In many ways, Gates Mills Gilmour Academy had waited for this game for almost three months.
Two days before Christmas, Cleveland St. Ignatius dealt the Lancers their only loss of the high school hockey season, a 5-2 decision that put a little dent into Gilmour’s holiday cheer.
“I haven’t really met a team where that one loss has put so much feel into us,” co-captain Zach Cox said. “It was my phone background for probably the last three months where every day I just looked and thought, never again will I let them get that feeling of beating the Lancers.”
In the end, Gilmour got the last laugh. The top-ranked Lancers completed perhaps the best season in school history Sunday with a 5-2 win over No. 4 St. Ignatius on Sunday afternoon at Nationwide Arena to win the 49th OHSAA hockey state championship.
Now, the Lancers can look back with pride at their 36 wins while knowing that one loss was avenged on the biggest stage possible.
“I’m tremendously proud,” head coach John Malloy said. “They’re a great group to practice with every day. To watch them come into this season with purpose, and they played as a team exactly how a team should play. They are the high bar, and I’m so proud of them. I love every one of them. They played their roles when they needed to play their roles, and they were stars when they needed to be stars. It was a great campaign.”
Teddy Frizzie led the way with a pair of goals, while Ben Slifko finished with a key third-period goal and two assists. Alex Lazuka and co-captain Johnathan Primiano also scored, while second-team all-state goalie Donato Iacurci stopped 32 of 34 shots against the high-flying Wildcats.
It was fitting the Lancers brought five different players to the postgame press conference, as the bond shared between the group was obvious after Gilmour won its second state title (2022).
“I’m so proud of the entire team,” forward Brady Panteck said. “It was awesome. They’re such a great group. We got along so well, and I think that’s really what brought us together and helped with our success was the fact that we wanted to be with each other. Every weekend we didn’t have a game, every time we didn’t have practice, we were with each other, whether it was getting food or doing a team activity.”
Levi Gallucci and All-Ohio defenseman Aidan White scored for St. Ignatius, which was in the championship game for the third straight season and was seeking its ninth crown. Blake Benedictis stopped 31 shots in net for head coach Pat O’Rourke’s team.
“I love them,” O’Rourke said of his group. “They’re just great, character kids. We kind of talked about how when the season ends, regardless of whether we win the title or lose it, it sucks because we are like a family and we’re going our separate ways now to a certain degree. We’re in the same school together, but we’ll probably never all 25 of us or so be together, and that’s the hardest part about a season ending.”
St. Ignatius (25-12-2) actually took an early lead, making it 1-0 just 1:14 into the game when Gallucci found some space on the right side and snuck a sharp angle shot over Iacurci’s shoulder and under the bar.
The Lancers said afterward, though, that they weren’t worried, especially with Iacurci in net.
“Honestly, a lot of times throughout hockey, I’ve been in that situation where I’ve given up an early goal,” Iacurci said. “But I think especially throughout my life, one of the biggest things that you can do that I have is resilience. Just keep competing no matter what. It was a good shot, but we battled back.”
Gilmour tied the score 7:46 into the game, as Frizzie won a faceoff forward and somehow slid the puck through Benedictis amid a scramble. The Lancers then took the lead for good with just seconds left in the first, as Primiano’s knuckling shot from the right point crossed up Benedictis and got by his glove.
The Lancers took a 3-1 lead in the second when Lazuka scored directly off a faceoff victory – a familiar theme – but St. Ignatius wouldn’t go quietly. White crashed the crease and roofed a loose puck on the power play 4:48 into the third to make it a one-goal game, but it wouldn’t be for long.
Just 28 seconds later, Slifko came in on a breakaway and flipped a backhander past Benedictis to push the lead back to two at 4-2.
“When they got that second goal, me, Ben and Ted, we had a little huddle,” Cox said. “We were like, we’re scoring this shift. We’re going out and we’re scoring. I feel like a lot of times (this season) we would do that. We’d speak it into existence.”
Frizzie’s second goal of the game into an empty net set the final score, and Gilmour went on from there to finish things out and start the celebration.
On the other side, St. Ignatius was left with memories of a successful season and good times that finished just short of its ultimate goal.
“I look forward to lunch to go sit with my teammates and just joke around, have a good time,” Gallucci said. “I’m sure Coach probably wasn’t always happy all the time that we were messing around at practice. It was just so fun. I looked forward to practice every day. I looked forward to lunches, I looked forward to hanging out with all my guys. It’s gonna suck, but at the same time I’m so thankful for just being able to hang out with them and making brothers for the rest of my life.
