Suffern Mounties Secure 3rd Championship

By Paul Lane 

Several dynasties came to an end on Sunday in the Division I boys hockey title game, but the Mounties’ run as champions was not among them.

In the last game for coach Rob Schelling and captain Sean Tyrrell – the youngest of four Tyrrell brothers to play for Schelling – the Mounties (20-5-1) leaned on goaltending to weather a Canton Golden Bears (14-10-1) storm before Tyrrell came through one last time. He fittingly scored the game-winning goal in a 5-2 game that secured a third straight Suffern championship.

“It’s so amazing,” Schelling said on the ice after the game, all while trying to step around the sticks and gloves his players had thrown in celebration. “We have such a great culture.”

That culture helped the Mounties overcome an early deficit, as Caleb Briggs scored his second goal of championship weekend to put Canton ahead two minutes into the game. But Suffern only needed 90 seconds to respond, as Matthew Norum carried a loose puck down the left side of the ice, then across goalie Gavin Schryver and around his pad. The unassisted goal was his second of the weekend and 14th of the year.

A bad bounce sent the Mounties to the locker room facing a deficit. Owen Logan shot from the blue line through three defenders, hit goalie Tyler Grossman and bounced high above him, landing just behind Grossman while he was still down on his knees. The puck slid into the goal to give the Golden Bears a 2-1 lead after one period. Grossman made five saves to keep the game close.

“My team helped me through it,” Grossman said. “They said they’d get it back.”

They eventually did, but only after Grossman did his part to keep it a one-goal game. Canton tested him 12 times in the stanza, but Grossman stopped them all – including a couple quality chances from point-blank range.

That kept the Mounties in the game, and then Kevin Windwer tied the score in the period’s final three minutes. He skated in front of Schryver while Anthony Ruggerio carried the puck around the net, finding Windwer once he broke free. Shaefer Pinotto also assisted on the goal, Windwer’s ninth of the season.

“That shows you the maturity on this team,” Schelling said. “We watch a lot of film on these guys. They don’t play a lot of guys, but the guys who do play play really hard. We just kept pressing.”

Suffern came out firing in the third, testing Schryver eight times in the period’s first six minutes without breaking through. They finally did in the game’s final two minutes, when Tyyrell converted the rebound off a Luke Lofberg shot. That goal was his fifth of the weekend and 43rd of the season.

He and Anthony Ruggerio added empty-net goals in the game’s final minute, which he said were needed because of the Bears’ never-give-up attitude; they scored twice in the final minute of last weekend’s regional game against Orchard Park, then won it in overtime.

“We knew they wouldn’t quit,”  said Tyrrell, who was named final four MVP after scoring six goals in the two games. “They gave us everything we could handle.”

The game was the last for Schelling, who’s retiring after nearly 30 seasons and more than 500 wins. The team’s been in the final four the last six times it’s been held and now has four titles in that span, and he knows the future will remain bright.

“The Tyrrells have such a legacy of leadership. They’re inspiring,” he said. “Someone else will step up.”