While traffic was sliding off the roads throughout Cleveland in last weekend’s blizzard, nothing could derail a determined Athens High School hockey club from winning its first state championship.  After passing undefeated through three games of the preliminary rounds on Friday and Saturday, the Athens Bobcats convincingly established themselves as the best team in the state with perfect games on Sunday in both the semifinal against Rocky River (3-0) and the championship game against Lakewood (6-0).

The Buckeye Cup High School Club Hockey State Championship is run parallel to the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) State Tournament that is open only to single-school teams.  As a high school club team, the Athens Bobcats roster players from  four Athens County high schools as well as from schools outside the county.  The Buckeye Cup is a twelve-team tournament comprising the top four teams from Cleveland’s North Coast High School League, the Greater Columbus High School Club Hockey League (including the Athens Bobcats) and the Cincinnati High School Hockey League.  The Bobcats finished second in both regular season play and the Columbus league tournament, earning them a #2 seed at the state tournament in Cleveland.

In Friday night’s opening game against Cincinnati’s LaSalle Lancers, Athens cruised to a fairly easy 6-1 win, outshooting the opposition by a margin of 50 to 15.  Bobcat goalie Shaun Ludwin (Logan HS) blocked all four shots he faced in the first period and Andrew Bogdanoff-Brite (Alexander HS) stopped 10 of 11 in the second and third periods.  Zak Brainard (Winfield-WV HS) scored two goals and the remaining Athens goals were tallied by Nick Gates, Daniel Rankin, Duncan Green (all of Athens HS), and Woody Frasure (Logan HS).  Kevin Deal (Athens HS) earned the Game MVP with four assists in the game.  Will Angelos (Portsmouth Notre Dame HS) had two assists while Green and John Schriner (Athens HS) assisted once.

A rematch of the 2006 state championship game took place Saturday morning as Athens faced off against the Medina Bees.  The Bobcats jumped to an early lead two minutes into the game on an Angelos goal assisted by Kevin Deal and Jon Sass (Federal Hocking HS), but Medina tied it up a  minute and a half later and the game was tied for the remainder of the first period.  Athens regained the lead on the only goal of the second period, scored by Green with an assist from Corey Chambers (Athens HS).  The Bees eventually tied the game again on a powerplay goal to secure the final score of the 2-2 tie.  Ludwin blocked 21 of 23 shots on goal and Green earned the Game MVP award.

Tie games were the order of the day for the Athens Bobcats as they fought back from a 2-goal deficit to tie the Rocky River Buccaneers 3-3 later that afternoon.  Rocky River opened the scoring with the lone goal of the first period.  Athens pulled even in the second period with a powerplay goal by Brainard with an assist from Kevin Deal.  The Buccaneers responded with two more goals to end the second period with a 3-1 lead.  At this point the Bobcats shifted into high gear and David Deal (Athens HS) started the “goal rush” with a score at 9:43 in the final period, assisted by Brainard and Patrick Oberlin (Athens HS).  Brainard tied the game five minutes later with assists from Rankin and Drew Payne (Alexander HS) to produce the final 3-3 game score.  Ludwin blocked 13 of 16 shots in the game and earned the game MVP award.

The results of Friday’s and Saturday’s action allowed Athens to advance to Sunday’s semifinals along with Rocky River, the Newark Generals and the Lakewood Rangers.  The Bobcats and the Buccaneers faced off again but this time with a very different outcome.  Neither team scored during a first period defensive battle which continued well into the second period until Rankin beat the Rocky River goalie on a tip-in of a Chambers slapshot assisted by Kevin Deal.  Athens scoring continued with two goals early in the final period by Oberlin (assisted by Stephen Bartone of Athens HS) and Green (assisted by Kevin Deal and Kevin Fischer of Athens HS) to produce the final score of 3-0.  Green was the game MVP and Ludwin’s 100% save rate produced the shutout.

Sunday afternoon’s championship game between the Bobcats and the Lakewood Rangers also began as a defensive struggle until David Deal fooled the Lakewood goalie with an unassisted goal with five minutes left to go in the first period.  Athens went up 2-0 three minutes into the second period on a powerplay goal by Brainard, assisted by Gates.  Lakewood morale began to falter after the Rangers failed to capitalize on a two-player-advantage powerplay in the second period and finally crumbled after Kevin Deal scored, assisted by Bartone, with two minutes remaining in the period.  The Bobcats secured their victory by ripping three goals in the first four minutes of the final period to set the game score to its final mark of 6-0.  These goals were provided by Oberlin, Green and Brainard with assists from David Deal, Payne, Rankin and Fischer.  For the remainder of the game Athens played intense defense to preserve their shutout.  The Bobcats outshot the Rangers by a 27 to 19 margin and Ludwin’s perfect play in the goal earned him the Championship Game MVP award.

For the Bobcats, the state title caps off a very successful 29-14-6 season which included winning January’s Jeff Musat Memorial Tournament in Canton.  Although the team will be losing ten seniors, Head Coach Jack Pepper sees talent in next year’s pool of available players.  “This team will not be rebuilding next year,” he declared, “just reloading.”