Liberty, led by two goals from Jake Struck, avenged their Nov. 16 loss to the Eagles. The Patriots held the lead for much of the game before New Albany equalized late on a 6-on-4 opportunity, setting up an overtime period won by Liberty’s senior captain and one of the OHSAA's all-time leading scorers.
“New Albany is a fantastic team,” Olentangy Liberty head coach Jonathan Falvo said. “They're well coached. Any day it can go either way. We got lucky today that we came out on top.”
The first period belonged to the Patriots as they opened the scoring with a 2-on-0 breakaway that senior forward Michael Greco put away. The only goal of the opening frame came with 3:09 left in it.
The Patriots extended their lead in the second after a tripping penalty allowed Struck to get his first of the game on the power play. This opened a run of three goals in 40 seconds as New Albany cut the lead just for Liberty to get its two-goal lead back.
Two goals by New Albany, who entered with eight straight conference wins, to close out the middle frame led to a 3-3 tie going into the final 15 minutes of play in this critical matchup.
“We're still refining our game a little bit. We got to be better defensively in the D-zone,” Falvo said. “New Albany were vultures in front of our net, and we were vulnerable there. We have to clean that up for us to make a deep run.”
After opposing power-play opportunities that resulted in heavy pressure from either side but no goals, Liberty regained the lead off a forehand-to-backhand breakaway goal by senior forward Jake Bachus.
A turnover by Olentangy Liberty in the final minutes of regulation led to what appeared to be a 2-on-0 breakaway by the Eagles; however, a diving Struck was just able to get his stick on the puck to prevent the goal.
The play that appeared to be the game-winning effort was quickly forgotten, however. A penalty taken by the Patriots with a minute left on the clock led to an extra-attacker opportunity that the Eagles scored on to tie the game up at four apiece.
In overtime the teams traded chances, but ultimately Struck put the game to rest with his second of the game.
“Where Jake Struck and Andrew Leonard take us, we go,” Falvo said. “They are our work horses. They eat a ton of minutes. They find areas, get open. Jake is just a phenomenal hockey player, a great individual, and I'm excited to see where he takes us this year.”
--Garrison McDaniel
Sunday: Upper Arlington 1, St. Charles 1 (OT)
In a tight goaltending battle, UA’s Mason Herndon (37 saves) and St. Charles’ Dylan Bell (32) each helped earn a point for their teams at the OhioHealth Ice Haus.
Each had to be at his best in the eight-minute overtime period, with Bell denying a 3-on-1 chance in the extra frame and Herndon making a stop on a wide-open shorthanded look by St. Charles’ Collin Hughes.
Both coaches were more than happy with the way their netminders played in a key battle in the CHC standings as well as one of Central Ohio's top rivalries.
Upper Arlington coach Craig Hagkull on Herndon: “He’s special. I’m biased, but I think he’s the best goalie in the state. He keeps us in games, we just have to do a better job of supporting him a little bit more with some (offensive) production. He’s incredible. He’s got a future in hockey, I think, for sure.”
St. Charles coach Danny Greiner on Bell: “He’s been our No. 1 guy and is just having an unbelievable season. He made some big saves throughout the whole game. He was a rock back there.”
It didn’t look like it would be a goaltending battle early on, as Upper Arlington scored 7:35 into the game when Connor Hagkull found a loose puck at the net in a scramble and tucked it home. St. Charles responded just 1:09 into the second when Hogan Mickey roofed a shot past Herndon on a breakaway after a slick feed from Jake Saad.
That was all the scoring, though Upper Arlington came close in overtime on the power play only to see a shot by Jason Davis hit the post and come back under Bell to cover.
St. Charles (5-2-5-2) had the better of the puck in the final two periods, and Greiner was happy with the way his team responded from the early tally by the Golden Bears.
“We gave up the goal early in the first period, so I’m real proud that they were able to come back and tie the game up and hold on for the remaining two and a half periods,” the Cardinals coach said. “The effort was good. Slow start, but then they found the rhythm, and the second and third period were very good.”
On the other side, Hagkull was proud of the way his UA team fought through its third game in three days on the weekend to get to 8-3-2-0 in conference play
“I was happy with the compete level,” he said. “I thought our intensity was good. I thought it dropped a little bit in the second and at times in the third, but we had three games this weekend and we worked the hardest in this game by far so I was happy about that. We just have to find ways to find goals.”
--Jeff Svoboda
