Baron Cup II Semi-Final: #2 North Olmsted Shuts Out #6 Midview 3-0

The Baron Cup II Semi-Finals concluded Friday night as the #2 North Olmsted Eagles took on the #6 Midview Middies for the chance to move on to the Baron Cup II Championship vs Cleveland Heights.

It was a hard-fought contest, as North Olmsted got on the board early and was able to hold Midview scoreless all night. North Olmsted tacked on a pair of empty-netters late to win 3-0. The Eagles advance to move onto the Baron Cup II Championship vs Cleveland Heights. Face-off is set for 3 PM Sunday afternoon.

After a scoreless nine minutes, Justin Malinak scored the first goal of the night to put North Olmsted on top 1-0. It was Malinak’s sixth goal of the season.

Midview was unable to capitalize on the lone power play opportunity of the period and North Olmsted would head into the first intermission leading 1-0.

It was a penalty-free second period until Midveiw had their first man sent to the penalty box of the night with just over 30 seconds remaining in the period.

North Olmsted would lead 1-0 at the end of the second, but would start the third period with 1:28 left on the power play.

Midview withstood the power play and then went on a 5-4 advantage of their own after a high-sticking penalty went against the Eagles with 13 minutes to play.

The Middies could not take advantage, however, and it was back to even-strength with 11 minutes remaining.

Midview pulled their goalie with just over 90 seconds remaining and the Eagles made it 2-0, thanks to an empty-netter from Tyler Merth to seal the victory.

J. Malinak added another empty-net goal to make it 3-0 with 57 seconds to play. It was his second goal of the night.

It was North Olmsted goaltender Ryan Godin’s second shutout of the tournament.

With the win, North Olmsted advances to take on Cleveland Heights on Sunday afternoon at 3 PM for the Baron Cup II Championship. The Tigers handed North Olmsted their only loss of the season in league play on January 30th in a 3-0 shutout. #1 Cleveland Heights is unbeaten in league play and fresh off of outscoring opponents 17-0 in the first two rounds of Baron Cup action.