NORTH OLMSTED — When Brecksville beat Olmsted Falls in the semifinal round of the Southwestern Conference tournament on Sunday, it was believed the Bulldogs had been a bit lackluster.
Was tournament favorite North Olmsted lackluster on Monday, or is Brecksville maybe a pretty good hockey team?
The Bees pulled a 4-3 stunner over the defending SWC champion Eagles in Monday’s title game, giving Brecksville (16-5-1) its first conference championship.
The game followed the same script as the night before for two periods. The Bees scored a pair of goals early to go ahead 2-0 and played an airtight defense in the last period. What was different from Sunday’s victory was that North Olmsted (17-5) briefly held a lead in the second period.
What was also similar to Sunday was the brilliance of Brecksville goalie Dan Miller, who stopped 23 of 26 shots by the Eagles after halting 26 of 28 against Olmsted Falls.
“Miller was definitely the story here,” North Olmsted coach Tim Murphy said. “He’s big and he takes up a lot of room in front of the goal. They pack the defense around him and it’s hard to get anything to go in against him. Their goaltending was outstanding.”
“Miller is the reason we’re in the position we are in,” Brecksville coach Dan Holden said. “He’s our rock. He was this afternoon and he was last night. They had some quality shots on us, but Dan held it together.”
“We had our opportunities, but they were a very determined team,” Murphy added. “You could see that in the last 10 minutes of the game.”
Two of Brecksville’s goals came on power plays and one, which proved to be the decider, came four seconds after the end of a power play as North Olmsted was returning a player to the ice. Two of the Eagles’ goals came on power plays.
It took the Bees only 1:08 to get a 1-0 lead as Chris Capuano scored the first of two goals off an assist from Ryan Alexander. Alec Burgman gave Brecksville a two-goal lead via a power-play goal five minutes into the game.
Logan Beach cut the difference to 2-1 on a power-play goal with 3:03 left in the first. The second North Olmsted power-play goal, by Tyler Arendec seven seconds into the advantage, tied the score at 2. One minute and nine seconds later, Chad Murphy gave the Eagles the lead on a breakaway in which he skated in from the right at Miller and slipped the puck into the left corner.
The lead lasted barely two minutes as Bobby Putka scored on a power play. Capuano scored the winner 4:09 later after picking up the puck in the neutral zone and slapping it by Zech Laughbaum.
The teams skated through a scoreless third despite the Eagles’ big edge in possession. Miller halted 10 North Olmsted shots while the Bees took only three tries at Laughbaum.
Contact Steve Byrne at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.
Brecksville 4,
North Olmsted 3
Brecksville 2 2 0 — 4
North Olmsted 1 2 0 — 3
FIRST: 1. B, Chris Capuano (Ryan Alexander), 1:08; 2. B, Alec Burgman (Tony O’Neil), 5:01; 1. NO, Logan Beach (Chad Murphy, Sam DeJoy), 11:57. Penalties — B, John Bell (interference), 1:26; B, Alec Burgman (tripping), 2:27; NO, Sam DeJoy (interference), 4:55; B, Bobby Putka (holding), 6:44; B, Ryan Alexander (hooking), 10:33; NO, Mike Konyesni (tripping), 12:32; NO, Sam DeJoy (tripping), 13:14.
SECOND: 2. NO, Tyler Arendec (Chad Murphy, Ronnie Soltesz), 5:31; 3. NO, Chad Murphy (Chad Cullinan), 6:40; 3. B, Bobby Putka (Alec Burgman, John O’Neil), 8:45; 4. B, Chris Capuano (unassisted), 12:54. Penalties — Adam Gerow (hooking), 5:24; NO, Mike Konyesni (slashing), 7:52; NO, Chad Cullinan (interference), 10:50; B, Chris Capuano (slashing), 13:24.
THIRD: No scoring. Penalties — B, John Bell (tripping), 3:17; NO, Tyler Arendec (unsportsmanlike conduct), 6:20.
Shots on goal — Brecksville 7-7-3—17, North Olmsted 6-10-10—26. Goalies — B, Dan Miller (26 shots, 23 saves); NO, Zech Laughbaum (17 shots, 13 saves). Power-play opportunities — Brecksville 2 of 6, North Olmsted 2 of 7.

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