Lake Erie Monsters Recap

This past Sunday, March 2nd, the center stage of the Northeast Ohio youth hockey universe was at the Monsters official practice facility at OBM Arena in Strongsville. The Cleveland Suburban Hockey League (CSHL) had their “Championship Sunday” with over 450 players converging at the rink and 30 teams vying for 15 championship titles. All teams were playing for the rite of winning the first annual Monster Cup, the newly branded championship trophy of the CSHL presented to the league by the Lake Erie Monsters this season.

Championship Sunday started out at OBM Arena at 8 o’clock in the morning with games going on simultaneously on OBM Arena’s twin sheets of ice and lasting throughout the day until 8 o’clock that evening. Players ranging from 9/10 year olds (Squirts) through 13/14 year olds (Bantams) were playing their final games of the season with the semifinals occurring across Northeast Ohio the weekend before.

Associations from all over the region were playing for the right to hoist the Monster cup, which ranged geographically from Fremont to Mentor, and Wooster to Canton/Akron. In all, 17 of the 20 member associations of the CSHL had teams vying for different championships. Geauga Youth Hockey and Rocky River Youth Hockey led the way of CSHL associations with three of their member teams winning their division championships.

At the end of action on Sunday, only 15 teams would claim the Monster Cup for their respective divisions and will be recognized on Friday, April 11th at the Lake Erie Monsters game. All teams that won their regular season division title and/or Monster Cup championship will take the ice before the Monsters game on April 11th. The Lake Erie Monsters congratulate all teams on another great season and look forward to wrapping up the season with Monster Cup Recognition Night on April 11th!