Chagrin Falls Hockey traveled to Gilmour Ice Arena on Dec. 9 to face the Mayfield Wildcats.
Chagrin Falls Hockey traveled to Gilmour Ice Arena on Dec. 9 to face the Mayfield Wildcats.
After taking an early 1-0 first period lead, the Tigers were held scoreless in the second period, then scored two early third-period goals to take a 3-0 lead.
Mayfield kept fighting hard, but the Tigers held off a furious third-period Wildcats comeback attempt to obtain a 4-2 victory.
After the victory, Aiden Cabic mentioned that fighting through fatigue and staying mentally tough were important during the final period, as the Tigers have a small roster which does not allow for many line changes.
“We have to work on not letting off the gas,” Cabic said.
Added Josh Baraona, “I think we started off pretty slow in the first and second periods, and then we kind of found our rhythm in the third.”
Cabic gave the Tigers a 1-0 lead early in the first period as he was assisted on the goal by Josh Baraona.
The Tigers had plenty of shots after that, but were unable to find the back of the net in the second period. They took 13 shots in the second period, while the Wildcats had 12 shots on goal.
For the game, the Tigers took 44 shots on goal, while the Wildcats took 29 shots.
For most of the first two periods, the game was without penalties. However, during the last minute of the second period, the Wildcats were assessed a five-minute major penalty for checking from behind. Concurrently, Chagrin Falls was also assessed a minor two-minute penalty for a high stick.
Then, only 15 seconds later, at the end of the second period, the Wildcats were assessed a two-minute penalty for roughing.
Because of the penalties at the end of the second period, both teams began the third period shorthanded. Thus, the Tigers had a four-versus-three power play, as Mayfield had two players and Chagrin Falls had one player in the penalty box.
Josh Baraona scored on the power play, and the Tigers took a 2-0 lead with 13:21 left in the third period. Finn Johnson assisted on Baraona’s goal.
A little less than four minutes later, Chagrin Falls extended its lead to 3-0 with 9:34 left in the game on Cabic’s second goal. Cabic was assisted on this goal by Baraona and Henry Cimperman.
At that point, it seemed like the game was over. But Mayfield had other ideas.
With 8:30 left in the game, the Wildcats scored to make it 3-1.
Mayfield then scored again with 4:27 left in the game to make the score 3-2.
As pressure intensified, both teams utilized timeouts. Mayfield called one with 2:22 left, and Chagrin Falls called timeout with 1:36 remaining in the game.
Shortly after the Tigers timeout, Anton Flach scored an empty-net goal with 1:18 remaining in the game to make the final score 4-2.
The Tigers didn’t have much time to rest; the next day, Dec. 10, the Tigers defeated Twinsburg, 6-0, at The Pond.
In that game, Cimperman was dominant, scoring five of the Tigers’ six goals. Flach scored the sixth.
For the week, the Tigers went 3-0, also defeating Brooklyn,10-0, on Dec. 7.
They moved to 6-3 on the season and will next host Nordonia on Dec. 16.
