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12/6/06-Hockey
St. Mary's icers go 2-1 in season-opening games
Hockey Weekly
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Orchard Lake St. Mary's opened the High School hockey season by splitting a pair of one-goal games against Catholic League rivals and then pulling away from Grosse Pointe North in their third contest in eight days.
The Eaglets kicked off the season at home Nov. 18 in the first of what could be several battles this season with Detroit Novi Catholic Central. The Shamrocks upended the Eaglets, 3-2, who then rebounded to defeat Dearborn Divine Child, 1-0, at U-M Dearborn Nov. 22. On Nov. 25, the Eaglets skated over the visiting Norsemen, 8-4.
In the opener, Catholic Central and St. Mary's traded goals in the first and second periods for a 2-2 tie (Jeff Scherrer and Michael Bourgon for CC and Tim Hooker with a pair for the Eaglets). CC broke the tie when Scherrer scored his second power-play goal with 7:13 left. Scherrer also added an assist for a three-point night.
In the last two minutes, the Eaglets had a power play opportunity to break the tie, but a charging penalty with 54 seconds to play negated the man-advantage. St. Mary's pulled goalie Joe Savona with 48 seconds on the clock, but the Eaglets could not put the puck past Shamrock goalie Drew Duff again.
Savona made 24 saves on the night, while Duff had 20.
The two teams are scheduled to meet again at Compuware Arena in Plymouth on Dec. 8. The teams played four times a year ago with Catholic Central winning at St. Mary's twice, including the Catholic League Champion-ship.
The Eaglets, though, won at Compuware and then took the Division 1 Regional final title at the Detroit Skate Club. The two teams could possibly meet four times again this year.
At Divine Child, St. Mary's senior captain Brandon Kozlowski scored the game's lone goal while on a penalty kill in the final period with 4:26 to play. The shot ruined a nearly flawless performance by Falcons goalie Jeff Cain, who faced 49 shots total to 15 fired at Savona , who earned the shutout victory. Cain also received some help from the goal posts as St. Mary's clanged four shots off the posts in the second.
Kozlowski's goal was set up by Eaglet defenseman Charlie Semaan whose pass sent Kozlowski on a breakaway, and a shot that went over Cain's right shoulder.
In its third game, St. Mary's junior Kasper Bryniczka scored three goals, two in the first period, and Semaan had a goal and three assists in the win at home. The Eaglets (2-1-0) came out of the locker room flying in the first period, scoring six goals on 11 shots, three even-strength, two short-handed, and one on a power play.
The Norseman (0-1-0) managed three goals on 10 shots, the final goal on a power play with four seconds left in the period to make it 6-3 after 15 minutes. Bryniczka and Kozlowski scored goals early in the first period, followed by short-handed goals by Clinton Bourbonais and Billy Balent before the period halfway mark.
Norsemen starting goalie Eric Rohrkemper was pulled at the 9:01 mark and replaced by backup Michael Rahaim.
Rohrkemper returned later and finished the game in goal.
The second period saw the Eaglets bombard the Norsemen with 24 shots for two goals, both on power plays, the first by Bryniczka unassisted, his third of the night, and then Semaan's blast. The Norsemen only managed one shot on goal for the period, at 9:23 on a power play that found its way past goalie Savona . OLSM Coach Brian Klanow replaced Savona at that point with junior Devon Carr, who finished the period without facing a single shot, but he stopped all nine fired at him in the final period to preserve the victory.
St. Mary's head coach Brian Klanow said of his team's 2-1 start that they played well, but learned a lot about themselves.
I think it's always tough to start against a team like CC, he said.It was a good game because it helps us to see where flaws are that you don't see in practice. It helps us prepare for the next time we see them.
In the second game, we made some necessary adjustments and the team skated and moved the puck a lot better and used our forecheck a lot better. We still have a lot of work to reach our ultimate goal to be in the best shape we can be in going into the playoffs.
The Eaglets were to travel Dec. 2-3, to Indiana to play Culver Military Academy before their next match-up with CC.
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