Tuesday’s Washington Catholic Athletic Conference Metro Division ice hockey tournament semifinal saw plenty of goals, 16 to be exact, as St. Mary’s Ryken outscored Bishop Ireton of Virginia 10-6 at the Capital Clubhouse in Waldorf to secure its ticket into today’s championship match.

Senior forward Josh Stevenson had four goals and senior forward Pete Behrens finished with eight points on three goals and five assists to lead the Knights to the win and advance them to play Good Counsel of Montgomery County in the WCAC final scheduled for 5:30 p.m. today at The Gardens Ice House in Laurel.

“Honestly it felt great,” Stevenson said. “I just try to stay hydrated all day, keep focused and go out there and do what I need to do. Pete Behrens had a great game, a lot of fast movement, great shots and great goals. I hope to keep banging pucks in the net and win it all. I feel like we can tear up Good Counsel.”

St. Mary’s Ryken head coach Matt Billman was ecstatic about his team’s win, projecting them into Friday's final.

“Our plan going into it all season was to get to the game Friday which is the WCAC Championship,” Billman said. “So we are right where we need to be. We just need to go win it. It’s two wins in a row and we are just putting up points. Stevenson had four goals, Behrens had three goals and five assists. Those kids show up every night and it’s insane how many points they put up. Behrens has two hat-tricks in two straight games.”

After a slow start to the game, the Knights picked up the momentum when Stevenson scored his first goal of the night on Ireton goaltender Brendan Smith with 10 minutes 1 seconds left in the first period. Smith had 30 saves for the Cardinals on the night.

The lead extended to 2-0 with 2:33 left in the opening period when Behrens scored his first of the night, beating Smith on a breakaway. The first period ended with St. Mary’s Ryken up by two goals.

Ireton scored twice early in the second period to tie the game. Alex Simuro beat Knights senior goaltender Colin Lombardi to trim the deficit to 2-1 at 10:11. Lombardi had 20 saves on the night. The Cardinals scored again less than a minute later to tie the game off of an Arthur Seng shot that made its way past Lombardi and into the net.

“It was a great game overall,” said Seng, a freshman. “We played well offensively. We kept possession, but broke down on defense and gave away some breakaways. We just had to keep the mentality that we were still winning this and keep trying. I’ve been playing hockey since I was 5 and moved to Germany and picked up a lot of skills there. I hope to get Ireton their first win in any league. We were looking to win, but came up empty handed.”

With a tie game, the Knights felt the urgency as senior forward Troy Tallant scored on a shot that blazed past Smith to put the Knights back in the lead 3-2.

“We weren’t too familiar with them, so we just wanted to wear them out,” Billman said. “After the first period we noticed that they weren’t pressuring too hard, so we knew we could get some points off of breakouts. It’s a learning process and we planned around that.”

The next goal came from the Knights again when Jack Delaney scored his first goal to make it 4-2 at 5:41. Almost two minutes later, Behrens added his second goal on another breakaway to extend the lead to three goals.

The lead stretched to 6-2 on Stevenson’s second goal of the night just seconds later. Ireton ended the Knights’ stretch of goals with one of its own, but St. Mary’s Ryken took a 6-3 lead to the third.

Stevenson opened up the scoring again with his third goal of the night off of a pass from Behrens at 14:20 making it 7-3. Ireton’s Graham Kalan came back to rip one past Lombardi and trim the deficit to 7-4 at 12:26.

At 8:23, St. Mary’s Ryken scored again, this time off of a Behrens shot, making it 8-4. A minute later, Stevenson got his fourth and final goal of the night to stretch the advantage to 9-4.

The Cardinals scored twice more, but the Knights kept pushing and Tallant scored his second goal to end the scoring and secure the team’s trip to the final.

“It was nice to be part of the playoff experience,” Ireton head coach Tony Dicarlo said. “We were a little outmanned. St. Mary’s played really well and the better team won today. I thought we got a lot of good shifts from some of our younger guys, but it just wasn’t enough. Seng is a freshman and will be around hopefully another three years to help us out. We had high hopes and we didn’t want it to end today.”

The Knights are excited to make a run at the championship this year and have high hopes heading into Friday’s game.

“The championship is Friday and it’s our next game,” Billman said. “We hope to win it, and if we do that, then we are off to state playoffs. We played Good Counsel twice this season and lost to them both times. But I believe that you don’t lose to the same team three times in one season, so we expect to get a good game out of them.”