Special teams can giveth, and special teams can taketh away. Sound familiar? Well, that’s the way it’s been going for Mentor to close out January. Mentor vs. Rocky River hockey: Cardinals scrap, but special teams takes them on ride in 4-2 loss Last weekend, that special teams pendulum swung in the wrong direction in a loss at Rocky River. Jan. 31 against Benedictine at the Pavilion in Cleveland Heights to close the regular season, not only did that pendulum swing the opposite direction. The force of it nearly ripped it off its hinges. Jake Mackey had a key short-handed goal late in the second period, then a smart play drawing a penalty that kick-started a four-goal third, two on the power play, for the Cardinals as they blew open a 7-1 GCHSHL Red victory. 🏒 Mentor sophomore forward Adam Stoops discusses a 7-1 GCHSHL Red win over Benedictine to close the regular seasonHad 2 goals as part of a 4-goal 3rd a really good night for him that 2nd line, with Hayden Vallance and Aiden Gibson pic.twitter.com/BniMd3OVV9 — Chris Lillstrung (@CLillstrungNH) February 1, 2026 That complexion didn't present itself as the second intermission drew near amid a 2-1 dogfight. Then special teams fortune made a timely weekend of output from Mentor (14-13-3, 5-3 Red) all the better. "Our power play has been clipping along pretty good all year," Cardinals coach Paul McKito said. "We've been right around the 32-35% mark, which is pretty darn good for a power play. So we're happy with that. Our first power play unit is loaded with a lot of guys that can move the puck. We've got the Mackeys, (defenseman Nathan Andree) on the top. We've got Hayden (Vallance) there and (Adam) Stoops. They work really good together. "A lot of things happen by just reading off each other. They find ways to put pucks in the net. The shorty was very timely." That it was, as Mentor was in need of a boost after Benedictine (6-20, 0-8) had pulled within 2-1 in the second. Mackey was glad to oblige. The prolific senior forward, just eight seconds into the Cardinals being on the penalty kill after a hook, walked in a wrister and jumped into the corner boards for good measure thereafter for a vital tally to make it a 3-1 game at 14:02. "It was a faceoff in our own D-zone," Mackey said. "We kind of lost it. It was kind of a tie up. So I just went through and chipped it around the D. And I just had room getting up ice. I saw the D had his feet turned toward the corner. So I cut back in on him and I put it far corner on the goalie. He couldn't get to it." As useful as that goal was, another sequence from Mackey might have carried just as much value. Just 23 seconds into the third, with the Bengals still on that power play, Mackey made a brilliant play. Going wide into the zone along the boards, he drew contact for a slashing penalty, providing the Cardinals 89 seconds on the man advantage. At this juncture, Mentor might been wearing their scarlet sweaters. But they saw crimson. "I take a lot of pride in it honestly," Mackey said. "It's not always about getting the goal. If you're not going to get there, put the defender in a position where he has to take you out of the play." Nick Biondolillo cleaned up a rebound of an initial Joe Mackey look at 1:05. Then 25 seconds later, Adam Stoops banged in a wrister for a 5-1 advantage. Mentor 5-1Nick Biondolillo cleanup at 1:05 on PPAdam Stoops 25 seconds later pic.twitter.com/EDTP8rGPNc — Chris Lillstrung (@CLillstrungNH) February 1, 2026 Stoops, a sophomore, added another at 3:42 off a slick Hayden Vallance helper, part of a strong second-line night from them and Aiden Gibson. Jake Mackey contributed the final margin at 5:42 on a wrapper, also on the power play, for his 35th goal of the winter. Mentor 6-1Adam Stoops off Hayden Vallance at 3:42 pic.twitter.com/WkDtuEIITn — Chris Lillstrung (@CLillstrungNH) February 1, 2026 No way around it: Benedictine is in the midst of a deep rough patch, having not won a game since November and on a 17-game losing skid coming into the night. But to the Bengals' utmost credit on senior night, as they honored goaltender Jeremy Ade, blueliner Luca Bucci and forward Mason Rzepka, they scrapped to keep it close deep into the second. Down, 2-0, late in that period, Rzepka made a selfless feed for Ty Jones, and the freshman took care of a high wrister to get the Benedictine faithful further into the proceedings at 2-1. Benedictine on the board through Ty Jones off a Mason Rzepka at 12:442-1 Mentor pic.twitter.com/cKst7GFnOH — Chris Lillstrung (@CLillstrungNH) February 1, 2026 A power play was to follow. But the Cardinals had another type of power play in mind for the stretch run of this game. Mentor had a timely final regular season weekend amid a year that seems more wide open than usual for Baron Cup I next week on the venerable ice at Brooklyn. The night prior, the Cardinals avenged that aforementioned loss to River. Then came another seven-goal barrage here. Special teams can giveth, and special teams can taketh away. When they give like this, Mentor is elated to have that on its side. "After everything we lost from last year, we knew this was going to be a little bit of a different year," Mackey said of consistency. "So the start of the year was more about finding our identity. And now, it's about getting hot at the right time and just picking up our stride going into playoffs. I think we're doing a really good job of getting hot at the right time." For more from this game, check back in the coming days on News-Herald.com and in our print edition. THE SCORE Mentor 7, Benedictine 1 Mentor 1-0Joe Mackey at 10:41 pic.twitter.com/YpWLZQbdeg — Chris Lillstrung (@CLillstrungNH) February 1, 2026 ...read more read less