Strongsville, OH --- A pair of goals by senior forward Owen Ambrozy led the Hilliard Hockey Club to the program’s first Buckeye Cup championship, defeating the Dayton Stealth 2-1 in the post-season tournament’s final game on Sunday afternoon at OBM Arena.

     The state championship provides Hilliard entry in the USA Hockey Nationals Championships High School Division II competition in Dallas, TX March 24-28. Division II teams’ rosters are drawn from one or multiple high schools.

      Each of Ambrozy’s goals occurred with less than six minutes remaining in third period of the contest after Hilliard had trailed Dayton, 1-0, since the 13:16 mark of the first period.

      The first of Ambrozy’s two goals came after the forward skated the length of the ice, shed a defenseman and put the puck into the Stealth’s net.

     “I went coast-to-coast, and I definitely didn’t expect to get that far up the ice and bury one there, but it went in,” declared Ambrozy. “It was a great feeling to tie it up.”

      “He is deceivingly fast,” noted Hilliard second year coach Jacob Trask while reviewing Ambrozy’s first goal. “He’s got a really good shot. We were pushing a lot and we needed that spark, and that play did it for us.”

     Shortly after Hilliard’s first goal, Dayton was assessed a two-minute minor paving the way for Hillard’s special team’s play to net the game-winning goal off Ambrozy’s stick, just nine seconds into the man advantage situation.

       “We got a power play, and we knew we needed to hop on it fast. Coach Trask told us to stay calm and composed and work it around. We got the puck, got it into the zone and worked it around. Adam VanVoorhis hit me with the one-time pass, an amazing pass, and it slid under the right pad of the goalie,” Ambrozy offered while describing the power play goal.

    Trask referred to Ambrozy, the team captain as “our heartbeat all year long and whenever we needed something to happen in our favor, he would be that spark for us.”

     Hilliard goaltender Mason Sines stopped 22 of the 23 shots he faced in the championship game.

     “(Mason) has given a chance all year long. When he is on, it will be extremely tough for anybody to beat him,” declared Trask. “We are fortunate to have two really good goalies.”

      As Hilliard prepares for their appearance in the national tournament, Trask was pleased to see his team’s consistency improve throughout the five games played in the Buckeye Cup.

     “I think we got better and better every single game. We only have five seniors and I think that consistency had been an issue all year long. It was nice to see that happen this weekend. We kept climbing the peak to where our potential was all year.”

     In the Sunday morning semi-final game, Hilliard defeated the Cincinnati Swords 4-2 via goals tallied by Aiden Van Deusen, Andrew Masteller, Brody VanDyke and Hayden Clingman.

     Hilliard skated through the three rounds of preliminary pool play undefeated and out-scored opponents by a combined 13-4 over three games.

      Sines stopped 43 of 45 shots in preliminary play while Wesley Reichman stopped 16 of 17 shots in his pool play game experience.

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