Cleveland St. Ignatius Wins Fifth Ice Hockey State Championship, Defeats Toledo St. Francis de Sales 5-1
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Cleveland St. Ignatius (30-7-2) earned a 5-1 win over Toledo St. Francis de Sales (26-7-0) in the 2017 OHSAA ice hockey state championship game on Sunday at Nationwide Arena to capture its fifth ice hockey state title.
The Wildcats were making their eighth trip to the ice hockey state tournament and captured their second-consecutive state title, their third since 2014. St. Ignatius earned a 4-3 (3OT) victory over Hunting Valley University School on Saturday in the state semifinals.
St. Francis de Sales (26-7-0) was making its 10th trip to the ice hockey state tournament and its fourth appearance in the state championship game. The Knights earned an 8-2 win over Powell Olentangy Liberty in the state semifinals on Saturday.
The Knights held a 36-26 shot advantage over the Wildcats, but a strong effort by sophomore goalkeeper Benny Savarino limited St. Francis de Sales to just one goal while recording 35 saves. St. Francis de Sales also held a 38-22 advantage in faceoff victories over St. Ignatius.
Leading the way for St. Ignatius was senior captain Connor Koehnke, who recorded two goals and two assists. Sophomore forward Connor McGowan scored one goal and dished out two assists. Senior forward Seth Whitney finished with one goal and one assist, and freshman forward Michael Boehm finished with one goal.
For St. Francis de Sales, senior defenseman Blake Storer finished with one goal, and juniors Gabe Barrow and Tim Organ each finished with one assist for the Knights. Sophomore goalkeeper Jacob Coward recorded 21 saves.
St. Ignatius struck just 10 seconds into the first period, as Whitney scored on assists from McGowan and Koehnke to give the Wildcats an early 1-0 lead. Then with 5:15 left in the first period, Koehnke scored a goal of his own on an assist from freshman Greg Langermeier to take a 2-0 lead through the first period.
The Wildcats extended their lead early in the second period, as McGowan scored on assists from Whitney and Koehnke just 56 seconds into the period, giving St. Ignatius a 3-0 advantage. Boehm would score with just 1:30 left in the period on assists from Billy Baumann and junior Bain Kurtz to extend the St. Ignatius lead to 4-0 going into the third period.
St. Francis de Sales would cut into the Wildcats’ advantage with 2:23 left in the third period, as Storer scored on assists from Barrow and Organ to cut the Knights’ deficit to just 4-1. But St. Ignatius’ Koehnke scored his second goal of the day with 2:23 left in the game on an assist from McGowan, pushing the lead to 5-1 and earning the second-straight ice hockey state championship for the Wildcats.