Mike scores the game's first two goals and the last two lamp lighters, as the savvy All-GCHSHL Red North Division selection helps send a young, but hard-nosed Rocky River team back to the Pirates' Port at 27-7.
Top-seeded Saint Ignatius, which is seeking its second state championship in three years and the program's third overall, will return to the ice in Brooklyn's John M. Coyne Recreation Center on Saturday for a district-championship and state-qualifying match up with the winner of Wednesday's district semfinal between third seed St. Edward and second seed Shaker Heights. The puck will drop at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
BY EDDIE DWYER, COPYRIGHT FEBRUARY-MARCH 2012
At this time last year, Saint Ignatius’ hockey-savvy forward Mike Abood walked out of Brooklyn’s John M. Coyne Recreation Center with tears rolling down his face.
“I was determined not to experience that same feeling again, and to not let my teammates experience it again, either,” Abood said of last season’s upset loss to Padua in the district semifinals.
Tuesday night, Abood, one of the Wildcats’ gifted seniors, was a man on a mission.
Returning to the site of the 2011 disappointment, Abood scored four goals in leading Saint Ignatius to a 7-3, district-semifinal victory over a talented and gritty Rocky River team.
The Wildcats, with Abood taking center stage in the first period and closing the show late in the second and third periods, improved their all-time, state-best record to 39-0 and advanced to the OHSAA state-qualifying game for the fifth time since 2007.
On Saturday at 3 p.m., Saint Ignatius, the top-ranked team in the state and the No. 1 seed at Brooklyn, faces off with the winner of Wednesday’s 7 p.m. district semifinal in Brooklyn between the Shaker Heights Raiders and the St. Edward Eagles. Shaker Heights and St. Edward are seeded second and third, respectively, and are both 0-3 against the Wildcats this season.
“We knew what they were all about and that they were a very talented team with a very good first line,” said Abood of fourth-seeded Rocky River (27-7), which went toe-to-toe with Saint Ignatius for most of the night. “I was getting the puck right on my stick and just took advantage of the opportunities. In a game of this level, you have to respond anytime you’re given the opportunity.”
Abood, who now has 35 goals on the season, wasted little time in taking the lead role as he took assists from the Smith brothers, senior defender Will and sophomore forward Harry, and sent the puck home for a 1-0 lead with just two minutes and six seconds gone in the first period.
Less than three minutes later, Abood struck again by going unassisted and the Wildcats' faithful were feeling pretty comfortable at 2-0.
However, when other teams might have hung their heads, the Pirates got right back in the game on the first of three goals by junior forward Eric Sperli. Providing the helpers for Sperli were senior forward Max Lurie and sophomore forward Tyler Harkins.
Like all great teams in any sport do, Saint Ignatius responded with goals by standout senior center Paddy Spellacy and energetic senior forward Paul Zickes and took a 4-1 lead into the second period. Underrated, but not underappreciated senior forward Taylor Wolf assisted on what was the first of two goals by Spellacy and Zickes’ lamp lighter came courtesy of an assist from Spellacy.
In what was an entertaining second period, Sperli was right back in the thick of things as he again scored off helpers from Lurie and Harkins with just over four minutes gone in the period.
Spellacy added to what was a punch-counter punch 15 minutes by netting his 42nd goal of the season off an assist from junior defender Joey Malone at 5:38 into the second period, and Sperli came back to score what turned out to be his second consecutive hat trick. Harkins did a solo on the assist.
With Saint Ignatius senior Matt Kovesdy (26 saves) and Rocky River junior Jake Nicholson (43 saves) doing a solid job in goal, and Wildcats defenders Will Smith and fellow senior Zak Shockley making their presence felt, Abood delivered act three off assists from multi-skilled senior forward Liam Geither and Spellacy and the ‘Cats led, 6-3, entering the final 15 minutes.
Geither has a school-record 106 points on the season and is now one point away from tying Saint Ignatius assistant coach Keith Abood, Mike’s dad, for seventh-place on the all-time OHSAA list for points in a season. Keith Abood was an outstanding player for Shaker Heights in the late 1970s.
“I thought it was a little sloppy out there at times and you certainly can’t play like that this time of the year,” said Wildcats head coach Pat O’Rourke ’90, who watched Abood close out his four-goal barrage by scoring off an assist from multi-skilled senior forward Colton Riemenschneider with 2:47 remaining to be played. Riemenschneider was competing against his first cousin in Pirates sophomore defender Brock Riemenschneider.
“Michael Abood definitely carried us tonight,” Coach O’Rourke continued. “And that is what you expect from a player of his caliber, a four-year varsity player and a captain.”
Starting with the 31 victories in the state-championship season of 2009-10, through Tuesday night’s game, Coach O’Rourke has guided the Wildcats to 100 victories in that two-plus season span.
*ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT, THE CORNER WILL POST A PREVIEW ON FRIDAY NIGHT'S BASKETBALL SECTIONAL-FINAL MATCH UP BETWEEN THE WILDCATS (15-5) AND THE KENSTON BOMBERS (20-1). FRIDAY'S TIP OFF FROM SOLON HIGH SCHOOL WILL BE 6 P.M. KENSTON, BEHIND 30 POINTS FROM 6-10 POST ERIC TRUOG, ADVANCED TO FRIDAY'S GAME BY DEFEATING EUCLID, 64-57, IN TUESDAY NIGHT'S SECTIONAL SEMIFINALS. WE'LL HAVE MORE ON TRUOG AND THE BOMBERS WEDNESDAY NIGHT.