High School Hockey: Avon Lake's outstanding 21-7 season comes to an end with loss to St, Edward in district championship

BROOKLYN — What a season for the Shoremen. No. 6 Avon Lake saw its hockey season filled with championships come to an end against No. 3-seeded St. Edward, 8-2, in the Brooklyn district championship game at the John M. Coyne Recreation Center on Wednesday night. The Eagles improved to 20-13 on the year and will face Padua in the regional semifinal on Saturday. Avon Lake's season came to an end at 21-7 "We really had a great season and a good group of kids," Shoremen assistant coach Leonard Gibel said. "We started slow this year, won the Avon MLK tournament, we won the White Division on the last day of the season and then was able to win the first White Division Bacon Cup championship in school history. "The puck really didn't bounce our way in that first period, and they (St. Edward) piled some goals on at the end. I think we gave them everything we had tonight." Avon Lake went toe-to-toe with St. Edward in the first period, only trailing 1-0 after the first 17 minutes of play. Nate LePrevost and Kaleb Ireland had good looks in the opening five minutes only to be turned away by Eagles goalie Alex Voll, who finished with 18 saves. Carter Smith put St. Edward up 1-0 at 7:24, but he also gave Avon Lake a pair of man-advantage opportunities with back-to-back penalties, but the Shoremen just couldn't get any offense generated over those four minutes. The Eagles didn't have the same problem in the second period, converting two power-play chances as part of their three-goal period as Vinny Willock, Sean Gillian and Collin Libby scored for a 4-0 lead after two periods. Johnny Borowy made it 5-0 early in the third period, but Avon Lake showed the same fight it had all year long, getting a pair of goals from LePrevost that he will be able to talk about for years to come. Following a tripping call on the Shoremen, LePrevost picked off the puck at center ice, but fell at the blue line. He got back up and was able to score short-handed, cutting the lead to 5-1. A couple minutes later, Kooper Nilson put a shot on goal that was stopped, but fluttered up into the air. LePrevost waited for the puck to come down and knocked it out of the air at 13:25 to make the score 5-2. The second LePrevost score was the 102nd goal of his career. Nilson reached 100 career goals in Avon Lake's 10-1 win over North Olmsted in the district quarterfinals. "I really thought someone was going to hit me when I started getting up," LePrevost said of his first goal. "I was really surprised that I could get up and get to the goalie. I never thought I would score there. "Our goal from the start of the season was winning the Baron Cup, that's all we really cared about. We knew this was going to be a hard game as good as they (Eagles) are." Contact James Brady at 329-7135 or jbrady_ct@yahoo.com. St. Edward 8, Avon Lake 2 FIRST PERIOD: (SE) Carter Smith (Ben Lunato), 7:24. PENALTIES: (SE) Smith (2:00 cross-check), 4:37, (SE) Smith (2:00 roughing), 2:01. SECOND PERIOD: (SE) Vinny Willock (Smith), PP, 14:08, (SE) Sean Gillian (Andrew Gray, Lunato), 4:42, (SE) Collin Libby (Woody Wright), PP, 0:31. PENALTIES: (AL) Brady Gibel (2:00 roughing), 15:13, (SE) Wright (2:00 slahing), 3:21, (AL) Evan Wallace (2:00 cross-check), 0:50. THIRD PERIOD: (SE) Johnny Borowy (unassisted), 16:16, (AL) Nate LePrevost (unassisted), SH, 15:10, (AL) LePrevost (Kooper Nilson), 13:25, (SE) Gray (Libby), 12:23, (SE) Smith (unassisted), PP, 5:41, (SE) Mark Reese (Wright), 2:12. PENALTIES: (AL) Ryan Holley (2:00 tripping), (AL) Anthony Zerrella (2:00 cross-check), 6:04. St. Edward 1 3 4 — 8 Avon Lake 0 0 2 — 2 Shots on goal: St. Edward 47 (10-24-13), Avon Lake 20 (6-4-10). Goalies: St. Edward: Alex Voll (20 shots, 18 saves), Avon Lake: Declan Roth (47 shots, 39 saves). Power-play opportunities: St. Edward 3-for-4, Avon Lake 0-for-3.