Avon wins third straight OT playoff game
Eagles earn first-ever district semifinal berth
The Avon Eagles picked a good time to break their losing streak against Amherst Steele. And Nick Kraszewski picked a great time to find the net, cashing in on a two-on-one at the 2:14 mark of sudden-death overtime to propel Avon to a 2-1 win over Amherst Steele. It snapped an eight-game losing streak against their Southwest Conference rivals and propelled the Eagles into the district semifinals for the first time in school history.
After Avon withstood some sustained pressure from Amherst to start to overtime, right-shooting Kraszewski came barreling down the left wing and fired home a wrist shot from the slot just inside the circle to send the Eagles on to a date with top-seeded St. Edward in the Brooklyn West District Semifinal on Saturday (12:00 p.m. faceoff).
“That’s a big monkey off our back,” said Avon head coach Kyle Botos. “It’s been four years since we beat Amherst. They’ve had out number.”
The Eagles withstood a few prolonged sieges by Amherst’s top line late in the game – first on a power play late in the third period and then after they came out fresh and cycled Avon to death for the first two minutes of overtime. Avon managed to keep the snipers off the board each time, thanks largely to the play of senior goaltender Ben Boka (26 saves) who was sharp all game long.
The game remained scoreless five minutes into the second period.
Avon’s Nick Koepp drew a holding penalty to put the Eagles on the power play by driving hard down the boards on the right wing. Avon was thwarted by an aggressive Steele penalty kill.
Late in the man-advantage Daniel Zurowski almost sprung Matt Folds for a breakaway, but an Amherst defender tipped the puck just out of his reach.
Avon’s Logan Brown intercepted pass a breakout pass in left circle and fired a low shot labeled for the five-hole of Amherst’s Brady Grove (16 saves), but the senior goaltender squeezed his pads together to keep the game tied.
Shortly thereafter, however, Brown fed Conner Zajankala for a bid in tight, Grove made save, but Colin Barrett was there to collect the rebound and sweep it into the net to break the ice at the 9:51 mark.
Amherst tied it up with 1:38 to go in the period. Jacob Kramer came down the wing and fired a wrister from the bottom of the circle. Boka appeared to stop it, but it trickled through him and across the line. Nick Ciura collected an assist on the play.
The Comets had two chances in the final 30 seconds of the period to take their first lead of the game into the locker room. Kramer used some slick moves to create a backhand chance for himself right in front and Nathan Harmych was set up right to the right of the Avon net, but in both instances Boka made the point-blank save to keep the game tied.
Amherst came out of the locker room looking for the go-ahead goal and had three Grade-A chances in the first three and a half minutes of the frame. Less than two minutes in, Kramer came out of the corner and fired a wrister that Boka kicked out with his left toe. Ninety seconds later, Kramer was set up in the slot on a pass from behind the net and Boka once again kicked it out.
Later in the period Harmych found himself all alone in front of Boka with all the time in the world, but Boka held his ground and robbed him with a glove save. The game was still tied, but Avon was finding it increasingly hard to get the puck out of their end.
Amherst coach Steve Morris was giving his top line of Harmych-Kramer-Ciura all the ice time they could handle and pretty soon Harmych had another big chance in tight. He shot the puck wide, but Avon took a cross-checking penalty in the aftermath and Amherst’s big guns had the chance to go ahead late on the power play.
Avon managed to kill it off. There was a great individual effort by Brown to angle a Comet to the boards, win the puck, and clear it. In the next sequence, he lifted Cuira’s stick just before he could squeeze off a shot from the slot. With the penalty killed, and the Comet’s big line headed to the bench, the Eagles had their chance. They forced Grove to make a few stops, but never really threatened.
Kramer had one more chance to end it in regulation – a backhand attempt from the doorstop with 8.7 seconds left – but Boka made the biggest save of the game to that point and Avon headed to sudden-death for the third straight time in their post season. That includes a 3-2 win over Olmsted Falls in the Baron Cup II final and a 2-1 win over Benedictine in the opening round of the district tournament.
After the puck dropped for sudden-death, Amherst used their fresh legs to cycle the puck in the Avon end for the first two minutes but could not generate any quality chances.
Finally, Barrett blocked a shot, then banked the puck off the boards to Brown who skated down the ice. A Comet defender cut him off before he got a quality chance, but he managed to get the puck on net where Grove made the stop, then smothered the rebound.
Moments later, Koepp deked his away around a defenseman, but a second Comets back-checker chased him down in the slot and bumped him off the puck before he could get a shot off.
