Northview Hockey Varsity Blog - Sylvania Ohio

The Wildcats traveled to Columbus Sunday for a meeting with the Rocks of Dublin Coffman. The game also marked the return of Sophomore Brent Bain, who showed a little rust as he just missed on several quality scoring chances. However the Cats were able to run their record to 23-3-1 with a 3-1 victory.

Northview would get on the board in the first period with a goal by Matt Cook. He was able to gather his own rebound and put it in the net for a 1-0 intermission lead. Early in the second Northview would get a power-play goal from Erik Lavoy to make it 2-0. They would take a 3-0 lead in the third period on another rebound goal from Cook, before Coffman would close the gap and the scoring with about 4 minutes to play to give the final score of 3-1.

Overall the cats controlled much of the play and tempo of the game, but had a hard time of converting their scoring chances. Give Dublin plenty of credit as their defensive minded scheme held the cats to many outside shots, and many scoring chances were thwarted by solid goaltending. Craig Trego made 10 saves to pick up the victory.

Northview will return to league action this weekend with 2 games. On Saturday they play cross-town rival Southview at 7 P.M. On Sunday they will travel to Bowling Green for a meeting with the Bobcats. Northview needs 3 points in the next 4 league games to capture its first league title in 19 years. Good luck boys!

Alden Hirschfeld is one of four captains for the Northview Wildcats, but is clearly #1 when it comes to lighting the lamp for the offense. The third year senior came to Northview with an impressive resume that included Sylvania travel as well as stops in Atlanta, Toronto, and with AAA Compuware. The coaching staff knew he was a special player and were very excited when he decided to come and play with the Cats for his sophomore season.

As with most players coming into the High School he spent some time adjusting to a different style of play than he was used to in his other leagues. After that short adjustment period Alden became a force near the end of his sophomore year. Not satisfied with the numbers most kids would die for (19 goals, 36 assist) Hirschfeld committed himself to getting stronger and better. During the summer between his sophomore and junior seasons Alden worked out with weights and committed himself to being the best player on the ice.

That dedication paid off with the second best statistical season (55 goals, 48 assist) in the history of the program, MVP of the team, and a player of the year award honor from the NHC. Problem was there were a couple of awards that were missing from those great accomplishments. One was a league title and a second was a trip to Columbus for the final four.

This year Alden has continued that torrid scoring touch that made him such a force in and out of the league. His 46 goals put him within 11 goals of breaking the single season mark of 56 set by 1987 graduate Ron Johnson. Furthermore his 223 points put him third on the all-time scoring list behind Johnson’s 281 and Bob Napierala’s 241. But more important to Alden than those personal goals, is that his Wildcats are alone in first place in the NHC and trying to become the first team since 1987 to win the league title. They are also readying themselves for a possible long run in the state playoffs. Congratulation Alden on a great career, and congratulations wildcats on a great year. Reach for your goals boys, you are making the alumni and Northview family very proud.

The Northview icers moved to 6-0 (22-3-1 overall) and first place in the NHC with 2 nail biting overtime victories over St. Francis and St. Johns. With 4 league games left the cats have a strangle hold on what could be their first league title since the Doug Carter led 1987 squad.
On Friday the cats hosted St. Francis with first place on the line. Both teams came in with 8 points in the NHC Red with the Knights having played 1 more game than Northview. Northview jumped out to a 3-0 lead midway through the game on goals by Tyler Cook, Adam Thanasiu and a short-handed effort by Alden Hirschfeld. However the cats were whistled for a couple of penalties late in the 2nd that opened the door for the Knights. With just 21 seconds left in the period a knuckling shot found its way past Bobby McElheney to cut the lead to 3-1 after 2 periods of play. The cats played one of their most undisciplined periods of hockey all year in the 3rd. They were called for a couple more selfish penalties and played some unsound defensive hockey in allowing the Knights to not only tie the game at 3-3, but finish the game with back-to-back power plays. However near the end of regulation Hirschfeld was hauled down to give the cats a power play chance of their own in overtime. Cody Bourland didn’t waste much time as he took a pass from Erik Lavoy, who made a great play, to give the cats a 4-3-overtime victory.
On Saturday evening the wildcats played St. Johns. The Titans came in very hot having knocked off Findlay the night before 8-0 down in the house of pain. The emotions ran high as many predicted a possible win for the Titans. Through 2 ½ periods of play it looked as if that prediction would come true as St. Johns led 2-0. The secret weapon was an unlikely hero in Thomas Monteith. He would not be denied as his hard work paid off with a blue-collar type goal to cut the lead to 2-1. With the new found energy from the goal and the capacity crowd the cats would draw even on a blast from M. Cook just a few minutes later. The overtime began with the cats on the power play due to a very undisciplined penalty from the Titans, who had up to that point played an almost error free game. The cats wasted little time as Hirschfeld picked up a loose puck in front of the Titan net to send the crowd into hysterics and the cats to victory. Bobby McElheney picked up both wins to improve his record to 13-0 on the season. As important as the wins were for the league were the lessons learned from the hard fought games. All of the players and the coaches know that nothing will come easy and if they want to accomplish the goals of the team they will have to work even harder than they have to this point. Congratulations cats on a great weekend.