GCHSCHL teams to compete in first Buckeye Cup

As seen in ThisWeek News
Thursday, March 3, 2005

JEFF HUNT
ThisWeek Staff Writer

The norm has been that the club hockey season ended after league championships.

This season, however, will end with the inaugural Buckeye Cup state tournament, which coincides with the OHSAA state tournament for sanctioned teams. The 12-team event will be held Friday through Sunday in Center Ice Sports Complex in Canton and Alice Noble Ice Arena in Wooster.

The Greater Columbus High School Club Hockey League will be represented by Pickerington-Reynoldsburg-Pataskala-Canal Winchester, Westerville, Athens and Olentangy.

The eight other competitors are Canton Jackson, Cleveland Villa Angela-St. Joseph, Medina, North Royalton and Youngstown Mooney of the North Coast High School Hockey League and Liberty Township Lakota East, West Chester Lakota West and Cincinnati LaSalle of the Cincinnati High School Hockey League.

Westerville coach Bryan Larrison, whose team won the GCHSCHL championship Feb. 21 by beating PRPC 4-3 in triple-overtime in the Blue Jackets Cup playoffs, said a Buckeye Cup title is the third and final preseason goal for his team.

"I think we've always been focusing this year for it," said Larrison, whose team enters at 27-6-2 and finished second with 40 points (19-3-2) in the league behind PRPC (42, 21-3). "When we started, the guys wanted to win the league -- and we came two points shy of that -- and our second goal was winning the (Blue Jackets) Cup title. And our third is winning the state title."

Westerville, which opens the tournament at 8 p.m. Friday against North Royalton, has won 12 of its last 14. Sean Hundley (30 goals, 24 assists, 54 points), Ryan Krieger (24-20-44) and Ian Sapecki (20-21-41) have totaled more than 40 points apiece Krieger led the league in short-handed goals with three, and Hundley was fourth in the league in points with 40 (19 goals, 21 assists).

The Warcats also have three dependable goaltenders in Morgan Rodgers (11-2-2, .916 save percentage, 2.2 goals-against average), William Sorokas (8-3, .907, 2.18) and Curtis Trueb (8-0, .896, 2.12). The Warcats allowed 1.9 goals per game, second to PRPC (1.6).

PRPC enters with a 26-7 mark. The Ice Prowlers concluded the regular season on a 12-game winning streak before losing two of three to Westerville in the Blue Jackets Cup.

Anthony Kantor (19-39-58), Nick Hess (31-22-53), Taylor Walcutt (31-18-49) and Eric Willard (17-29-46) are top offensive threats. Kantor (50), Hess (42) and Walcutt (41) led the league in points. Walcutt had a league-best 26 goals, including eight winning goals, and Kantor led the league in assists (33). Hess was second in goals with 22. Willard has nine power-play goals.

Third-year coach Marty Laroche said the versatility of his offense has been an integral part of its success.

"It's huge," Laroche said. "It's good for us, so if we're having a bad night we really don't know where the offense will come from each night and that's good. A different guy is going to lead the way each time."

Cody Berkebile leads the defensemen with 14 goals and 19 assists to go along with a team-best plus-35. He also has scored seven power-play goals.

Goalie Miles McGrew has a 22-4 record with a 1.63 GAA and .910 save percentage.

PRPC, which averages 5.2 goals, opens the tournament at 6 p.m. Friday against Medina.

"It's exciting for everybody involved and something that's been in the back pocket for a while now," Laroche said. "We've not been thinking about it too, too much. But now that the time is here, we're focused on getting healthy and ready for the weekend."

TOP TEAMS -- The top team out of the NCHSHL is Jackson, which won its league title with a 3-1 victory over North Royalton in the championship game Feb. 6, improving to 30-6-2. The Polar Bears also won the regular-season league title with 21 points (10-0-1), holding off VASJ (17, 8-1-1). PRPC beat Jackson 6-3 in a scrimmage Oct. 31.

BUCKEYE CUP SCORING -- Each team is guaranteed two games, with the preliminary rounds being based on a period-by-period scoring system. Teams will be awarded one point for a period won; one-half point for tying a period; two points for a game won; one point for a game tied; zero points for a period lost and zero points for a game lost.

Points accumulated by period will determine the top four seeds for the semifinal round, which will be Sunday. The championship game is slated for 6 p.m. Sunday at Center Ice Sports Complex in Canton.

"Technically, you can win both (preliminary) games and be eliminated from the tournament," Laroche said. "In that sense, I'm not a huge fan of it. There's a point up for grabs in each period and it forces you to be focused the entire three periods."

In the event of a tie in points after the preliminary round, the team with more overall goals scored wins the tiebreaker. The second tiebreaker is fewer penalty minutes.