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The 1st seeded St. Ignatius Wildcats took on the 4th seeded Avon Lake Shoremen in the OHSAA Hockey State Tournament Semi-Finals: Brooklyn Region. Both teams have great talent but the Wildcats aggressive nature and suffocating zone pressure made the game look easy. The Wildcats won 9-2 and were highlighted by a spectacular moment in the first period where they scored 3 goals in just 31 seconds.
The Wildcats started this one off ultra aggressive. They were sending the puck in the Shoremen zone and hitting hard. It didn’t take long for the aggression to turn into goals.
Just 2 minutes in, Wildcats sophomore Aiden White fired a shot from the blue line towards the goal. Junior John Bzovi found the put while it was skidding towards the net and got his stick on it. The puck deflected right over the goalie and into the back of the net, putting the Wildcats up 1-0.
Just 20 seconds later White had the puck again, this time behind the net. He found a nice pass to senior Sam Elwell in the slot. Elwell buried it top left and in the blink of an eye the Wildcats were on the board again. But they weren’t finished.
After winning a faceoff Ignatius found the back of the net 11 seconds later. This time senior Nolan Ignacio found the back of the net thanks to a nice pass from sophomore Raiden Miyoshi. The Wildcats scored the 3 goals in the span of 31 seconds and just like that they were up 3-0.
The Shoremen weren’t going to throw in the towel however. A few minutes later senior captain for the Shoremen, Connor Renz, fired a sweet shot from the blue line and found the top left of the net. This shortened the Wildcat lead to 3-1 but they still had a lot to overcome.
St. Ignatius piled on the pressure for the back half of the period. They forced turnovers at ease and when they got into Avon Lakes zone, it felt impossible to force them out. Avon Lake did a nice job of fending off the Wildcats, but eventually their defense cracked.
With 3 minutes left in the period, after some clean zone setup by the Wildcat offense, Miyoshi fired a shot from near the blue line. It zipped by the Shoremen defense and put the Wildcats up 4-1, which is the score that ended the first.
The Wildcats continued to pour it on in the second period. Just a minute in, Sam Elwell scored his second goal of the game on the powerplay. Not too long later the Wildcats found themselves a man down. After a turnover, senior Nolan Ignacio broke free with open ice in front of him. He only had the goalie to beat and he made it look easy, pushing the score to 6-1.
Avon Lake got one back thanks to senior Luke Swain’s rebound goal, but St. Ignatius just couldn’t be stopped. They scored 3 more times in the period thanks to goals from senior Adam Ruyf on the powerplay, sophomore Cade Bradley, and sophomore Gavin Marziani. This gave the Wildcats a comfortable 9-2 lead going into the 2nd intermission.
The third period had a running clock and both teams felt like they let up a bit considering the score. Avon Lake had some chances in the period but the game ultimately finished with a 9-2 final. The Wildcats finished the game with 55 shots to Avon Lakes 15.
St. Ignatius will play in the Brooklyn Region final next Saturday at 1pm 6th seeded Padua.
