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12/30/06-Hockey
Trojans beat Eaglets to take title
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BY JAMES COOK OF THE RECORD-EAGLE
TRAVERSE CITY — When Tyler Stricker emerged from the locker room after Traverse City Central's dramatic 4-3 double overtime victory in the championship game of the TC Central Invitational, he had a little extra hardware.
Everyone on the team received medals, but Stricker came away with a bright yellow hard hat.
Each game, the plastic helmet goes to the player deemed that day's MVP .
Picking the wearer on Friday was an easy choice for Trojans coach Chris Givens.
Central's senior goaltender made a career-high 51 saves as the Trojans dropped Orchard Lake St. Mary's as the only thing the Eaglets won was the shots on goal battle — by a commanding 54-18 margin.
"We sure didn't do it the easy way, did we?” Givens said. "To get outshot that bad and still win is amazing. Tyler stood on his head.”
Then it's a good thing he has that extra helmet.
"It didn't show in the shots, but we were battling hard,” Stricker said. "It was a good team win.”
Stricker had 33 saves combined in the tourney's first two games.
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It's been awhile since Central (7-2-1) has won its own tourney, and fittingly, it took a little extra while to get it — 15:41.8, to be exact.
The Trojans haven't won the holiday invitational since it expanded from six teams at Howe Arena to eight squads at Centre ICE five years ago.
Alex Homant backhanded the rebound of a Cam Brown shot with 18.2 seconds left in the second overtime, with Dane Macdonell picking up an assist.
"I knew Cam was going to shoot and I went to net the net,” Homant said. "It banked off the goalie and I got to it.”
The Eaglets (5-5-2) lost to a Traverse City team for the second time this season — both when outshooting the opponent. St. Mary's lost 3-2 to TC West on Dec. 15 despite a 34-25 advantage in shots.
"It happens,” St. Mary's coach Brian Klanow said of the Central matchup. "We were certainly putting it to them and their goalie came up with some big saves. We were just pressure, pressure, pressure, pressure, and the puck takes an odd bounce and they put it in. Good teams find a way to win.”
Central scored the winning goal with two seconds left on a power play that resulted from a Colin Bloor trip of Trojan defenseman Luke Stricker. It was also Central's only shot generated on that power play, to two for the Eaglets.
The win should move Central farther up the Division 2 coaches poll, where it currently sits at No. 6. Orchard Lake was No. 2 in Division 1, losing the top ranking after its loss to West.
Orchard Lake forced overtime in dramatic fashion, scoring with 11.9 seconds left after burning off 1:28 of 5-on-3 and having just the final 33 seconds of the game to score the tying goal. Jon Falvo scored on a rebound of Mac Watts' shot to tie the game at 3-3.
"We felt we had it won in regulation and then we lost the draw and didn't cover the slot,” Givens said. "Then we knew it was going to be an ugly one.”
Central went up 3-2 with 3:10 left in regulation when Sean Fernandez blocked a shot at the blue line and came away with the puck for a one-on-none break and beat Joe Savona with a backhand.
Falvo knotted the score at 2-2 with 8:07 left in regulation. The Eaglets scored the game's first goal, getting a Clinton Bouronais score with 1:48 left in the first period. St. Mary's outshot Central 11-2 in that period.
"We just kept believing and bearing down,” Homant said. "We didn't look at shots on goal, we looked at goals.”
Justin Sterk evened the game 4:52 into the second, as the Trojans took advantage of a turnover in the neutral zone. Eric Swy found Homant streaking up the right side and Sterk came off the bench when Travis Clary's tripping penalty expired and joined the rush for a two-on-none breakaway. Homant patiently waited until Savona committed and slid a pass over to Sterk, who roofed a shot into the net.
Central went up 2-1 on Shane Darrow's backhand rebound off a shot by Swy with 3:15 left in the second period. The goal came nine seconds into a 5-on-3 power play.
"We set goals at the beginning of the season and this was one of our team goals,” Homant said. "It's a big win because there were a lot of good teams here. (Orchard Lake) is a tough team. They are going to go far.”
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