Avon managed to keep the puck at the other end of the ice for the next few minutes and Amherst’s top line started to slow down a little bit in the moments leading up to Kraszewski’s game-winner.
Avon dressed 18 skaters to Amherst’s 12.
“We were tired I’ll be honest,” Botos said. “But we had three lines running and they had one and a half. You knew at some point they were going to get tired.”
On Saturday at noon, the Eagles will move into unchartered territory in the OHSAA post-season.
“This team is very special,” said Botos. “They’re a good group and they’re coming together.”
NOTABLE
Aside from the goal scorers, there were a handful of players on both sides that had strong performances. Folds and Mike Perusek performed admirably for Avon, buzzing around the ice and hunting down loose pucks.
Logan Eicher is an impressive minute-munching blue liner for Amherst that showed tremendous four-way mobility, puck-handling and pinpoint passing all night. He threw a few big hits in for good measure.
The last Avon win over Amherst came on January 3, 2017
TOURNAMENT (FINALLY) BEGINNING IN EARNEST?
Avon’s win hopefully marked the beginning of the competitive phase of the district playoffs. Following St. Edward’s 10-0 win over Westlake in the first game of the evening, that meant the last four games played at Brooklyn Recreation Center were decided by an aggregate score of 42-0…That’s four blowouts in a row in the second round of the district playoffs.
Why are we playing these games?
“We get the big prize” Botos said sarcastically, referring to a date with the #1 ranked team in the state on Saturday. “It’s an honor being in the (district) semifinals but it’s a tall task. Everybody knows the writing is on the wall but we’re going to compete.”
There has been growing demand for a second division of play for ice hockey in the Ohio High School Athletic Association for a few years now. With a firm recommendation in place from the Coach’s Advisory Board last year, it appeared that former OHSAA Executive Director Jerry Snodgrass was prepared to move on it. But Snodgrass was replaced last year, and it is not clear if his successor Doug Ute, has the same appetite for change.
Asked following the game if the game would have been more appealing as a district final in a Division II tournament, Boto said “I think it’s time. We need to re-vamp the tournament and maybe take the top four teams from each region (for the Division I tournament). The state needs to look at it”
“How fun would that have been?” he said of the prospect of Avon and Amherst playing in a Division II district championship game. “Southwest Conference rivals going at it? This place would be packed. It would have been a great atmosphere.”
OHSAA representative Ronald Sayers was a guest on the Ohio Hockey Digest On Air podcast last week and said separating ice hockey into two divisions could open a can of worms with the other 26 sports.
Click on the On Air logo above to listen to our full conversation with Ronald Sayers of the OHSAA on episode 41 of the Ohio Hockey Digest On Air podcast.
CARDINALS ELIMINATE RED RAIDERS
In the nightcap, Mentor finished strong, scoring four times in the third period to defeat Shaker Heights and move on to the district semifinals in the Brooklyn East bracket. The East bracket is the one traditionally played at Kent State Ice Arena, but the facility has been closed since November, so both brackets are being played out of Brooklyn.
The puck dropped for the third period with Shaker Heights only down 1-0, but just 12 seconds in the Red Raiders coughed the puck up right in front of their net, and Jack O’Donnell stuffed it under Shaker goaltender Maxim Ehlers to give the Cardinals a two-goal lead.
Just 1:26 later, Andrew McBride picked up a pass from the right boards, cut to the middle of the ice, and put the puck right under the bar. Mentor was up 3-0 and Shaker had their work cut out for them.
With the Red Raiders pushing aggressively to get on the board, a turnover led to a breakaway for Mentor’s Mason Klammer, but Ehlers stuffed him with his left pad to keep the game from getting out of hand. Shortly after that, a Jeff Sauerland shot from the left point was tipped by Mark Sauerland on its way to the net and eluded Cardinal netminder Garrett Davis.
The Red Raiders had some life, but Davis (22 saves) would not let them get any closer. Mentor added an empty-netter with 49 seconds to play, then a power play goal with 2.7 seconds left on the clock.
The Cardinals advance to play the winner of Gilmour Academy-Canfield in a district semifinal game at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. A Gilmour win would set up a re-match of last year’s Kent District championship game won by Gilmour, 4-1. The Lancers are the #3 ranked team in Ohio according to the coach’s poll.
ST. EDWARD MAKES QUICK WORK OF WESTLAKE
Senior forward Noah Schultz scored three times and added an assist to lead the Brooklyn West bracket's #1 seed St. Edward past Westlake in a game that was ended by the mercy rule after two periods.
--- Scott Harrington for Ohio Hockey Digest
