At left, a Bulldog and an Eaglet engage each other during Orchard Lake St. Mary’s win that eliminated the defending Division 1 champs. At right, legendary Cranbrook coach Andy Weidenbach ended his career with a loss to Country Day. “It’s been fun,” he said.
Defense and goaltending were the themes of the night as two of the best teams in the state, Brother Rice and Brighton, battled to a 1-1 tie Wednesday night at the Kensington Valley Ice House.
Rice is ranked eighth in the Super 10 and fourth in Division 2 while Brighton is the top team in Division 4.
“We needed a game like that,” Brighton coach Paul Moggach told the Livingston Daily. “I thought we’ve been building towards it. It certainly sets us up in the position where we wanted to be going into the playoffs.”
The Bulldogs begin their quest for a third consecutive state championship next week when the playoffs begin.
Matteo Vitale made 29 saves for the Warriors and Harrison Fleming stopped 29 shots for the Bulldogs. Logan Mitchell Petitta scored for Brighton, and Ethan Nystrom got Brother Rice’s goal (power play). Both came in the second period.
Saginaw Heritage 4, Flint Powers Catholic 1: Parker Severson scored two goals and Jacob Best had a goal and an assist on Wednesday night at Saginaw Bay Ice Arena. Jack Jesko stopped 21 shots.
Saginaw Heritage is No. 3 in the Super 10 and second in Division 1. Flint Powers in fifth in the Super 10 and No. 8 in Division 3.
Livonia Stevenson 8, Warren DeLaSalle 0: Jaydon Spears and Ian Kimble each scored twice on Wednesday night at Livonia’s Eddie Edgar Arena. Josh Suzio had four assists, Mark Stefanick added three helpers and Ayden Adamic two assists. Eric Polzin (16 saves) and Jonah Heath (two saves) shared the shutout.
Livonia Stevenson is No. 3 in Division 2 and Warren De La Salle fourth in Division 3.
Utica Eisenhower 2, GP South 0: Andrew Grewette made 30 saves to earn the shutout and Jason Geiger scored both goals at Fraser Hockey Land on Wednesday night.
Utica Eisenhower is No. 12 in Division 1 and GP South 10th in Division 3.
Midland Dow 6, Bay Reps 0: Luke Blasy had two goals and an assist and Lucas Churchfield scored twice on Wednesday night at the Midland Civic Arena. Also scoring for Midland Dow were Austin Ieuter had a goal and two assists and Shane Astirke a goal and an assist. Goalies Mark Fishman (three saves) and Brandon Kovacevich (four stops) had to combine for only seven saves.
Midland Dow is No. 13 in Division 3 and the Bay Reps are 11th in Division 1.
Andreas Athanasiou skates with the puck through a sea of Senators in Thursday night’s game. Athanasiou scored twice in the 3-2 Detroit win.
Hartland goalie Brett Tome sprawls out to make a save against Brighton Wednesday night.
Copyright Hockey Weekly.
