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12/9/07-Hockey
Sullivan stars for OLSM in OT win
By KEN PACZAS/Special to The Oakland Press
PLYMOUTH--In hockey, a hot goaltender can turn around a season for a team.
After losing two of its first four games, Orchard Lake St. Mary's was looking for something to get it going in the right direction.
Enter Eaglet goaltender Chris Sullivan.
Sullivan made 43 saves and Tim Hooker scored in overtime to lead St. Mary's to a 2-1 victory over rival Novi Catholic Central Saturday night.
After exchanging scoring chances for much of the overtime, Hooker deflected Nick Czinder's shot into the net for the win.
"It's a good win for us," Eaglet head coach Brian Klanow said. "This team is a work in progress. We are very young and we need totake advantage of the other team's mistakes. We made some plays tonight."
Down 1-0, Central (4-2, 2-1 Catholic League) was finally able to break past Sullivan's wall when Louis Lemak hit a slap shot in with 8:08 left in regulation to tie the game and force overtime. The Shamrocks outshot the Eaglets 44-16, but every time they had a scoring chance, Sullivan made a big play for St. Mary's.
"We got a great game out of our goaltender, " Klanow said. "Shots are shots, but if you look at good scoring opportunities, we were about even. We had our chances to open the game and we have to work on getting better."
The Shamrocks came out fast in the first period, using their speed to control the puck. Their fiery attack led to seven shots in the game's first three minutes, but Sullivan stood tall for the Eaglets, refusing to let a single shot in.
The Eaglets then took advantage of a Shamrock error, to get past their defense where Billy Balent scored to put St. Mary's up 1-0. Central continued their attack in the second period, but once again failed to capitalize. Greg Merrill had an open look at the net with 6:20 left, but Sullivan made a kick save to preserve the lead. Then with less than two minutes to play, Kyle Nelson and Jimmy Botti both missed wide right on back-to-back plays.
"The first time we play, the game was a lot different," Klanow said. "They were able to score five goals and we failed to stop them. Central is a very well coached team with a lot of talent and we know every time we play them, we expect this type of battle."
St. Mary's now hopes this win will jumpstart its season.
"We just want to get better," Klanow said. "The good thing is our kids know they have to get better. We have to keep working in practice and trying to improve. With a young team every practice matters and we have to take advantage of the time we have."
St. Mary's will try to improve its record to 4-2 on Wednesday night when it takes on Detroit Jesuit.
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