The Lakewood Rangers hockey team earned their way into their first Division III Baron Cup tournament and were determined to make the most of the opportunity. Lakewood opened Baron Cup play as a number 5 seed and defeated the No. 4 Garfield Heights 5-3 setting up a meeting with the top-seeded Solon Comets.

Going into the closing minutes of the game against the Comets the Rangers led 2-0 with senior Wayne Burke scoring both of the Ranger's goals. Solon came back to force overtime when Matt Hudzinski scored two goals in the final 1:01 of the game to tie it at 2-2. The Rangers managed just 18 shots in the contest but pulled off the upset when Wayne Burke scored his third goal of the game in overtime to place the Rangers in the Baron Cup Championship game, where they would face Chagrin Falls. Burke played a pivotal role in Lakewood’s tournament run with a hand in all 11 of Lakewood post-season goals (6 goals 5 assists). Lakewood’s Baron Cup dream ended when the Tigers scored two second period goals and took a lead they would never relinquish, defeating Lakewood 5-2 to take the Baron Cup title.

Although Lakewood fell short in their quest to win their first Baron Cup in School history Coach Josh Dress said his teams performance could help to put Lakewood Hockey back on the map, “Tournaments like this get kids interested in playing hockey. People in Lakewood knew we were in the Baron Cup and were exciting about Lakewood Hockey again.”

Less than a week after their Baron Cup run ended, the Rangers opened OHSAA tournament play against the Division II Baron Cup Champions, the Brecksville-Broadview Heights Bees. Brecksville’s Mark Pinter started the scoring by redirecting a puck that bounced off the pads of Rangers Goalkeeper Billy Snyder into the back of the net with 9:14 remaining in the first period. Pinter added a second goal four minutes later to give the Bees’ a 2-0 lead. The momentum appeared to shift in Lakewood favor when Burke gained control of a loose puck just outside the blue zone and skated into for a breakaway goal with 1.9 seconds remaining in the first period to cut the Bees’ lead in half. However, Pinter answered back 11 seconds into the second period scoring his third goal of the game. Later in the period Matt Iwaszkiw closed out the scoring with a power play goal to make the final score 4-1. “The second period has been tough for us all season,” Dress said. “But Brecksville did a real good job of adjusting to our defensive system and they were able to put pressure on our goal.”

In his final game as a Ranger goalkeeper Billy Snyder saved 46 Brecksville shots to keep the Rangers within striking distance. Snyder was one of the top goalkeepers in the area all season with a 1.73 GAA but stepped up even bigger in the postseason where the Rangers were out shot by a 2-to-1 margin in all four games. “Billy has played well all year. He has put us in a situation to win a lot of hockey games,” Dress said