Hendersonville’s Pope John Paul II made Tennessee high school hockey history March 22 when the Knights became the first team to win back-to-back Predators Cups, symbolic of state prep supremacy.
Playing with leading scorer Daniel Adams handicapped by a broken hand, the Knights were undefeated in state tournament competition, capping their run with an 8-2 victory over the Metro Pirates of Knoxville on the Nashville Predators’ home ice in the Sommet Center.
“The tone in the locker room (going into the Predators Cup finale) was, we step on the ice as champions and we leave the ice as champions,” said JPII coach Bjorn Svedin, whose team depth (the Knights dressed 20 players for Predators Cup play) enabled it to overcome the injury to Adams.
The Knights took the lead at 3:30 of the first period when Matt Wear put in a rebound off the stick of Dmitry Adams — and they never looked back.
Anthony Golio and Steven Lewandowski added goals for the Knights in the first period. Golio was assisted by Adams and Ryan Sterrett at 7:21. Lewandowski scored 29 seconds later to increase the JPII lead to 3-0.
The Knights exploded for four goals in the second stanza. Lewandowski and Ben LaFrancois teamed up to launch the scoring binge 30 seconds into the period.
The next two goals came within 47 seconds of each other. At 5:09 LaFrancois scored, then paired with Jack Bradshaw to set up Lewandowski for his second score of the game, at the 5:56 mark. Bradshaw and Lewandowski found each other again three minutes later to boost the Knights’ lead to 7-0.
John Hasentufel finally put the Pirates on the board later in the period, scoring on a two-man advantage.
The Pirates stepped it up in the third period, holding the Knights to just one goal, by Alex Klein at 2:53. “We had to play close to perfect to beat them,” said Pirates coach Thomas Bokuniewicz, “We just didn’t have the mojo.”
Last season the Pirates finished 1-11 and the Predators Cup was the last thing on their minds. “If I would’ve told these kids at the beginning that we would be in the state championship, they would’ve hit me over the head with a 2 x 4,” said Bokuniewicz. “But they did and I am happy for them.”
The line of Lewandowski, Bradshaw and LaFrancois combined for six goals and nine assists for Pope John Paul II. “Depth is a big key and we used that to our advantage,” said Bradshaw. “We have four solid lines that run constantly.”
Adams was able to play in the championship game with a soft cast on his broken hand. In the second period, he was slashed across the hand and had to come out of the game. “He (Adams) is a really good player and makes a big impact on our team,” said LaFrancois.
The Knights will lose Adams, his brother Dmitry and Bradshaw to graduation this spring but are expecting six new players for the 2008-09 season. “The core group on this team is still sophomores and juniors,” said Svedin. “We should have a good run next year.” | 
