BROOKLYN, Ohio — Senior captain Daniel Ritts had a hat-trick and helped his Shaker Heights team repeat as Baron Cup I champions with an 8-0 shutout win vs. North Olmsted on Sunday at Brooklyn Recreation Center.
Both teams had played multiple overtimes in the semifinals with the Raiders beating Hudson in three OTs, and the Eagles needing four to defeat Cleveland Heights.
“No matter who we played this game, obviously we were going to come out with some energy, use our depth to our advantage,” Shaker Heights coach Matt Bartley said. “Unfortunately, they used a lot of up last night going to four overtimes.
“Our guys, we worked hard. We started off strong, we finished strong. When you do that a majority of the time, you’re going to have a good game.”
Shaker Heights outshot North Olmsted, 39-13, including a 17-2 advantage in the first period. Ritts opened the scoring at the 9:25 mark, and Stephen Straffon scored 67 seconds later to give the Raiders a 2-0 lead.
Ryan Wheeler scores on this deflection and @HockeyShaker had a 3-0 lead. Goal at 2:28 of 2nd period. pic.twitter.com/JMN4loOXAh
— Tim Bielik (@bielik_tim) February 12, 2017
The Raiders relied heavily on their forecheck to keep the puck in North Olmsted’s end and to force the Eagles to expend most of their energy on defense.
“We try to dominate on the forecheck every game,” Bartley said. “When a team is tired, getting in the forecheck is going to help you. That’s something we’ve done well all year no matter who we’ve played or how tired anybody is.”
DC Benincasa scored twice for Shaker Heights. Ryan Wheeler and Ben Greenberg each had a goal as well for the Raiders.
North Olmsted had just nine healthy skaters for Sunday’s game. Playing the second semifinal as well on Saturday, the Eagles were not able to keep up and suffered just their second loss in nine games.
“After what I saw last night which was just an unbelievable effort, to come back out today and play a hockey game less than 24 hours later, was always going to be asking a lot, that’s for sure,” North Olmsted coach T.J. Murray said. “I don’t want our guys to be happy about losing. They shouldn’t be happy about losing. But we were playing against a little bit of a stacked deck today. I’ve got to be fair to my guys.”
Shaker Heights plays West Geauga on Sunday in their first game of the OHSAA Kent District tournament, and North Olmsted will face Strongsville on Thursday in the Brooklyn District.
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