BROOKLYN, Ohio -- To paraphrase USA hockey coaching legend
Herb Brooks, the Pirates earned a great opportunity on Saturday night. That
opportunity is a meeting with the ranked Mentor Cardinals in Sunday's Baron Cup
Championship Game. The way in which it was earned was impressive: Rocky River
shut out the Strongsville Mustangs, 6-0, in Saturday night's Baron Cup
semifinal.
And now, after shut-out wins on Wednesday and Saturday,
River has a shot at a ninth Baron Cup title. Saturday's 6-0 win over
Strongsville (18-14-1) was pieced together in balanced fashion. The Sons of
Blackbeard posted two goals in each period, all while keeping a lid on the
River cage for a fourth time in the last 17 days.
Logan Fortune opened the game's scoring on an assist from Luke Mallett in a River goal at 4:46 of the first period. River doubled its lead a minute-and-36 seconds later when Reece Rochester scored a power-play goal on what would turn out to be the Pirates’ lone man-advantage on the night.
The two River goals would hold up as the only scores of an
opening frame that saw the Pirates outshoot the Mustangs, 15-8.
Hayden Weaver netted his 23rd goal of the season in the
early moments of the second period to give the Maroon & White a three-goal
lead (3-0). Defenseman Matt Stueber tallied his third goal of the tournament at
the 8:48 mark of the second. Stueber and his mates on the blue line would take
their 4-0 lead into the third period.
The final period saw Rochester's second goal of the evening
and a Danny Asmar marker as well. As he has been all season, Asmar was near the
puck all night and efforting the three-inch vulcanized rubber disk into danger
areas in front of Mustang netminder Nick Harris. He finished with three
assists.
The Pirates outshot the Mustangs, 40-14, for the game. River penalty-killers came up big in the game as did the team’s guardian of the twine. Rocky River killed off four penalties Saturday, and the PK unit is now 32-for-its-last-34 (94.1%).
Senior netminder Ethan Mylett stopped 14-of-14 shots in
posting his sixth shutout of the season. With that performance, Mylett has logged
a sturdy .882 save percentage since Jan. 5.
And now Mylett and the Pirates (22-7-3) will see a foe that
has gone unbeaten (3-0-1) against Rocky River this season. A foe ranked No. 6
(MYHockey) in the state. One that defeated Hudson, 5-1, in Saturday's other
semifinal. A Mentor Cardinals teams which is seeking its 30th win of the
season.
That's the great opportunity the Sons of Blackbeard earned Saturday night. Will a great moment be born from that great opportunity? We'll find out Sunday evening (5:30 p.m. – Brooklyn Recreation Center) when Cleveland's oldest high school hockey tournament crowns its newest champion.
CANNON FIRE ...
FINAL POINTS: Hayden Weaver joined Danny Asmar in registering multiple assists on Friday. In fact, on both of Reece Rochester’s scores, Weaver provided the primary assist and Asmar chipped in with the secondary. Weaver has now scored in six straight games; over that span he’s recorded 14 points (six goals, eight assists).
FRAME-BY-FRAME: With their 2-2-2 performance on Friday night, Rocky River has now scored a goal in 14 straight periods. River went into Friday’s action averaging 6.03 goals per game. That marks the program’s highest average in eight years; the 2011-12 Pirates averaged 7.24 goals per game.
by Skip Snow
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