Lokey lifts Bears to division title

CD defeats Knights in opening round

Intelligencer Journal

Published: Feb 21, 2008
00:48 EST

Lancaster

By KEVIN FREEMAN, Sports Writer

Zach Lokey never hurries.

The Elizabethtown High School hockey player seems to pace himself through games.

Eventually, though, he pounces.

Lokey scored three goals, all in the third period, to lead the Bears to a come-from-behind 6-2 victory over Garden Spot in the inaugural Central Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League Tier II Lancaster-Lebanon-Berks Division championship game Wednesday night at the Lancaster Ice Rink.

Lokey tied the game at 2-2 early in the third, then scored the go-ahead goal three minutes later. He added an empty-net goal to complete the hat trick.

In the first game of Wednesday's doubleheader, Central Dauphin scored three power-play goals to defeat Hempfield in the first round of the CPIHL's Tier I playoffs. Hempfield, however, is still alive due to the double-elimination format.

Both Elizabethtown, which finished first in the division, and Garden Spot, which finished second, will play in the Tier II playoffs beginning Friday but on Wednesday the two teams played to decide the L-L-B title. It was the third matchup between the two and the Bears completed the three-game sweep.

"Very tough to beat a team three times," said E-town coach Steve Lokey. "This was the most difficult of the three."

Nick Roth, Garden Spot's leading scorer this season, put the Spartans in front 1-0 midway through the first period, but E-town's Brian Milici tied the game before the end of the first. Just nine seconds into the second, Bobby Lee gave Spot another one-goal advantage, and the Spartans held the 2-1 lead to the end of the period.

But Garden Spot's shallow bench — the Spartans had only 11 skaters — couldn't sustain the pressure they had put on E-town the first two periods.

"We're hurting right now," said Garden Spot coach Kevin Davis. "We have a couple of players who are sick and another out with a bad shoulder. But the kids gave it everything. We knew sooner or later Lokey was going to get free."

Zach Lokey, the fourth-leading scorer in the CPIHL, tucked a slap shot under the crossbar 1:04 into the third period to tie the game. He then stole a puck at mid-ice and beat Garden Spot goalie Ryan Flurer to give E-town a 3-2 lead. A few minutes later, he fed Milici, who tallied his second of the game, beating Flurer up high.

"Lokey is good at picking his spots," Davis said. "We knew it, but our defense didn't have the legs to keep up with him."

E-town goalie Steve Dombrosky made 20 saves, keeping the game close to enable the Bears to come back.

"I told Steve at practice Monday that he had to be our best player," Steve Lokey said.

Penalties proved to be much of Hempfield's downfall. The Black Knights incurred 11 of them and Central Dauphin cashed in on three.

"You're not going to win a playoff game going to the box 11 times," said Hempfield coach Mike Brunozzi. "That was some young inexperience (on our part)."

Jimmy Layton redirected Brandon Cerzullo's shot past Hempfield goalie Trent Weiss (23 saves) with just four seconds to play in the first period to put the Rams up 1-0. Cerzullo jammed a puck past Weiss late in the second to boost CD's lead to 2-0.

Hempfield had its chances on the power play, too, as CD took 10 penalties. But the Black Knights scored only once, getting a goal from Ben Bauer with 9:18 to play in the third. Layton restored the two-goal edge late in the third on a deflection from the slot.

E-mail: kfreeman@lnpnews.com