Hockey News Hockey News
News | Roster | Schedules--Results | Archives
1/24/07-Hockey
St. Mary's edges U of D Jesuit, 4-3, in OT
By Byron Copley of Hockey Weekly
 |
ORCHARD LAKE--Turns out that the third time was the charm for Orchard Lake St Mary's senior forward Clinton Bourbonais.
The charm: A dramatic game-winning, overtime power-play goal over U of D Jesuit, after his third of three attempts finally found net rather than Mike Raymond's goalie equipment.
“He stopped me twice, but I finally put the puck up high,” said Bourbonais of the game winner.
He was hovering unguarded over Raymond when he accepted a pass from Kasper Bryniczka, and Bourbonais tried to rid the puck from his stick, but it just kept returning, until he found the vacant upstairs gap that Raymond had surrendered. The goal occurred just 1:07 after the overtime face off, and the Cubs never touched the puck in the extra session.
“They could not keep up with our speed,” said Bourbonais. “But they played good position and they played their system real well.”
Certainly well enough to have kept up with the Eaglets on the scoreboard, since the goal differential was never higher than one either way. In fact, initially, it was St. Mary's that was playing catch-up after the Cubs' Mike Yanis opened the scoring at the 8:30 mark of the first period with help from Nolan Stempin and Nick Gibbs.
Bourbonais, however, knotted the contest at 1-1 less than a minute later and Colin Bloor staked the Eaglets to their first lead barely a minute after Bourbonais' goal. So, in the span of less than two minutes, the score stood at 2-1 St. Mary's.
The Cubs were accustomed to grabbing and then surrendering leads to top-five state-ranked opponents: 1-0 over Catholic Central (4-1 loss), 2-0 over Grosse Pointe South (7-3 loss) and now this affair, which teetered on the brink of becoming ugly, since the Eaglets gained a man advantage before the go-ahead goal was even announced.
 |
Then U of D freshman Ian Monkman, who stands all of five feet and change with his skates on, hopped on a flubbed puck at the blueline and skittered, breakaway style, in alone on St. Mary's Devon Carr. And, of course, he scored to tie the game. Curiously, no one on the Eaglets' power-play unit got within a stick's length of him at any time. Turns out that his goal was a third-time charmer as well, since Monkman had been stopped twice previously in earlier games in identical circumstances. So, after four goals in four minutes, the first period ended even at two.
“We didn't play real well in the first period,” said St. Mary's coach Brian Klanow. “But I thought that we played real well in the second period. And we played shorthanded for most of the third period, and that's a flaw with my team that we need to address.”
True enough, since St. Mary's racked up eight consecutive penalties at one point.
No goals were scored in the second, and the Eaglets outshot the Cubs 16-5.
“Their goalie played real well,” added Klanow.
Nothing got past either goalie, in fact, until the 9:15 mark of the third, when Billy Balent scored a shorthanded goal to reclaim the lead for St. Mary's and administer the apparent knockout punch. Bourbonais assisted on that one, his second of three points for the game.
But the Cubs, rather than retiring to their corner, came out and answered the bell when senior Stuart Copley cut a swath through the Eaglets' zone, keeping the puck to his left side the entire time before he fired a cross-grainer from the left circle that nicked the bar on the way in. Ding dong, tie game again. And it remained tied to the end of regulation.
The decision to play the extra session was made on the spot. It was initiated by Klanow and agreed to by U of D's head coach Rick Bennetts, even though the Cubs had a man in the box for another 1:16.
“I'd rather lose in overtime than tie in regulation,” said Bennetts. “Man down or not. And the kids wanted to play.”
With nine seconds left in that penalty, Bourbonais ended the game and, as Raymond huddled in a puddle of despair, the Eaglets celebrated.
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.