Home ice may help area teams in Buckeye Cup

As seen in ThisWeek News
Thursday, March 9, 2006

Jeff Hunt
ThisWeek Staff Writer

Sometimes, there's nothing like home-ice advantage.

That's what the four teams representing the Greater Columbus High School Club Hockey League will have in the second Buckeye Cup club hockey state championship, which will be Friday through Sunday in the Chiller at Easton, the Chiller North and the Dispatch Ice Haus.

Representing the GCHSCHL will be Westerville, Hilliard/Southwest, Athens and Pickerington/Reynoldsburg/Pataskala/Canal Winchester.

The Chiller at Easton is the home ice for PRPC, and Westerville plays its home contests at the Chiller North.

"It's nice not to travel," Westerville coach Bryan Larrison said. "We've got the advantage of sleeping in our own bed, but there are three teams that also have that luxury. I'm not sure if any teams have an advantage over anyone else."

PRPC coach Marty Laroche said being able to play the state tournament on his team's home rink will be beneficial.

"Obviously, that's a plus," he said. "Last year, (the Buckeye Cup) was out of the norm, per se. It's nice to play in your own backyard."

The event a season ago was held in Canton and Wooster. Medina beat North Royalton 3-0 for the title.

Hilliard/Southwest is no stranger to playing in the host venues, even though the Wildcats' home rink is the Chiller in Dublin. They played 10 regular-season games in the Chillers at Easton and North, and another five at the Ice Haus.

"It's a real advantage," Hilliard/ Southwest coach Gene Sooley said. "It's a drain on young kids to travel. They don't eat regularly and don't sleep regularly. (Holding the state tournament in Columbus is a) tremendous advantage."

Athens plays its home games at Ohio University, but also had numerous contests at the state-tournament sites.

Twelve teams -- four apiece from three leagues comprising the metropolitan areas of Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland -- will compete in the Buckeye Cup. Those 12 are the top four from the regular season in the GCHSCHL, the Cincinnati High School Hockey League and the North Coast High School Hockey League.

Representing the CHSCHL will be Centerville, West Chester Lakota West, Cincinnati Colerain/Northwest and Cincinnati Elder. Representing the NCHSCHL will be Medina, Lakewood, Gates Mills Gilmour Academy and Canton Jackson.

Centerville, Colerain/Northwest, Elder, Hilliard/Southwest, Gilmour and Lakewood are first-time qualifiers.

Of the GCHSCHL teams, Westerville enters the postseason the hottest. The Warcats are 18-9-4 and have won seven of eight and six in a row, including 4-2 over PRPC on Feb. 20 in the championship game of the postseason tournament to earn their second consecutive Blue Jackets Cup.

PRPC, which opens against Colerain/Northwest on Friday, is 18-13-3. The Ice Prowlers have won nine of 12, with the three losses all to Westerville.

The Ice Prowlers used a strong push in the second half of the season to take second in the league. They were 7-9-2 overall after the holiday break Jan. 5 but have gone 11-4-1 since.

"We got things going in the second half (of the season)," Laroche said. "We knew coming in we had the talent. It was the matter of guys accepting new roles. These guys had minimal roles in the past. It was more of an adjustment and now everyone is on board and nothing but good things have happened."

PRPC went 1-1 at state last year, losing to Medina 1-0 and beating Youngstown Mooney/Ursuline 9-0 to finish 28-8.

PRPC has four players -- Pickerington Central junior Nick Hess (24-33-57 points), Pickerington North juniors Taylor Walcutt (27-20-47) and Cody Berkebile (19-25-44) and North freshmen Adam McGrath (22-21-43) -- who have scored at least 40 points.

"We've felt all along that a big part of our second-half success came from our top line of Hess, McGrath and Walcutt," Laroche said.

Berkebile likely won't play in the Buckeye Cup. He injured a knee in the Blue Jackets Cup final against Westerville.

In goal, North junior Justin Lohrman is 15-12-3 with a 2.91 GAA and an .835 save percentage.

Hilliard/Southwest opens against Centerville on Friday. The Wildcats have gone 0-4-1 in their last five to drop to 16-14-6. Before those five games, however, they were 6-1-1 in their previous eight, including a four-game winning streak.

The Wildcats possess a potent offensive attack in Chase Newcome and Zach Wilburn, who tied for second in the league in goals (21) behind Walcutt (22). Wilburn led the league with 10 power-play goals.

The Wildcats will play Centerville without Strahler, who will be sitting out his second contest of a two-game suspension assessed by the league.

Athens, which opens against Jackson on Friday, is 24-9-4, but has lost seven of its last nine. The Bobcats were state semifinalists last year, when their season ended with a 3-1 loss to North Royalton.

# CONTENDERS -- Jackson, a state semifinalist a season ago, should be considered a threat simply because the Polar Bears will enter the Buckeye Cup coming off a 2-1 win over Medina on Feb. 19 to improve to 23-11-3.

Jake Thomas leads the Polar Bears in points (17-35-52) and Zach McKendrick is the team's leading goal-scorer (25) and has 43 points.

Centerville, which won the CHSCHL with 31 points (14-1-3), will enter the state tournament with a 24-6-5 record. The Elks, who have no seniors, are unbeaten in their last 20 games. Their last loss was Dec. 29 -- 3-1 to Findlay.

# BUCKEYE CUP SCORING -- Every team is guaranteed three 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 morning. The championship is at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Chiller North.

In the event of a tie in points after the preliminary round, the team that had allowed the fewer goals win the tiebreaker. The second tiebreaker is the team with the fewer amount of penalty minutes in its three preliminary games combined. The third tie-breaker is the team that scored the earliest in its inaugural game.