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3/6/2008-Hockey
Eaglets advance once again
By KEN PACZAS/Special to The Oakland Press
ANN ARBOR--Orchard Lake St. Mary's boys hockey team has been here before. Just last year the Eaglets knocked off hot goaltenders and opponents on their way to a state championship.
Heading into the quarterfinals, many people wondered what the Eaglets had left after a close call in the regional round. Billy Balent and the rest of the Eaglets put those questions to rest, playing an aggressive, up-tempo style to knock off Ann Arbor Pioneer, 6-1, and advance to the Division 1 state semifinals.
In the third period, with St. Mary's hanging on to a two-goal lead, goalie Ryan Morley-Stockton made save after save to protect the lead.
With 7:59 to go, Chard Tickner had an open shot for Pioneer, but Morley-Stockton made an impressive pad save.
Then in the next two minutes, Tim Hooker scored twice and Mike Szmatala added another goal for the Eaglets to blow the game wide open.
"(Morley-Stockton) is a good goaltender," St. Mary's head coach Brian Klanow said. "He is in a rhythm right now. He has had his good games for us but then he went into a slump like all goalies do. We are fortunate that he is really peaking at the right time."
St. Mary's got on the board early, when Cody King found the puck in front of Pioneer's net and put it in to take an early 1-0 lead. For the rest of the period it was all Morley-Stockton, who made nine saves in the period.
"We play the best when we hit our opponents," Klanow said. "Today I think we went after them right from the start and played physical and it then opened things up for our offense."
In the second period things began to get interesting, as the Eaglets came out aggressive, sending six quality shots towards the net in the period's first two minutes. Unfortunately the Eaglets weren't able to turn those into goals.
Ann Arbor Pioneer needed just one quality shot to score and got that opportunity with 12:28 left in the period when Max Carlson scored.
St. Mary's then found an answer to the hot goaltending of Pioneer goalies Blake Steward. With 6:08 to go, Max Uhrin scored to take back the lead for the Eaglets. Then, less than a minute later, Aaron Schneider scored to open up a 3-1 lead.
"We still have to play better," Klanow said. "We need to tighten things up in our overall game if we want to keep advancing. We played well today, but we can play better."
Balent had two assists in the victory while teammate Mike Szmatala had two assists to go along with his goal as well. Pioneer was led by Steward, who made 23 saves in the loss. Geoff Swanson and Chi Won Park also added assists for the Pioneers in the loss.
The Eaglets now hope to continue their quest for back-to-back state championships when they go to battle Clarkston (11-15-2) in the semifinals at 8:30 p.m. on Friday at Compuware Ice Arena in Plymouth.
"The hay is in the barn," Klanow said. "We have one practice left and that is it. We just need to tighten up some loose ends and play how we know we are capable of playing."
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