After scoring six goals in the first two periods, the Aurora Greenmen’s hockey team relied on its defense to fend off Greater Cleveland High School Hockey League Blue Division rival Nordonia in the final period. Aurora’s defense stiffened up and defeated its neighborhood foe 6-5 in a GCHSHL Blue Division crossover game last Sunday afternoon at The Pond in Auburn Township.
“It was important,” said Coach Joe Lawrie. “We had played some solid teams over the holiday break and played against some teams that were in higher divisions than ours. This was the first game back against a team that is in the Blue Division and of course we wanted to win and have a good start to what is the beginning at the end of the season.”
Aurora (12-8-0, 4-2-0) held a 6-3 advantage near the end of the second period after freshman forward John Janzig scored on a breakaway goal off an assist from senior defender Will Pfiffner at the 4:03 mark.
“John was just in good position and Will gave him a really seam theme pass through the neutral zone,” Aurora’s 11th-year coach said. “It was a really fantastic highlight reel play goal for him. It was a nice pass and a tricky pass to get clean. He made a good reception on the pass and then after he caught it, he actually got a little boost of speed to get away from the defender which is an advanced level of skill to have in hockey.”
The Knights responded when freshman wing George Henderson scored a lamplighter off an assist from freshman defender Jack Henderson with 1:56 remaining in the period, trimming Aurora’s advantage to 6-4.
In the third period, Nordonia outshot the Greenmen by an 8-4 margin but junior goalkeeper Raquel Bailey played solid defense. With about a minute left in the game, the Knights pulled their goalie and put an extra skater on the ice.
Nordonia sophomore wing Collin Schleman found the back of the net off assists from senior center Owen Tindall and Henderson with 34 seconds remaining, trimming the Greenmen’s lead to 6-5.
Even after the Knights won the next face-off, Bailey fended off their efforts to tie the game and preserved an Aurora victory, snapping a two-game losing skid.
“Raquel played a great game on Sunday,” Lawire noted. “I am really happy with Raquel’s performance and she has improved drastically. She is one of the hardest working players on the team and is always working to make herself better and improve her game. She has come a long way even since the start of this season. It was a great game out of her, and she made a lot of big and important saves for us.”
After a high-scoring affair with both teams combining to score 10 goals in the first two periods, the Greenmen’s defense won the day.
According to Lawrie, it was an impressive victory for Aurora considering they were missing a couple of key players due to injury and illness.
“I will say that our defense did not quit either and we were fighting hard the way all the way until the end,” he added. “It was a very good game and a very promising game from my side. We had a lot of players that stepped up. At this point in the season we are working through a couple of things like with injuries and illnesses, so we did not have our full lineup. The whole team rallied together and played well even with a couple of guys out from the lineup.”
Aurora got off to a fast start in the first period when Pfiffner scored two straight goals, giving his squad a 2-0 advantage and the Greenmen stayed in front. Although Pfiffner did not score another goal in the game, the Greenmen displayed their depth by having three different players score at least one goal.
Fielding a roster of 20 skaters, Lawrie said that Aurora is as deep as it has ever been over the last several years.
“Our team does have a nice depth to it and that is something that we have not always had and there are certainly other teams in the area that do not have that much depth to their teams,” he said. “We have been through that a bunch of times, so I know what it feels like as a coach to not have that depth on your bench, so it is great to have that depth”
Despite surrendering two unanswered goals between the second and third periods, the Greenmen’s early offensive outburst propelled them to victory in their first GCHSHL Blue Division game since before the holidays.
Aurora will return to the ice when it hosts GCHSHL Blue Division foe Bay in a crossover game at The Pond on Saturday afternoon at 3:30 p.m.
