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3/4/07-Hockey
St. Mary's ends home-team hex
No. 8 Eaglets beat No. 3 Shamrocks for regional crown
By KEITH DUNLAP Of The Oakland Press
ORCHARD LAKE--The unthinkable actually happened between Orchard Lake St. Mary's and Novi Detroit Catholic Central on Saturday.
The home team actually won a game.
In nine previous meetings between the teams, spread over the last four seasons, the home team hadn't come away victorious.
St. Mary's couldn't have picked a better time to end the home-team hex, scoring two goals in the first period and getting strong goaltending from senior Joe Savona to record a 2-0 win over Catholic Central in a Division 1 state boys hockey tournament regional final.
Ranked No. 8 in the state, the Eaglets eliminated No. 3 Catholic Central from the playoffs for the second straight year and advanced to a quarterfinal against Northville at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at the Ice Cube in Ann Arbor.
"We knew we had to change that and get that monkey off our back," St. Mary's head coach Brian Klanow said. "This was the first time we've ever beaten them in our barn. It was a good day to do it."
The Eaglets did the Shamrocks in mainly through their special teams, as St. Mary's scored both its goals on the power play and killed off six Catholic Central power plays.
St. Mary's opened the scoring with 8:41 remaining in the first on a goal by senior Steve Tallman, who scored after his shot hit a Catholic Central defenseman in front of the net and went in.
The Eaglets then made it 2-0 just 30 seconds later when sophomore Shane Halaas deflected a shot by Clinton Bourbonais from the point that went into the goal.
From then on, St. Mary's played a very responsible defensive game, limiting the Shamrocks to 21 shots on goal for the game, conducting a clinic on how to protect a lead.
When that plan broke down, Savona was there to save the day. Savona stopped a breakaway opportunity in the first period and made three point-blank saves in the third period when Catholic Central desperately tried to rally.
"For the most part, we stayed out of the box," Klanow said. "We had a few (penalties), but our penalty kill was extremely strong tonight. Our goaltending was strong when we needed it to be and I think the better team won tonight."
Senior Andrew Duff was also strong in net for the Shamrocks, making 22 saves in a losing effort.
Unfortunately for Catholic Central, it was deja vu from last year's regional final with St. Mary's. Just like Saturday, Catholic Central fell behind 2-0 and couldn't rally.
"They had a good plan when they got a two-goal lead," Catholic Central head coach Todd Johnson said. "After that, they were able to trap us down. They did a great job with that. It was the perfect recipe for them and what we did not want to happen. It's frustrating. They played good and deserved to win."
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