The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Mentor repeats in Baron Cup
Cardinals rout longtime rival Rocky River for title
The Fratellis’ “Chelsea Dagger” — as it often does — began to emanate from Mentor’s locker room Feb. 16 after the Baron Cup I final against Rocky River at Brooklyn.
It stopped for a moment, then was restarted.
How fitting, because the Cardinals were back at Greater Cleveland high school hockey’s most storied big ice eyeing a repeat.
It was so fun on the first spin — and on this Baron Cup Sunday, it was time to hit the party tune all over again.
Cam Mocny lit the lamp on an unusual but memorable sequence 15 seconds in and Kyle Backston and Mitch Elliott each netted a pair of goals as Mentor toppled longtime rival Rocky River, 6-1.
The Cardinals, in improving to 30-2-1, became the 13th Greater Cleveland program to hoist a Baron Cup in consecutive seasons and the seventh to do so in Baron Cup I.
“Quite honestly, you think about things in June and July, August and September, when things are just getting cranked up,” Mentor coach Paul McKito said.
“... You could definitely tell their intensity picked up a lot. So we just had to make sure we matched that to make it through the rest of the game.” – Mentor’s Kyle Backston
“We thought we were going to have a nice club this year. But sometimes, the group — they just surprise you. We knew we had talent coming back, two solid goaltenders — probably the best duo in the state.
“But then things just start to click and things start coming together. And we find ways to get it done and get better and better each day. If you would’ve told me we’d hoist back-toback Baron Cups, I would have went out and bought a lottery ticket for sure. I can’t say enough about the group and how hard they work.”
It’s said some people have a better ability than others to remember dreams and nightmares more vividly.
After the opening period, there was zero doubt as to which team was on which side of that philosophy. The Cardinals took a 4-0 lead into intermission and scored on their first two shots of the game.
Mocny’s opener was a stunner — not because he scored it, since it was his seventh goal of the winter. But because of how.
The senior blueliner dumped the puck out of his defensive zone. Dribbling through the neutral zone, it became a knucklepuck to the extent Andrew McBride hustled in, aspiring to get a poke on it with a River defenseman in tow.
The standout junior winger never did get his stick to it, but wreaked enough havoc in the pursuit
that the puck went five-hole into the back of the net for a Mocny goal and 1-0 lead 15 seconds in.
“In practice, we always focus on crashing the net hard,” Backston said. “Those skills, they carry over in games. As we crash the net, good things happen.”
Then at 1:54, McBride fed beautifully from the back boards for Backston, who snapped a wrister shortside to go up, 2-0.
Pirates coach Chris Cogan called a timeout to settle his squad, but Mentor closed the period in style.
Backston cashed in a rebound on a banger at the right bar at 6:56 on a power play after an elbowing penalty, and Tyler Velioniskis contributed a tally at 11:23 for a 4-0 advantage after one.
Mentor and River had played six one-goal games and had two high-scoring ties (7-7 and 5-5) amid their previous 12 encounters.
Not on this afternoon, though.
“I was definitely expecting a little bit more hop out of them,” Backston said. “They picked it up after they called a timeout early in the game. You could definitely tell their intensity picked up a lot. So we just had to make sure we matched that to make it through the rest of the game.”
The Pirates had an 11-4 shots advantage in the second. But Elliott struck midway through the second at 7:31 to get it to 5-0.
River went on a man advantage after a sequence of coincidental roughing penalties and an interference
call and capitalized to get on the board.
Logan Fortune shot in from the perimeter, and James Byall did nicely with a redirect from the left side of the crease at 12:03.
The Pirates, to their utmost credit after the aforementioned nightmare of an opening period, continued to skate hard. Cogan resorted to pulling his goaltender on a power play early in the third down, 5-1. River senior forward Aidan Dempsey commendably laid out to block what would have been a sure empty-netter during that sequence.
The Cardinals found their sixth, though, for the final margin, with Elliott striking at 12:03.
As the final seconds ticked off, the mad sprint toward goaltender Alex Toth, who had a solid 21save outing, was eerily reminiscent of the one from a year ago.
That’s a great thing as far as Mentor is concerned, though — because it meant a repeat, with another rousing rendition of “Chelsea Dagger” included.
Now comes what the Cardinals hope will be a deep Kent District run, in pursuit of their first frozen four berth.
Another Baron Cup will aid nicely in building momentum toward that goal.
“I think this just goes to show how close of a group we’ve become in the last few years,” Backston said of the Baron Cup repeat.
“And just to be able to share it with the same group back-to-back is something really special that we’ll carry with us for the rest of our lives.”