GILMOUR ACADEMY

Gilmour Academy had an impressive shutout streak of 256:37 broken over the weekend.  The streak stretched from December 14 to January 4 and included five straight shutouts and 17 consecutive full periods without a goal against.  Both of GA’s junior goaltenders—Tobias Herlong and Dylan Stefan contributed to the shutout streak...For 21 years at their Brother James Memorial Tournament, Gilmour Academy has employed a unique overtime format that includes full-ice two-on-two, then one-on-one play.  “We wanted a quick way to decide winners for the tournament standings without using the same old shootout format,” said Lancers head coach John Malloy.  “I figured the goalies always have this immense pressure in a shootout, why not shift some of that pressure to the players?  It is fast-paced with a lot of action.  There is nothing better than getting down to a full ice 1-on-1. Once we even had a coach pull his goalie to make it a 2-on-1. It’s very exciting.” 

HOLY NAME

The Green Wave of Holy Name is undefeated (5-0-1) over its last six games with wins over Sylvania Northview and St. Charles in that span.  Northview and St. Charles are tied for #8 in this week’s coach’s poll.  GLHL wins over Padua (6-2) and Holy Name (4-0) last weekend pushed the Namers into a tie for first place in the league standings.

PADUA FRANCISCAN

Padua Franciscan had one of their best offensive outputs of the season Saturday at OBM Arena, scoring four times, but still suffered a 7-4 loss to Rocky River.  After going through a dry spell where they were shut out four times in a row in early December, the Bruins have started lighting the lamp with more regularity of late.  They have scored two or more goals in each of their last five games, turning the red light on 14 times (2.8 per game) in that span.

ST. EDWARD

Balanced scoring has been a big part of the recent success enjoyed by St. Edward.  Eight Eagles players have hit double-digit points and six have scored between 6-9 goals.  Junior forward Noah Schultz (7-8-15) is the leader in points and senior forward Matt Smith is tops with nine goals...senior goaltender Nate Cappellazzo has yet to lose a game this season (5-0-1) and has posted a single-game save percentage of .938 or better in five of his six starts.

SHAKER HEIGHTS

A comfortable win for Shaker Heights over Cleveland Heights last Friday (8-1) was the exception to the rule for Shaker this year.  Fourteen of the Red Raiders’ 20 games this season have finished tied or decided by one goal with the Red Raiders owning an impressive 10-2-2 record in those games. 

UNIVERSITY SCHOOL

Senior forward Beau O’Sickey’s second goal of the game came 5:34 into sudden-death in University School’s lone game last week—a 4-3 overtime win over visiting Cathedral Prep from Erie, PA.  They were O’Sickey’s first two goals of the campaign...This season, when US has scored more than one goal in a game, they have a record of 7-2-0.  Unfortunately, there have been eight games in which the Preppers have failed to score multiple times and they are 0-7-1 in those games.

WALSH JESUIT

As Nate Colasanti goes, so goes Walsh Jesuit.  In the last five games in which Colasanti did not produce a point, the Warriors were shut out.  The senior forward has scored seven goals this season with six of them coming as the result of a pair of hat tricks against Linsly, WV (11/30) and St. Xavier (12/8)...Walsh has played more league games (6) than any other GLHL team and they play their seventh Friday at Padua.  That will leave their regular season finale against Holy Name February 1 as their only remaining GLHL contest, although they will play Padua twice in tournaments. 

The Great Lakes Hockey League Player of the Week is Padua Franciscan freshman forward Shane Helman.  Helman scored a pair of goals in each of Padua’s games last week.   After being held off the scoresheet in eight of his first nine varsity games, Helman has been heating up lately.  He has scored two goals in a game five times this season—including four of his last five games.  He has goals in each of the last five games, scoring nine goals in that span.

“Last weekend Shane scored two goals in each game, which is impressive enough,” said Bruins head coach Perry Cohagan.  “But the most important thing is he seems to always score goals in response to us giving up a goal.  He scores big goals that keep us in games or give us leads.  You can't ask for more than that.”

The contributions of the freshman go beyond the scoresheet.

“Any recognition Shane gets is more than deserved,” Cohagan said.  “He has been working very hard since June with the team, never misses a workout or practice, and even more importantly is a true team player and great teammate.  We have a great group of guys here and Shane has joined right in along with our other freshmen working towards being a better team every day.

PREVIOUS WINNERS—Brennan Dickey (Holy Name), December 1; Lucas Newton (St. Edward), December 8; John Pape (University School) December 15; Milo Henry (Holy Name), December 22; Patrick Ehlert (Holy Name), January 3

Ryan Gorbett is one of the top-scoring players in the history of the Great Lakes Hockey League.

Almost four years after graduating, Gorbett still ranks as the league’s all-time leader in assists (35) and is second in points (53).

Following a prolific career at University School that saw him earn News-Herald Player of the Year as a senior, Gorbett spent two years playing Tier III Junior hockey with the Northern Cyclones (EHL) and Islanders Hockey Club (USPHL Premier).

Gorbett then moved on to Franklin Pierce University, an NCAA Division III school in the Northeast 10 conference.  Following a freshman season that saw him produce seven points (3-4-7) in 23 games and make the NE-10 Academic Honor Roll, Gorbett is third on the team in scoring as a sophomore with 14 points (5-9-14) in as many games.  

(statistics represent GLHL regular season league games through last week)