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***COVER PHOTO TAKEN BY MARK WAGNER***
It was a thrilling conclusion today to the Tim Alexander Memorial Tournament as two of the best teams in the state took to the ice.
Both Mentor and Rocky River came into the game 3-0 on the weekend and this was a battle for the championship. It would end in a tie at 5-5. River would take home the hardware however via a tiebreaker via overall points.
The Pirates jumped out to a quick 2 goal lead in the first after goals from Reece Rochester and James Byall put them ahead midway through the opening period.
Mentor would come roaring back with two goals from Jack O’Donnell to tie it at 2 apiece to close out the first period. You could tell early, both teams were taking this contest very seriously.
River would bounce back in the second as they took advantage of a power play. This time it was Danny Asmar cashing in to score with the man advantage. The assists on this one where from Rochester and Matt Steuber.
It wasn’t much longer that a penalty would come back to haunt the Pirates as it set up a penalty shot for Mentor at the 6:53 mark of the second. Making it count and tying the score at 3 all was Mentor Cardinal Junior Forward Mitchell Elliot.
With the score tied at 3, early into the third period, Logan Fortune began to take things over again. Fortune had a tremendous tournament and finished strong today.
Fortune scored two goals back to back to give the Pirates a 5-3 lead with 13:41 remaining. Both goals coming within 45 seconds of each other.
A few minutes later it was Elliot scoring again and cutting the Pirate lead to 5-4 as the drama began to intensify. With a little over six minutes left, the Cardinals had the chance to tie with a power play but couldn’t convert.
Eventually, it was Mentor Cardinal Tyler Velionisskis Junior Forward coming through to score and tie the game with 3:40 left to play. The game would end by that same score of 5-5.
