Cardinals aren’t known for buzzing out in the wild, of course. Mentor, on the other hand Dec. 28 in its finale of the Greg Shupe Memorial Shootout against a longtime foe in Shaker Heights? Those Cardinals were buzzing when it was required. Hayden Vallance, Nathan Andree and Jake Mackey lit the lamp during a stirring three-goal second period for Mentor en route to a 4-2 win at Strongsville. Mentor senior captain Dominic Trem discusses a 4-2 win over Shaker Heights in their Greg Shupe Memorial Shootout finale at StrongsvilleGenerally helped set a nice tone for the Cardinals scrapping on the forecheck & getting pucks deep on his shifts, especially in 1st & 2nd pic.twitter.com/hEEm31Goak — Chris Lillstrung (@CLillstrungNH) December 28, 2024 The Cardinals (11-8-2) have had moments this winter, and this did come with the caveats of a not-so-stirring third period and missing out on the tournament title with its cumulative-period format as runner-up. But with arguably its best 15 of the year in that second period and the fact it came against a Great Lakes Hockey League opponent, this might be Mentor’s best victory of the season thus far. “Yeah, I liked our first two,” Cardinals coach Paul McKito said. “I don’t think we played bad in the third — just a couple untimely goals against, and that happens. In the grand scheme of things, we needed to either tie or win that period to win the tournament. That wasn’t the end result. “But if you look at the big picture, yeah. It’s a good win against an always-tough Shaker team that is never going to quit for 45 minutes. And that obviously showed.” A.J. Trobenter gave Mentor a 1-0 lead out of the first. With exactly one minute left before intermission, senior captain Dominic Trem fed Trobenter in the neutral zone. The standout senior forward did well with a chippy on the side boards, then managed to corral with a skate clip while crashing and cashed in a wrister at the left bar, his 16th goal of the year. Mentor 1-0AJ Trobenter at 14:00 pic.twitter.com/wK5kWJ7w8P — Chris Lillstrung (@CLillstrungNH) December 28, 2024 The Cardinals showed propensity for getting pucks deep with consistency in the first and carried that over beautifully to the second. First it was Vallance at 1:37. The sophomore forward forced a pad save from the right circle, skated behind the net and slotted a banger rebound at the left bar for a 2-0 lead. “The guy was fumbling it, so I got a stick on it and battled for it,” Vallance said. “I got my own rebound, wrapped it, and the goalie was out of position. So a pretty easy play. “(This win) is up there. We’ve had some really good fights against some really good teams. So it’s up there for sure.” The Red Raiders (10-9-1) were assessed a too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty. Just eight seconds into the man advantage, Andree struck at 5:03 to go up, 3-0. Midway through the period, Jake Mackey contributed a wrister at 7:28, making it 4-0. “We just came out ready to work,” Vallance said of the second. “We were flying. We had good chemistry. We had our heads up. Good communication. Just a really solid period.” The third didn’t go quite as well from a Mentor perspective. Connor Mayhugh scored twice for Shaker at 8:20 on the power play and then at 11:26. But again, given the buzzing stretches and the caliber of the win as a whole, the Cardinals had plenty to take back east. “We had a really good game plan, and the kids, they were locked in today,” McKito said. “For sure. We were taking care of pucks. We were playing at a high rate of speed. We were getting in on the forecheck, which is what we wanted to do is establish that early and create turnovers and create our offense from that. I thought we did a really, really good job of that. “In the grand scheme of things, we’re looking to build consistency. We’re getting there, day by day. As we come to the new year here, that kind of effort and intensity, I think that’s going to bode well for us.” Coming soon For more from this game, as Vallance and McKito discuss the emergence of younger forwards for Mentor, check back in the coming days on News-Herald.com and in our print edition. THE SCORE Mentor 4, Shaker Heights 2