suit just 21 seconds later to quickly even it at 2-all for Priory, who is 7-0-4 in its last 11 games.
"The season started slow, but we've been giving 100% every single game," Nadreau said.
Marbarger made it 3-2 Clayton with his sixth goal of the season with 3:52 left in the second. Clifford's second of the game midway through the third appeared to give the Greyhounds a commanding 4-2 lead before the Ravens rallied.
"It just shows how resilient of a team we are, and we can win any game and come back from like how much we're down by," Gaertner said.
Clayton finished the regular season on a 5-2-2 run during the home stretch. The tie clinched a second-place finish in the Central Division for the Greyhounds.
"It really is huge," Cannon said. "It's a good mental boost. But you know, you want to have a good seed going into playoffs, and if you want to have a top four seed, a top five seed, you got to come first or you got to come second. That was a goal of ours, is to finish in the top two. Obviously, you want to finish first. You want to go out on a win, but, you know, it sets us up for success later. And that's the goal."
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