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3/13/07-Hockey
Bourbonais leads Eaglets to second title
By Mike Rosenbaum of The West Bloomfield Eccentric
Brian Klanow didn't stop coaching his St. Mary's players, even after his Eaglets completed their season by winning the Division 1 championship game Saturday.
At the post-game press conference, St. Mary's junior Clinton Bourbonais – the only Eaglet remaining from the school's 2005 Division 3 championship team – was asked to compare the two titles.
Bourbonais, who took a regular shift, but wasn't a key scorer as a freshman in 2005 began, “It's no comparison. I wasn't a big part of that team…”
“Yes you were!” interrupted Klanow, emphatically.
Bourbonais then corrected himself.
“I was a bigger part this year,” he said. “So it means a lot more this year.”
Bourbonais expanded on his answer later, saying his role this season was “real different. Kids look up to you. I was in a place (in 2005) where I was looking up to the older kids and wanting to be them. And I'm that guy this year. And it's flattering how people look up to me and look at what I do and they feed off it.”
There's no question that Bourbonais was a key factor in St. Mary's championship this season. He was particularly effective firing low drives from the blue line on the power play. His shots led to a deflected goal, scored by Shane Halaas, in the Eaglets' 2-0 regional final victory over Catholic Central, then to direct power play goals in the quarterfinal and final games. His biggest goal, of course, was the double-overtime winner in Friday's semifinal game.
“Something got into me,” Bourbonais said. “It must've been playoff fever.”
SO CLOSE
St. Mary's entered the state tournament with a less-than-imposing 10-9-5 record. But Klanow told everyone and anyone who would listen that the Eaglets' record was no indication of their ability. The tournament results, of course, proved him correct.
Six of St. Mary's defeats came by one goal, while a pair of 5-3 losses each included an empty-net goal.
“We played two poor games all season,” Klanow said. “This team's played well all year…We were out-shooting teams 52-13 and losing. And that happens, and that adversity helped this team grow. And it just made these guys better hockey players. That prepared us for that overtime (Friday) night. That game could've went either way. But because we faced so much of that early on, I think the experience helped them.”
That doesn't mean the Eaglets were at their best all season long, however. Klanow continually tinkered with every part of his lineup, other than goalie Joe Savona.
“We made adjustments all year long,” Klanow said. “We made adjustments right up through our first game of the state tournament.”
The key change, he said, was to balance St. Mary's offense by separating possibly his most talented offensive players.
“Splitting Billy (Balent) and Clinton (Bourbonais) up just added more depth and really solidified the offense. We had three lines that could go out there and score at any given time, rather than where we had one or two. So we just spread things out and there was a lot of parity across the board.”
Another key change was moving forward Brandon Kozlowski to defense, giving the Eaglets a solid top four defense corps, along with Mac Watts, Dan Stanisz and Jon Falvo.
“This is the most talented team, as far as team goes (from top to bottom), that I've had,” Klanow said.
BRICK WALL
St. Mary's goalie Joe Savona permitted just three goals in the Eaglets' final four games, a goals-against average of 0.72.
Savona credited his teammates, saying, “our defense was incredible the last five games.”
But Marquette coach Joe Papin said the main difference between his team's 8-2 semifinal victory Friday and the 4-2 loss to St. Mary's Saturday, was Savona's play.
“Sometimes they go in, sometimes they don't,” Papin said. “They all went in, in our semifinal game, and tonight they just didn't. And that's a tribute to Orchard Lake's goaltender, I thought he played very solid.”
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