High school hockey: Avon survives Rocky River offensive barrage, pulls out tie

ROCKY RIVER — Max Summers and Jake Zurawski made the most of their opportunities Sunday morning against Rocky River. Avon's defense was under constant attack against the Pirates, but it held its own and allowed Summers to convert two goals and Zurawaski to add the equalizer in the third period of a 3-3 tie at the Tim Alexander Memorial Tournament at Hamilton Ice Arena. "I only scored two last year, so it was kind of a down year, and it was nice to score against River because this is where I played as a kid," Summers said. "As a program, we've never beaten them, so it was nice to get two goals." Avon (4-1-2) was outshot 45-8 on the day and 17-1 in the first period, but managed to find the net when Michael Perusek found Zurawski on the left wing. He fired it into a scrum and Summers finished at the front of the net to tie the game at 1. Ben Boka and the Avon back line played outstanding, despite giving up the three goals. Boka saved 42 shots and the Eagles defense prevented many others before they could develop. "They brought the pressure and put us back on our heels," Boka said of Rocky River. "I just made the saves that I had to. They're a really tough team." Each Avon goal came in response to a Rocky River score as the Pirates took a 2-1 lead just minutes into the second period. However, a nice transition pass from Perusek to Summers allowed the latter to get his second goal of the day, capitalizing on a one-on-one. Rocky River (3-2-1) closed the third with a late score when Alex Parnell converted a point-blank shot off a nice feed from Dominic Ricketti. But the lead didn't last long as Zurawski opened the third with a long shot from the back of the left red circle that found the right corner of the net. "It got stuck on the boards so I pulled it out and there were no defensemen," Zurawski said. "We had a two-on-one, but I just saw an open slot and hit it. We're down two of our top offensive players (Logan Brown and Conner Zajankala), we just wanted to show what we could do and we got it done." Both teams played a penalty-free game until the third, when Avon's Nick Kraszewski was called twice for tripping. However, the Avon defense held strong, limiting Rocky River to just three total shots during the two power plays with three clears during each opportunity. "We really concentrated on tying people up in front because that's where they were getting their goals," said Avon's Craig Umland, coaching in place of Kyle Botos, who was unavailable because of an illness. "I can't say enough about our goalkeeper, Ben Boka. Awesome job as always. He's very dependable back there, and defensively we blocked a bunch of shots. I think we played really well defensively." Contact Chris Sweeney at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Follow him @CSweeney1686 on Twitter. Avon 3, Rocky River 3 FIRST PERIOD: (RR) Sean McDonough, 8:19; (A) Max Summers (Jake Zurawski, Michael Perusek), 7:16.. SECOND PERIOD: (RR) Dominic Ricketti (Luke Skapoulas), 13:30; (A) Summers (Perusek), 6:11; (RR) Alex Parnell (Ricketti), 0:03. THIRD PERIOD: (A) Zurawski, 14:13. PENALTIES — (A) Nick Kraszewski (2:00 tripping), 12:26; (A) Kraszewski (2:00 tripping), 5:28. Avon&emsp; &emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;—&emsp;&emsp;3Rocky River&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;2&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;—&emsp;&emsp;3 Shots on goal: Avon 8 (1-4-3), Rocky River 45 (17-17-11). Goalies: (A) Ben Boka (45 shots, 42 saves), (RR) Niko Rose (8 shots, 5 saves). Power-play opportunities: Avon 0-0, Rocky River 0-2