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Sylvania District Update

By Scott Harrington, 02/24/20, 3:30PM EST

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Northview-St. John’s thriller highlight of OHSAA post-season so far

With only 11 teams in the Sylvania bracket, the field was whittled down pretty quickly during the first week of playoff action.

In what was expected to be a very competitive and difficult bracket to predict, there were three play-in games followed by four quarterfinals and – boom – we are down to four teams:  Sylvania Northview, Perrysburg, Toledo St. Francis and Bowling Green.

How are two of the top four seeds, #2 Toledo St. John’s and #4 Findlay, out of the tournament so soon?  Well, the Titans went up against top seed Northview right out of the gates, losing in overtime on Friday, and the Trojans were the victim of one of only two legit upsets that happened across the state last week.  Finlay was eliminated by Bowling Green, 6-4, in a quarterfinal game on Saturday.

St. John’s and Northview each scored three times in the second period Friday, then played through a scoreless third, sending the game to sudden-death overtime tied, 4-4.  Griffin Muir scored the winner for the Wildcats just :52 into the extra session, ending the Titan’s season.

The decision by St. John’s head coach Matt Bollinger to place his team on a collision course with Northview in the quarterfinals, when conventional wisdom would have been to place his team on the opposite side of the bracket to avoid the #1 seed, will be second-guessed a lot I’m sure.  You can hear his reasoning here and it makes sense on a lot of levels.  If the Titans had won, he would have been a genius, so it’s not fair to play Monday Morning Quarterback here.  It was a bold move and it almost worked.  He should be commended for it.

Luke Johnson scored a hat trick for Bowling Green, including an insurance goal with 3:01 remaining, and Gavin Sudlow made 41 saves in the Bobcats’ upset of Findlay.  A Nick Powers goal with :19 left in the second period gave BG a three-goal lead heading into the second intermission.  The Trojans came out hard in the third, peppering Sudlow with 21 shots and scoring three times, but the Bobcats held on.

In the other quarterfinal match-ups, Perrysburg squeaked by Sylvania Southview, 7-6, and Toledo St. Francis edged Anthony Wayne, 4-2.  That sets the stage for semifinal games Friday (Northview-Perrysburg) and Saturday (St. Francis-BG) at the Tam-O-Shanter.

While it is tempting to start talking about a Northview-St. Francis district title game on March 6, the Bowling Green win over Findlay shows us we can’t look that far ahead – especially in this bracket.

Click here to read a full NHC post-season update from www.nhchockey.com

 

--- Scott Harrington for Ohio Hockey Digest