Medina gains revenge by beating PRPC in state semifinal

As seen in ThisWeek News
Thursday, March 8th, 2007

ANDERS LARSON
ThisWeek Staff Writer

By Lorrie Cecil/ThisWeek The Ice Prowlers' Brad Noskowiak (left) and Taylor Kantor celebrate a goal against Hilliard/Southwest in the Blue Jackets Cup on Feb. 16. PRPC won 7-0. The Prowlers won the league title and Blue Jackets Cup and finished 28-3-5. Noskowiak is a sophomore at Reynoldsburg.

AT A GLANCE: At a glance Record: 28-3-5 overall, 18-1-5 (first) in GCHSCHL Seniors lost: Cody Berkebile, Loren Chrisman, Geoffrey Kilian, Justin Lohrman, Max Matsanoff and Brian Rossi Key returnees: Taylor Markell, Adam McGrath, Brad Noskowiak, Dan Smith and Zach Wiard

It looked every bit like this would be the year the Pickerington/ Reynoldsburg/Pataskala/Canal Winchester Ice Prowlers won the Buckeye Cup club hockey state championship, even in the final minutes of their semifinal last Sunday.

The Ice Prowlers, winners of 22 in a row, held a 3-2 lead over the Medina Bees with just less than three minutes to play. They had beaten Medina the day before.

The teams had alternated goals the entire game, and with 2 minutes, 44 seconds left, Kent Charnley of Medina tied the game for the third time on an assist from Alex Hoopingarner. Moments later, with PRPC on the power play, Max Zenker of Medina harmlessly dumped the puck into the PRPC zone, but the puck took an odd bounce off the ice and skidded off freshman goalie Dan Smith to put Medina in front 4-3 with 1:33 left. That was the final score.

Coach Jay C. Catherine said that despite the loss, he was proud of the play of his team, which outshot Medina 41-20 in the semifinal.

"Even in the semifinal, we had guys who were playing with a lot of injuries, blocking shots," Catherine said. "We had a guy (Zach Wiard) take seven stitches in the lip this weekend, and a lot of players had bruises all over. Just the aches and pains that the playoffs give you, but they played through all that.

"It comes down to an unlucky bounce for us that put an end to our season."

West Chester Lakota West beat Medina, the defending champion, 5-3 in the final to win its first Buckeye Cup and finish 32-0-1.

PRPC, which finished first (18-1-5) in the Greater Columbus High School Club Hockey League regular season for the second consecutive season, finished 28-3-5 overall. After a sluggish start that included five ties in the first seven games, the Ice Prowlers won 24 of their next 25 games and captured their third Blue Jackets Cup on Feb. 18.

The regular-season losses were to Athens (4-2 on Nov. 3) and the Dublin Jerome varsity (3-1 on Nov. 26).

In the Buckeye Cup, the Ice Prowlers won their first three games in convincing fashion and earned the top seed heading into the semifinals. They beat Jackson 4-2 last Friday, then defeated Hamilton Badin 11-3 and Medina 5-0 last Saturday.

Catherine said he knew the Ice Prowlers would see a better Medina team in the semifinal than they did in the first meeting, when they held a 55-7 shot advantage.

"They definitely came out with a different attitude to get back at us," Catherine said. "After we played a near-perfect game on Saturday night, we knew they were going to come out ready for us."

The Prowlers will lose six seniors, including five who will play in the GCHSCHL all-star game Sunday.

The biggest loss will be captain Cody Berkebile a two-time all-star who led the GCHSCHL in the regular season in goals (33) and points (51). He also became the first player for the Ice Prowlers to score more than 40 goals in a season, finishing the season with 55 including non-league games and postseason tournaments.

Co-captain Brian Rossi, the team's top defender, also was selected to the all-star game for the second time.

"Especially with Brian Rossi and Cody Berkebile, those guys are just invaluable to any team," Catherine said. "They're both wearing the captain's 'C' this year, they're co-captains, and that's from a leadership perspective and from just their hockey knowledge."

Senior goalie Justin Lohrman, who split time with Smith, made his second all-star Game as well, and senior forwards Max Matsanoff and Geoffrey Kilian both made the all-star game for the first time.

The Ice Prowlers also will lose defenseman Loren Chrisman, who contributed two goals and seven assists.

The Ice Prowlers have plenty of talented underclassmen, including junior forward Adam McGrath, who scored all three goals in the semifinal against Medina, led the GCHSCHL in assists (27) and made his second all-star game.

Catherine expects sophomore Brad Noskowiak, also an all-star, to do much of the scoring along with McGrath next season. Juniors Wiard and Taylor Markell should step into the leadership roles.

Catherine said that the individual success that many of the Ice Prowlers have had in the past few seasons has had one major drawback. In past years, several players who were expected back have moved on to play at the Junior B level.

"With our program, we're fortunate to move players to junior, but on the same hand, it affects the program," Catherine said. "Nick Hess went on to junior B, prior to that we've lost Ryan Markell, who's playing Junior A, Brian Kay went to junior B. If we can keep Adam McGrath in the lineup, that would be big."