High school hockey: Avon Lake can't sustain fast start or slow Kenston's Gavin Rowell, falls in Baron Cup final

BROOKLYN — When Avon Lake scored twice in the opening 5:14 of Sunday's Baron Cup II championship game, it looked like the Shoremen might be on the way to celebrating their first Cup title since 2018. Kenston's Gavin Rowell had other ideas. The senior scored five goals to break Avon Lake's heart and give Kenston it's first Baron Cup title with a 5-3 win at the John M. Coyne Recreation Center. It took Avon Lake (17-7-1) only 36 seconds to get on the board when senior Grady Pellegrini scored his ninth goal of the year off a Kooper Nilson assist. "It was a 2-on-1, I called for the puck and Kooper got it to me," Pellegrini said. "I tipped it left side. It hit the bar and went in." Then freshman Ryan Gibel scored 5:14 into the first period and the Shoremen had to feel everything was going their way. It was his ninth goal of the year. "I thought we were almost going to run away with it," Gibel said. "Once they started scoring, we couldn't keep up." Rowell scored his first goal with 8:07 remaining in the first period off a Carmella Nilsson assist. He scored again less than three minutes later to tie the game at 2. Rowell, Kenston's all-time leader scorer, has 51 goals on the year. Kenston heads into the regional tournament with a 23-9-3 record. "With his speed and his edges, it's really hard to put a body on him," Gibel said of Rowell. "We were clumping up and trying to he heroes and do our own thing. We needed to do a better job of spreading out." Rowell scored twice more in the second period to put the Bombers up 4-2. Avon Lake outshot Kenston 48-20 but Bombers goalie Logan Linsz came up with 45 saves. The teams knew each other's tendencies and weaknesses quite well, playing for the fourth time this season. Avon Lake won two of the first three meetings. "Kenston didn't show us anything different today, they just scored two more goals then we did," Avon Lake coach Wade Nilson said. "We knew they were a good team and it was going to come down to the third period. It was two good teams going at it. "That's how our season has gone. We've ran into some hot goalies this year. The puck didn't bounce our way but we hung in there until the bitter end." Noah Logertman scored his 18th goal of the year with 12:32 remaining in the third period to make it a one-goal game but Rowell struck again at the 5:06 mark to give the Bombers a 5-3 lead. The Shoremen had to defeat Avon and Olmsted Falls earlier in the week to advance to Sunday's final and although the end result wasn't what the team was hoping for, Pellegrini was happy to have the chance to play for a Baron Cup title in his senior season. "It's amazing to play in a Baron Cup final," Pellegrini said. "You have to win two games in a row and play as a team to make it here. I'm glad we made it as far as we did." Avon Lake will be back in Brooklyn in a little over a week to begin postseason play. The Shoremen are the No. 4 seed in the Brooklyn district and will play a regional quarterfinal Feb. 18. "Today will leave the team with a pit in their stomach and fire in the bellies," Coach Nilson said. "Now we have to let that out in our next game." Contact Todd Shapiro (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Kenston 5, Avon Lake 3 FIRST PERIOD: Scoring: (AL) Grady Pellegrini (Kooper Nilson) 0:36, (AL) Ryan Gibel (Nate LeProvost) 5:14, (K) Gavin Rowell (Carmella Nilsson) 6:53 (K) Rowell (Nick Naizov, Reece Newpher) 9:47 . Penalties: SECOND PERIOD: Scoring: (K) Rowell (Naizov) 4:53, (K) Rowell (Trey Wieland) 10:52 . Penalties: (K) Denny Offult (holding)11:19, (AL) Nilson (holding) 13:57 THIRD PERIOD: Scoring: (AL) Noah Logertman (Cole Wallace) 2:28, (K) Rowell (tripping) 4:33, (K) Rowell (Nilsson) 9:54. Penalties: None Kenston 2 2 1 -- 5 Avon Lake 2 0 1 -- 3 Shots on goal: Kenston 20 (10-5-5), Avon Lake 48 (13-17-18). Goalies: (K) Logan Linsz (48 shots, 45 saves). (AL) Declan Roth (20 shots, 15 saves). Power play opportunities: Kenston 0-1, Avon Lake 0-1.