The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Baron Cup I appears to be plethora of parity
Chris Lillstrung caught up with Kenston coach Tom Fritsche and Rocky River counterpart Chris Cogan over the weekend to discuss what could be a wide-open Baron Cup I this week at Brooklyn.
If you want parity, this year’s Baron Cup I bracket is seemingly the place to be.
The Greater Cleveland High School Hockey League Red Division’s city championship tournament kicks off Feb. 7 at Brooklyn with as much doubt over who could reign on Baron Cup Sunday as arguably there has been since the defection of the former “old Red North” squads to form the Great Lakes Hockey League.
From The News-Herald coverage area, Kenston (24-6-1) and Mentor (20-8-1) are coming off their best respective regular seasons in recent memory.
The Bombers will open with a quarterfinal matchup at 8:30 p.m. Feb. 7 against Red South runnerup North Olmsted.
The Cardinals will take on Red South champion Strongsville in a quarterfinal at 8:30 p.m. Feb. 8.
Rocky River (18-10) has weathered a tough regularseason slate and will battle Midview, in a quarterfinal at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 8.
“It’s interesting,” Kenston coach Tom Fritsche said. “The teams are all very good — different, I think. Rocky River is explosive — like very explosive — offensively. They’re a good team with a lot of explosive offense.
“Mentor and Shaker are four lines deep that are just solid teams that play good systems and are hard to beat. But I think we have explosive offense, and it’s going to be interesting. Everybody’s good, but everybody is a little bit different. We’ll see how it goes.”
Keeping track of how intriguing head-to-head play has been among the Red North entries has been an adventure this winter:
• Shaker Heights (21-62) won the Red North outright, but has losses to Mentor (3-2 on Dec. 16) and Kenston (5-4 in overtime Jan. 26) and was taken to OT by River (4-3 win Dec. 9).
• River lost to Mentor, 2-1, in overtime in the Thornton Park tournament final Dec. 17 but got the Cardinals back twice in league play (4-3 Jan. 7 and 3-2 Feb. 2). The Pirates were also highly competitive against Great Lakes Hockey League foes Holy Name and Walsh Jesuit, including logging a 3-1 victory over the Warriors on Jan. 14 at the Cleveland Jesuit Cup.
• Kenston had the aforemetioned win over Shaker and split with Mentor amid their best regular season since 2009-2010, but has had trouble with River in a pair of 5-2 losses.
• Mentor has four head-tohead wins against teams also in the Baron Cup I field and has been tough against River in a pair of one-goal defeats.
• Red South powers Strongsville (22-6-3) and North Olmsted (15-5) have capability and have been tested against Red North foes this season.
“It’s a matchup thing,” Fritsche said. “Our speed is hard to match against most teams, but Rocky River matches our speed pretty good, so that’s why we’ve had a tough time with them. So yeah, it is going to be a matchup thing.”
Pirates coach Chris Cogan gets it as well as anyone. River entered Baron Cup I a year ago with a head of steam, only to be stunned in the quarterfinals in OT by Cleveland Heights amid a 22-win campaign.
Parity has been the norm throughout the year, and more of the same in this Baron Cup I bracket would hardly be a shock.
“Obviously with what happened to us last year, losing first round in overtime to Heights, I think this year is a lot better and the games are a lot tighter,” Cogan said. “You can’t overlook anybody.
“I think there’s going to be some very competitive games, in the first round all the way out.”