Hockey: Elyria Catholic explodes in third period for Baron Cup win

BROOKLYN — After two periods of the Baron Cup White Division quarterfinal between Elyria Catholic and Stow-Munroe Falls on Tuesday, the second-seeded Panthers led the seventh-seeded Bulldogs by just one goal thanks to a goal they conceded with 42 seconds to go in the second. Less than five minutes of game time later, the Panthers led 8-2, a margin that held through the final 10 minutes of running-clock action. "We've been struggling the last seven games to score," said Elyria Catholic coach BJ Basinger. "That was happening again for the first 30 minutes, and then the floodgates opened up. We told them in the locker room we needed to get the next couple goals, and the puck actually finally started to go in for us." Elyria Catholic entered the game on a five-game losing streak, with each of the last four losses coming by just a goal. It also hadn't scored more than two goals in a game since Jan. 16 and hadn't scored more than three since Dec. 20. And while Tuesday looked like it was well on the way to being another frustrating day, with the Panthers outshooting the Bulldogs 41-9 and leading just 3-2 after two, it hadn't seemed that way all game. It didn't take Elyria Catholic long to open the scoring, with Brady Basinger scoring just under four minutes into the game, and it took even less time to make it 2-0, with Zachary Basinger scoring 20 seconds later. "We got two goals in a minute, and it looked like we were going to break that streak pretty early," Coach Basinger said. "But in the first two periods we had 40-some shots, and we just weren't getting the bounces. We were shooting right at the goalie, to be honest" If the Panthers were discouraged by their offensive struggles, they showed no sign of it, taking less than two minutes to respond to the Bulldogs' opening goal with Brady Basinger scoring his second of the night. Stow cut the lead back to one with 42 seconds remaining in the second period, and after the intermission, it took Elyria Catholic less than a minute to respond again, this time with Brady Basinger turning provider, finding Brendan Cleary. After Landon Bean made it 5-2 roughly 40 seconds later, Brady Basinger completed his hat trick to make it 6-2, and Charlie Grimes and Josh Anastasiadis added goals to start the running clock. "(The hat trick) felt great," Brady Basinger said. "I've been getting back after breaking my collarbone, and it's finally good to score more than one." The Panthers couldn't have possibly picked a better time to break out of their scoring woes, and they are now looking as dangerous as ever headed into their semifinal matchup against either Olmsted Falls or Kenston. "We started having fun out there," Brady Basinger said. "We were working as a team, talking as a team and yelling at each other after a pep talk from our captains." Contact Will Cunningham at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Elyria Catholic 8, Stow-Munroe Falls 2 FIRST PERIOD: (EC) Brady Basinger (unassisted), 11:19, (EC) Zachary Basinger (Jayden Brown), 11:00. PENALTIES: (SM) Liam Schelien (2:00 Interference), 5:14. SECOND PERIOD: (SM) Scott Albrecht (Cam Mercurio, Logan O'Hara), 4:31, (EC) Brady Basinger (Sean Howell), 3:17, (SM) Albrecht (Schelien, AJ Halsne), 0:42. PENALTIES: (EC) Josh Anastasiadis (2:00 Holding), 10:39 THIRD PERIOD: (EC) Brendan Cleary (Brady Basinger), 14:04, (EC) Landon Bean (Charlie Grimes), 13:21, (EC) Brady Basinger (Cleary, Anastasiadis), 12:44, (EC) Grimes (Zachary Basinger, Brown), 12:16, (EC) Anastasiadis (Grimes, Luke Shebak), 10:18. PENALTIES: None. Stow-Munroe Falls&emsp;0&emsp;2&emsp;0&emsp;—&emsp;2 Elyria Catholic&emsp;2&emsp;1&emsp;5&emsp;—&emsp;8 Shots on goal: Stow-Munroe Falls 13 (2-7-4), Elyria Catholic 58 (20-21-17) Goalies: Stow-Munroe Falls: Seraphina Nyitray, Lucy Napieralski (58 shots, 50 saves), Elyria Catholic: Dominic Morris (13 shots, 11 saves) Power-play opportunities: Stow-Munroe Falls 0-1, Elyria Catholic 0-1.