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This Week in the Great Lakes Hockey League Vol. 9 No. 3

By Scott Harrington, 12/17/21, 11:15AM EST

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Holiday Tournaments Kick into High Gear

Three Great Lakes Hockey League teams participated in a big local tournament last week and, this week, holiday tournament season kicks into high gear with five more GLHL members competing against top teams from across the state at another big event right here in Northeast Ohio.

For starters, there was one league game last week with University School visiting Gilmour Academy and handing their neighbors a 2-1 loss in overtime (details below). The Preppers are the only GLHL team to have played – and won – two league games and head into the week in first place in the league standings with four points.

St. Edward has an opportunity to also run their league mark to 2-0-0 when they visit Gilmour themselves for another Tuesday night game.

In Tournament action last week, Walsh Jesuit got their season back on track by upsetting the #6 team in the state and the hosts from Shaker Heights to win the Thornton Park Tournament. Senior goaltender Brodie Lerch stopped 48 of 50 shots over the course of the Semifinal and Final games.

PRIME MATCH-UPS AT PADUA TOURNAMENT

Twelve of the top high school programs from across the state will be in Strongsville this week for the Padua Holiday Hockey Tournament (December 17-19). Each team will play four competitive games over three days in what has become the big event each year to set the pecking order at the state level heading into the Holiday Season.

Toledo St. Francis (#1), St. Edward (#3) and University School (#4) represent three of the top four teams in the state rankings heading into the event. Olentangy Liberty, St. Charles Prep and Sylvania Northview are also in the Top 10 while Upper Arlington, Shaker Heights, Findlay and Padua Franciscan sit in the 11-14 positions and could move up into the Top 10 with strong showings.

Last year’s Padua Tournament was called off at the 11th hour due to a COVID-19 breakout.

RECENT RESULTS

Gilmour Academy was competing the Cornfield Cup (Culver, IN)
Shaker, Walsh and Padua were at the Thornton Park Tournament

TUESDAY, DEC. 7
University School 2 @ Gilmour Academy 1 (OT) *

THURSDAY, DEC. 9
Hudson 2 @ Shaker Heights 5
Padua Franciscan 4, Mentor 2

FRIDAY, DEC. 10
Walsh Jesuit 7, Strongsville 2
Toledo St. John’s 2 @ St. Edward 5
Benet Academy (IL) 6, Gilmour Academy 3

SATURDAY, DEC. 11
Culver Academy (IN) 2, Gilmour Academy 1
St. Edward 1 @ Saint Ignatius 3
Padua 2 @ Shaker Heights 4
Gilmour Academy 2, HSE Hockey Club 1
Walsh Jesuit 4, Bowling Green 1

SUNDAY, DEC. 12
Bowling Green 5, Padua 4
Walsh Jesuit 5, Shaker Heights 1
Gilmour Academy 3, Medina 0

THIS WEEK’S ACTION

Holy Name, Padua, St. Edward, Shaker Heights and University School are all competing in the Padua Holiday Hockey Tournament at OBM Arena.

TUESDAY, DEC. 14
St. Edward @ Gilmour Academy, 4:10pm *

FRIDAY, DEC. 17
Holy Name vs. Padua, 1:50pm
St. Edward vs. Shaker Heights, 2pm
University School vs. Findlay, 3:50pm
Medina @ Walsh Jesuit, 7pm

SATURDAY, DEC. 18
University School vs. Toledo St. John’s, 7:40am
Padua vs. Sylvania Northview, 9:10am
Holy Name vs. St. Charles, 9:30am
St. Edward vs. Olentangy Liberty, 11am
Shaker Heights vs. Toledo St. Francis, 11:20am
Padua vs. Findlay, 3pm
University School vs. Sylvania Northview, 3:20pm
Shaker Heights vs. St. Charles, 5:20pm
Holy Name vs. Toledo St. Francis, 7:20pm
St. Edward vs. Upper Arlington, 8:40pm
Meadville (PA) @ Gilmour Academy, tbd

SUNDAY, DEC. 19
Holy Name, Padua, St. Edward, Shaker Heights and University School at Padua Tournament (placement games).
Walsh Jesuit @ Cincinnati Moeller, tbd

GREAT LAKES HOCKEY LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

SHANE HELMAN, PADUA FRANCISCAN (WEEK OF NOV. 29)

There was an oversight last week and Padua’s Shane Helman was omitted from the GLHL Player of the Week listing. Helman scored hat tricks in back-to-back Bruin wins over Dublin Coffman and Dublin Jerome at the Allgeyer Tournament in Columbus. The junior forward now has three hat tricks and 13 goals on the season.

