North Olmsted senior goalie Dan McBride turns away a Strongsville shot in the third period of last Saturday’s 2- 1 loss to the Mustangs at North Olmsted Recreation Center. (West Life photo by Larry Bennet)

Mustangs edge Eagles
By Jim Horvath
Sports
Published Jan. 13, 2010

Opportunity knocked several times for the North Olmsted hockey team.

Most of those knocks, however, went unanswered as the Eagles dropped a tough 2-1 decision to Strongsville last Saturday afternoon at the North Olmsted Recreation Center.

North Olmsted, now 14-4 overall, dropped to 3-2 in the Greater Cleveland High School Hockey League’s Red East Division. Hudson defeated Kent Roosevelt, 5-3, on the road last Saturday to maintain its division lead at 4-1.

Strongsville, the Eagles’ cross-division rivals, remained in first place in the Red South with a 5-1 mark. The Mustangs stayed a half game ahead of 4-1 Elyria Catholic.

Despite the loss, North Olmsted head coach Tim Murphy felt his team was playing at a high level heading into this weekend’s Southwestern Conference Tournament.

“I thought both teams played pretty well today,” Murphy said. “Both teams went hard, and overall I felt we had a good performance. We just didn’t get the result we wanted.”

The Eagles failed to convert on a number of power play opportunities throughout the game. That was especially true in the second period when Strongsville was whistled for three penalties within a span of about a minute and a half. North Olmsted had a two-man advantage twice in the period, but each time failed to convert.

The visiting Mustangs already had a 1-0 lead by that time. The Strongsville goal came early in the first period when senior defenseman Kyle Buher slipped the puck past Eagle goalie Dan McBride at the 3:41 mark.

With 5:28 left in the first, the Eagles had a chance to tie it with their first power play opportunity of the day. Strongsville’s Stephen Richnavsky was given two minutes for slashing, but North Olmsted couldn’t take advantage.

North Olmsted senior forward Kyle Swansegar (2) moves in for a shot against Strongsville goalie Justin Jakubik last Saturday at North Olmsted Recreation Center. (West Life photo by Larry Bennet)

Strongsville came out aggressively, outshooting the Eagles 9-7 in the first period. North Olmsted held a 10-5 advantage in the second with a number of near misses against the Mustang defense and goalie Justin Jakubik.

To add insult to injury, Strongsville scored after failing to convert a power play opportunity of its own. J.T. Grahl poked one in on a backside rebound off a shot from teammate Robert Worley to make it 2-0, Mustangs. The Eagles’ final shots of the period were a blistering slap shot by junior forward Mike Konyesni from the right wing and a point-blank opportunity out front from senior forward Mike Minch.

Jakubik and the Mustangs, however, were up to the challenge and maintained their 2-0 lead heading into the third period.

In the third, both teams missed on power play tries early on. McBride made a number of nice saves, including one on a Strongsville breakaway opportunity with 5:10 left in regulation. An interference call with 4:18 remaining gave North Olmsted its final power play try of the day. With 3:15 to go, Murphy called a timeout.

Whatever he said worked as Konyesni scored on a rebound shot off an assist from junior Ryan Sutton and senior Sean McBride. The Eagles had a few more shots at tying the game, one coming when Jakubik made a nice save against an attempted flip shot from Sutton.

When it was all said and done, North Olmsted held a slight edge with 24 shots on goal to Strongsville’s 23.

“We had our chances today,” Murphy said. “Their first goal was goofy because it actually went in off one of our defender’s skates. We picked it up a bit in the second period, but overall we didn’t get a lot of second chances against them.”

The Eagles also suffered a blow when senior defenseman Chad Cullinan left the game with a shoulder injury late in the second period. “That didn’t help us much, especially since we’re a little thin on the defensive side,” Murphy said.

North Olmsted’s attention now turns to the annual SWC tournament, which it will again host at the North Olmsted Recreation Center. The action begins Friday at 5:30 p.m. when Amherst takes on Avon Lake.

North Olmsted will begin tournament action Saturday at 10:30 a.m. when the Eagles take on Olmsted Falls. Brecksville, the defending tournament champion, will play at 3:15 p.m. Saturday in the next game against the Amherst-Avon Lake winner. The Amherst-Avon Lake loser will play the North Olmsted-Olmsted Falls loser at 5:30 p.m.

There will be four games played on Sunday starting bright and early at 8:30 a.m. The championship game is scheduled for Monday at 3 p.m.

“This tournament is something we look forward to,” Murphy said. “We always want to perform well in the SWC. It should be pretty exciting this year because there really isn’t a big favorite going in.

“We’re playing well right now,” he said. “We won the Trinity tournament over the break, and we’re in the thick of things in our division. We want to keep going so we can finish in the top two in our bracket and qualify for the Baron Cup.”