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1/21/07-Hockey
St. Mary's works OT to beat U-D
The West Bloomfield Eccentric
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ORCHARD LAKE--It seems no matter what the record of their opponent coming into a game, one thing Orchard Lake St. Mary's hockey team can be guaranteed of is the other team is gunning for them.
They all bring their best for the Eaglets, as was the case when University of Detroit Jesuit invaded the St. Mary's Athletic Complex Jan. 13 with a 2-10 record.
The Cubs pushed the Eaglets into overtime and it took junior Clinton Bourbonais' goal in the first minute of the extra session for St. Mary's to come away with a 4-3 victory and improve its record to 7-5-2. The Eaglets are ranked fifth in the state in Division 1.
As has been the pattern in many of their close games, the opposing goaltenders continue to save their best for the Eaglets, too. This time it was the Cubs' Mike Raymond, who made 41 saves before surrendering the winner 55 seconds into the scheduled eight minutes of overtime.
OLSM head coach Brian Klanow said when his team continues to outshoot opponents by a 2-to-1 margin or more (45-20 over U of D), it's frustrating to have to go down to the wire or into overtime to win.
"We're outplaying teams and playing hard, but we're just not finding the back of the net as much as we'd like," said Klanow. "And they get their first goal on a weird play where a puck going wide gets deflected in by our defense."
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On the game winner, Bourbonais was at the right side of the U of D net and fired a rebound over a fallen Raymond, who had already stopped three shots in the extra session with St. Mary's on a power play that carried over from regulation time.
U of D opened the scoring at 6:30 of the first period when Mike Yanis scored on assists from Nick Gibbs and Nolan Stempien. That woke up the Eaglets, who struck for two goals in the next two minutes. Senior Tony Aukskalnis lit the lamp from sophomore Shane Halaas at 7:25 followed by Colin Bloor's goal at 8:13 with assists to Charlie Semaan and Jon Falvo.
When a U of D penalty gave the Eaglets a good opportunity to go up 3-1, the Cubs turned the tables and tied it 2-2 on a shorthanded rush by Ian Monkman, who beat junior goalie Devon Carr, who stopped 17 shots on the night.
After a scoreless second period with the Eaglets outshooting the Cubs 16-5, St. Mary's scored a shorthanded goal of its own at 6:46 of the third period when Billy Balent and Bourbonais went up the ice on a 2-on-1 break. Bourbonais made a perfect pass to Balent for the goal with Falvo drawing a second assist.
Three minutes later, though, the pesky Cubs tied the game again with Stuart Copley converting a pass from Yanis.
"I'm not taking anything away from U of D because they play a very tough schedule being in the Michigan Interscholastic Hockey League (with Cranbrook, Brother Rice and Catholic Central)," Klanow said. "But you'd think we would have won that game sooner with all the chances we had.
"I think now we're our own worst enemy. We're not burying the opportunities we're getting. When that happens, I hope they come in bunches."
St. Mary's returns to action Wednesday at Cranbrook-Kingswood, which is ranked first in the state in Division 3.
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