TYLER LENCEWICZ, SHAKER HEIGHTS (WEEK OF DEC. 6)

Shaker Heights senior forward Tyler Lencewicz scored five goals and nine points in just three games as the Red Raiders posted a second-place finish at the Thornton Park Tournament. On the season, Lencewicz is up to a prolific 17 goals and 28 points in just nine games played as he prepares to lead Shaker up against three straight Top 10 teams at the Padua Holiday Tournament. The event will provide him with an opportunity to go head-to-head against some of the top players from around the state.

GREAT LAKES HOCKEY LEAGUE - TEAM NOTES

GILMOUR ACADEMY LANCERS (4-4-3, 0-0-1)

Gilmour Academy lost their first two games at the Cornfield Cup in Culver, IL, extending a losing streak to five games, before winning their last two…The Lancers have allowed more than two goals in just one of their last five games but, for the season, GA has scored more than two goals in just two of eleven contests…Gilmour scored three times in a 6-3 loss to Benet Academy (IL) in the opening game of the Cornfield Cup with Shea Hofstrom (1-1-2) and Jack Popovich (0-2-2) each figuring in two of the three goals…Ian Anderson stopped all 17 shots he faced in a 3-0 win over Medina to close out the event.

HOLY NAME GREEN WAVE (0-5-0, 0-0-0)

Holy Name had their lone game of the week, a GLHL contest against Padua Franciscan, postponed. The Namers have not played since a 7-4 loss to Hudson on the final day of the Walsh Thanksgiving Tournament. Holy Name wil be back in action this week at the Padua Tournament facing three ranked teams: the host Bruins, St. Charles Prep and the defending state champions from Toledo St. Francis.

PADUA FRANCISCAN BRUINS (7-2-2, 0-0-0)

The Padua Franciscan Bruins entered the week ranked #14 in the state but losses to #12 Shaker Heights (4-2) and #6 Bowling Green (5-4) at the Thornton Park Tournament might set them back a bit this week. Padua will have plenty of opportunity to boost their ranking when they face at least two more ranked teams, #10 Sylvania Northview and #13 Findlay, at their Holiday Tournament at OBM Arena with a strong possibility of drawing another ranked team on Sunday based on the quality of competition at the event...The Bruins fell behind BG 4-0 but stormed back to tie and force overtime.

SHAKER HEIGHTS RED RAIDERS (5-3-1, 0-1-0)

The Shaker Heights Red Raiders were the runners-up at their Thornton Park Tournament last week, knocking off Hudson (5-2) and Padua (4-2) in the single-elimination format before dropping a 5-1 decision to Walsh Jesuit in the championship game on Sunday. Shaker will face a tough slate of games at the Padua Tournament this week, going up against #3 St. Edward, #1 Toledo St. Francis and #9 St. Charles Prep in their three preliminary round games.

ST. EDWARD EAGLES (5-3-2, 1-0-0)

The St. Edward Eagles played a pair of tough non-league games last week to tune up for the Padua Tournament. Four different Eagles scored in the third period to beat Toledo St. John’s at home 5-2 on Friday. On Saturday, they headed over to Brooklyn Rec to face rival Saint Ignatius in a battle of the #2- and #3-ranked teams in the State. The Eagles came up short in that one, 3-1, but will get another crack at the Wildcats when they host them at Winterhurst on January 21. Circle your calendars for that one…St. Edward has yet to win back-to-back games this season but has lost consecutive games either, alternating wins every other game since their season-opening 7-1 win over Walsh Jesuit in a league game.

UNIVERSITY SCHOOL PREPPERS (4-5-0, 2-0-0)

University School took the weekend off after picking up two points in the Great Lakes Hockey League standings with a 2-1 overtime win at Gilmour Academy on Tuesday. Colin Counahan scored the OT game-winner and Evan Crawford turned aside 34 of 35 shots in that one. Luke Palmer was the other goal scorer for the Preppers. With the win, US is now 4-5-0 on the season but 2-0-0 in the GLHL where four points has them in first place.

WALSH JESUIT WARRIORS (4-5-2, 0-1-0)

A big win over the host Red Raiders gave Walsh Jesuit a much-needed title at Shaker’s Thornton Park Tournament. The Warriors went into the event with a 1-5-2 record that included some close games against excellent competition, but it had to do wonders for Walsh to run the table in the single-elimination tournament, winning 7-2 over Strongsville and 4-1 over #6-ranked Bowling Green before handling the Raiders 5-1 in the Final. Walsh scored three times in a span of 42 seconds midway through the first period to take a 3-0 lead on Shaker in that game. Noah Colasanti, Dominick Calleri and Ryan Kerscher scored the rapid-fire tallies…The Warriors will play just once this week, traveling to Cincinnati to take on Archbishop Moeller of the Capital Hockey Conference on Sunday.