PRPC holds off Olentangy to earn club Blue Jackets Cup

As seen in ThisWeek News
Wednesday, February 25, 2004

JEFF HUNT
ThisWeek Staff Writer

photo by Dave J. Yunker/ThisWeek Senior captain T.J. Hess (right) celebrates with his brother, freshman Nick Hess, after PRPC defeated Olentangy 7-6 to win the championship of the Greater Columbus High School Club Hockey League Blue Jackets Cup last Sunday at the CoreComm Ice Haus.

photo by Dave J. Yunker/ThisWeek Olentangy's Jacob Bickmore throws Anthony Kantor of PRPC to the ice during last Sunday's championship of the Blue Jackets Cup at the CoreComm Ice Haus.

AT A GLANCE: PRPC 7, Olentangy 6 Below are final regular-season standings for the Greater Columbus High School Club Hockey League, followed by the results of the third-annual Blue Jackets Cup Club Division double-elimination tournament played Feb. 19 through last Sunday at Nationwide Arena's CoreComm Ice Haus: TEAM W-L-T PTS. PRPC 20-3-1 41 Westerville 16-5-3 35 NE Storm 14-8-1 29 Olentangy 14-10-0 28 Athens 10-12-2 22 Newark 2-19-3 7 Hilliard/Southwest 3-21-0 6 RESULTS: Feb 19: First round: Game 1 -- (4) Olentangy 5, (5) Athens 2; Game 2 -- (3) NE Storm 6, (6) Newark 3; Game 3 -- (7) Hilliard 3, (2) Westerville 2 OT. Last Friday: Losers' bracket first round: Game 4 -- Westerville 6, Newark 0; Winners' bracket semifinal: Game 5 -- (1) PRPC 2, Olentangy 1 2 OT; Game 6 -- NE Storm 6, Hilliard 0. Last Saturday: Losers' bracket second round: Game 7 -- Olentangy 6, Westerville 4; Game 8 -- Athens 8, Hilliard 1; Losers' bracket semifinal: Game 9 -- Olentangy 3, Athens 1; Winners' bracket final: Game 10 -- PRPC 4, NE Storm 3. Last Sunday: Losers' bracket final: Game 11 -- Olentangy 3, NE Storm 0; Championship: Game 12

A boisterous, capacity crowd at Nationwide Arena's CoreComm Ice Haus watched the Pickerington-Reynoldsburg-Pataskala-Canal Winchester club hockey team win its ninth one-goal game last Sunday, as the Ice Prowlers defeated Olentangy 7-6 for the championship of the Greater Columbus High School Club Hockey League Blue Jackets Cup. It was their 10th game decided by a goal.

With 15.1 seconds left in the third period, junior Bryan Kay flipped the puck past Olentangy goaltender John Snyder, sending the Ice Prowlers to their second consecutive year-end tournament championship.

"It's a blur," said Kay, who had two goals and an assist. "I hoped it didn't come down to me, but it got kicked out and it was kind of wobbling, so I batted it in through Snyder's legs."

"This certainly made my heart skip a beat," added PRPC second-year coach Marty Laroche, whose top-seeded team earned a first-round bye and then won all three of its tournament games by one goal to conclude the season 24-5-2 overall. "We seemed to do that a lot this year. There's a good side and bad side, but for the most part, we came out on the good side. I think all those (one-goal games) in the regular season prepared us for the tournament. Yes, all of our games in the tournament were by one goal, but hey, that's playoff hockey."

The Ice Prowlers -- who won last year's tournament with a 2-1 win over defending champion Athens to finish 21-5-2 -- allowed a 6-3 second-period lead to slip away as the fourth-seeded Braves got goals from Todd Rudasil and Joe Kola (two-man advantage) before Cody Cramer tied the game at 6-all with 2:26 left in the third.

"We were down 4-0 and they kept to the game plan and believed in each other," said first-year Olentangy coach Don Lewis, whose team finished 18-11. "They lost 7-6 with 15 seconds left, I'm very proud of them. They showed a great deal of character."

Lewis knew a tie game with just over two minutes to go wasn't any reason to celebrate since the Ice Prowlers beat the Braves 2-1 in double-overtime in a winners' bracket semifinal last Friday. Brian Rossi picked up the game-winner in that game.

"At 21 seconds left (in the final) when they came to the blue line, was I worried? Yes," said Lewis, whose team went 1-5 against the Ice Prowlers this season, with the lone win coming on Jan. 30 (6-3). "There wasn't any time to relax."

At first, it appeared PRPC -- which advanced to the final by downing the Northeast Storm 4-3 in a semifinal last Saturday -- would breeze to the title after taking a 4-0 lead in the second period on a power-play goal by Eric Willard, the junior's second of the game.

Just 1:23 later, however, the Braves picked up their first goal as Mike Niehaus poked the puck through a pile of bodies for an even-strength goal to make it 4-1.

With 8:09 to go in the second period, Olentangy captain Joe Weeks took a high-sticking penalty and 12 seconds into the power play, Ice Prowlers freshman Nick Hess scored to extend PRPC's lead to 5-1.

The Braves -- who were playing in their second game of the day after beating the Storm 3-0 in a semifinal at 9:30 a.m. last Sunday -- showed courage. Just 36 seconds after Hess' goal, Caleb Cramer scored, pulling Olentangy to within 5-2. And then 1:57 after that, Rudasil connected on a short-handed wrist shot that glanced of the glove of PRPC goalie Jesse Betts, cutting the lead to 5-3. However, PRPC seemed to answer every Olentangy rally, as with 4:06 left in the second, Hess scored his second goal -- a redirection of defenseman Josh Martyn's slap shot from the left point.

"Our offense is just so good," said PRCP captain T.J. Hess, who picked up two assists, including on Kay's game-winner. "We knew going into the third period that all the pressure was on them. They were down and they had to come and challenge us, and they did, but we knew we had to score."

IN OTHER ACTION -- Second-seeded Westerville had a rough go in the tournament, losing 3-2 in overtime in the first round Feb. 19 to seventh-seeded Hilliard/Southwest, which entered the postseason at 3-21. The Warcats rebounded with a 6-0 win over Newark last Friday before being eliminated with a 6-4 loss to Olentangy.

The Storm advanced to a semifinal with wins over Newark (6-3 on Feb. 19) and Hilliard (6-0 last Friday) before falling to PRPC (4-3 last Saturday) in the winners' bracket final. They were eliminated with the two-goal loss to Olentangy.

In the tournament, PRPC went 3-0, followed by Olentangy (3-2), Northeast (2-2, 16-11-1), Westerville (1-2, 17-7-3), Athens (1-2, 11-14-2), Hilliard (1-2, 4-23) and Newark (0-2, 2-21-3).