By Eddie Dwyer, Copyright December 2013
Brooklyn, Ohio - For the Saint Ignatius Varsity Hockey Program, it was mission accomplished.
At least as far as this week was concerned.
Coach Pat O'Rourke's Ice Cats, sharing the wealth offensively, killing off power plays and getting a fourth consecutive shutout from sophomore goalie Dylan McKeon, wore down the Padua Bruins, 7-0, on Sunday evening in a Great Lakes Hockey League match up at the Brooklyn Ice Arena in the John M. Coyne Recreation Center. McKeon's blanking of the Bruins was his second shutout in six days.
Saint Ignatius, which won't return to its home ice in Brooklyn until Jan. 24 , when it faces St. Edward in a GLHL game, broken open Sunday's encounter with Padua by scoring two goals with less than a minute gone in the second period, goals that came just 11 seconds apart.
Coach O'Rourke's team improved to 6-0-2 heading into Wednesday's key GLHL game against Lake Catholic at the Mentor Civic Arena. The puck will drop at 7 PM. The Cougars of Lake Catholic, who feature one of the top goalies in Ohio in Charlie Denner, were 10-1 heading into Sunday night's action.
As for Sunday's sweet seven on the Brooklyn ice, senior captain and defenseman Harry Smith staked the Ice Cats to a 1-0 lead by scoring off an assist from sophomore forward Jared Stepka with 5 minutes and 17 remaining in the first period. It stayed that way entering the take-command second period, as Saint Ignatius killed off two power-play opportunities for the Bruins and out shot Padua, 17-5, in the first 15 minutes.
Just when the Padua faithful were feeling pretty good about "hanging" with the Ice Cats in the first period, Saint Ignatius landed its quick 1-2 punch and the Bruins never recovered.
Sophomore forward Ethan Whitney made it 2-0 off assists from senior captain and defenseman Kevin Spellacy and gifted junior forward Matty Geither, and 11 seconds later it was 3-0 as senior captain and forward Beck Schultz fired home the puck off assists from Smith and Kevin Spellacy.
Attacking with a mixture of lines and playing aggressive and sound defense, the Ice Cats took a 4-0 lead into the third and final period when sophomore center Aidan Spellacy beat the goalie from close range off a perfectly executed power-play setup that included assists from Smith and senior defenseman Nick Gajkowski.
Aidan Spellacy, Kevin's brother, has a future that is brighter than the impressive Christmas-lights display at Brooklyn City Hall.
Along with the quick-hitting scoring, the second period saw Saint Ignatius continue to turn away power-play opportunities for the Bruins and McKeon come up with text-book glove saves.
"We got our third win in our division (of the GLHL), so now we have 10 points in the division, which is good," said Coach O'Rourke '90, who emphasized that the reason his Ice Cats won't be returning to the Brooklyn Ice Arena until Jan. 24 is that following Wednesday's game in Mentor against Lake Catholic Saint Ignatius faces a long stretch of pre-Christmas and post-Holiday tournaments.
Those tournaments include the Culver (Ind.) Tournament, the Padua Christmas Tournament at IceLand USA, the St. Edward Eagle Classic in Serpentini Arena at Winterhurst and the annual Meadville (Pa.) Tournament.
"We just had a stretch of three home games (Gilmour Academy, Walsh Jesuit and Padua) where we protected our home ice with three wins and that is important," Coach O'Rourke continued. "It got better as it went on today. It started out and it was pretty good, and then it got good, not great, but good. But it's early in the season, so that's understandable."
Saint Ignatius, which had 48 shots on goal to Padua's 17, added another three-bagger in the third period. Doing the honors for goals 5, 6 and 7 were junior forward Jack Mazanec (off an assist from junior forward Kevin Yarcusko), senior forward Danny Brogan (off assists from Smith and Schultz) and Aidan Spellacy, whose second goal came off assists from Whitney and Geither.
"We mixed some lines up tonight, trying to sort of figure out where our identity is as a team," said Coach O'Rourke. "And we worked on some strategic things, cycling the puck down low and trying to have a presence in the slot at all times. It's still a work in progress, but again it's early in the season. If you get a win when you're working on some things, that's good."