Anthony Tirotta plays through the pain for South Bend Saint Joseph hockey

SOUTH BEND ­– Anthony Tirotta is like the “head, shoulders, knees and toes” children’s song right now with his injuries.

He’s sporting a bruised right eye. His shoulder is a little sore. He has a metal plate in his right foot.

He’s a hockey guy, though, so of course he’s playing this weekend when his South Bend Saint Joseph team begins the city tournament. Saint Joe earned the top seed in the MHSHL standings, meaning they have a bye into the semifinals of the double-elimination tournament that starts Friday.

“Anytime you have kids that want to compete at the level he competes at is, obviously, really good for a coach,” Saint Joe head coach Chris Kleva said.

Battling through the injuries

Tirotta wasn’t sure he’d be able to finish his senior year when he broke his ankle in a game in early December. The injury required surgery, putting a metal plate and seven screws in his right foot. The initial timetable to return was seven weeks, which would have him potentially not playing again until right around this time.

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It only took a month for Tirotta to return to the ice.

“My doctor cleared me, and he was like, ‘You might break a few other things, I might see you back in surgery, but we’ll see what happens,’” Tirotta said. “He let me go because it was my senior year.”

The other two injuries came more recently. Tirotta took a hit in a game last weekend that broke his helmet, with the plastic faceguard coming up and hitting him in the face. He has stitches in his right eyebrow and bruising around his eye still from the impact. The shoulder injury also happened over the weekend, but it's not severe enough to slow Tirotta down.

That being said, the senior is thankful he’ll have until Saturday to rest before playing again.

“I was excited when I saw we didn’t have to play Friday,” Tirotta said. “One extra day to heal.”

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Hockey has been part of Tirotta’s life since childhood. His two older brothers, Dominick and Nicholas, played for Saint Joseph, with Nicholas being named a team captain his senior year. It’s the same title Tirotta was voted for by his teammates, sharing co-captain duties with Owen Balint.

“When I got named captain, it was a big deal to me because my brother had also been named one,” Tirotta said. “I had to follow in his footsteps a little bit. It’s put a lot more excitement into the game knowing everyone is looking up to me. What I do, everyone else is going to follow.”

The focus now shifts to the playoffs

After navigating some early-season injuries and team chemistry issues, Saint Joseph has found its footing heading into the city tournament. They finished tied with the Southwest Michigan Blades in points atop the division standings, but earned the No. 1 seed due to its 2-1 record against them in the regular season.

The first-round matchups Friday are No. 4 seed South Bend Adams vs. No. 5 Penn at 6:45 p.m., No. 3 Lakeshore against No. 6 South Bend Riley at 7:15 p.m. and No. 2 Southwest Michigan vs. No. 7 Valparaiso at 8:30 p.m. All games will be played at The Ice Box in South Bend.

“We’ve definitely progressed through the season,” Tirotta said. “At the beginning, we weren’t that excited about being a team and we weren’t clicking, but toward the end of the season, we’ve been playing more as a team, passing and scoring together. We’ve been happier playing less as individuals and more as a team, and that’s more exciting for all of us.”

With his team mostly healthy, Kleva is optimistic his team can make some noise both in the city and state tournaments. Saint Joseph will likely be in the Class 4A state tourney, which takes the top eight teams from the Indiana State High School Hockey Association to compete for the title.

“I don’t think we’ve hit our best hockey yet,” Kleva said. “I would say the last 3-4 weeks is when we’ve started to play better hockey. I think our potential is still out there, and hopefully, with the city tournament here going into the state tournament, we can continue to move forward instead of backwards.”

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Anthony Tirotta plays through pain for South Bend Saint Joseph hockey