Hockey News Hockey News
News | Roster | Schedules--Results | Archives
2/11/07-Hockey
Balent and Bourbonais lead St. Mary's past Birmingham Unified
By Jeff Stearns
TRENTON--Orchard Lake St. Mary's rebounded from a tough loss on Friday to East Kentwood to beat Birmingham Unified 4-1 as the dynamic duo of Billy Balent and Clinton Bourbonais led the way.
Balent scored two goals and assisted on two others and Bourbonais assisted on the two goals by Balent and on another by Mac Watts.
Birmingham Unified's Alex Silvestros scored on BU's first shot on goal just 96 seconds into the game, assisted by Alex Solomon and Pat Hotaling. That proved to be the wake-up call the Eaglets needed as they dominated the period from that point.
With Shane Halaas in the penalty box for an interference call, Bourbonais stole the puck from BU's power play unit, and fed a streaking Balent who scored the tying goal shorthanded at 10:03. The Eaglets outshot BU 14-8 for the period won 18 of 23 faceoffs.
Both teams spent most of the second period in the penalty box, but at 10:11, Eaglet defenseman Mac Watts scored a power play goal off assists from Bourbonais and Balent. The Eaglets again outshot BU 10-5. The highlight of the period was a 5-on-3 penalty kill by the Eaglets that lasted 1:45. This proved to be so frustrating that at its' conclusion, BU forward David Williams was sent to the penalty box for slashing.
St. Mary's dominated the final period in all aspects, scoring two power play goals, the first, a 5-on-3, at 8:29 by Shane Halaas, assisted by Balent, and again at 5:35 by Balent, assisted by Bourbonais and Charlie Semaan. The Eaglets outshot BU 13-3 for the period and 36-17 for the game.
BU came into the weekend with a record of 10-3-4, and left 10-5-4, losing to Traverse City West, 4-2, on Friday, and to St. Mary's.
St. Mary's (10-9-4) now prepares to meet No. 1 in Division 2 Birmingham Brother Rice at 12:00 pm on Saturday, February 17, in the runner-up game of the Catholic League Championships.
Copyright 2007, St. Mary's Preparatory, Orchard Lake, Michigan. All rights reserved.
No logos, photographs, or graphics on the site may be reproduced without written permission.