Hockey News Hockey News
News | Roster | Schedules--Results | Archives
3/8/2008-Hockey
Eaglets playing title defense
By ROB TATE/Special to The Oakland Press
PLYMOUTH--It will be a rematch for the MHSAA Division 1 hockey state championship.
Orchard Lake St. Mary's played lights-out defense Friday night in the semifinals, as the Eaglets skated away with a 2-0 victory over Clarkston at Compuware Arena and will play Marquette tonight, a team which the Eaglets beat last year in the state finals.
OLSM will take on Marquette for all the marbles tonight at 7 p.m. at Compuware Arena in the Division 1 finals, a game Brian Klanow is looking forward to.
"I am looking forward to a rematch," the eighth-year OLSM head coach said. "We have to come out (tonight) playing three full periods and that's what I'm looking for them to do."
OLSM goaltender Ryan Morley-Stockton is playing his best hockey lately as he earned the victory and the shutout. He sat out a semester and joined the team midseason after transferring to OLS (15-12-2).
"The defense has been playing really well in front of me," Morley-Stockton said of his team's success during the playoffs. "They've been clearing everything out, controlling the puck and I've been putting the rebounds in the corners."
Morley-Stockton has only given up six goals in his team's five playoff games.
OLSM junior forward Andrew Cloonan found the back of the net with 5:44 left in the first period.
With Eaglet co-captain Billy Balent serving time in the penalty box, the Eaglets cleared the puck on the right wing. Cloonan had one defender to beat, and he slipped the puck past the goaltender on a slight deflection off a Clarkston defenseman.
Clarkston (11-16-2) tried to respond, but OLSM goaltender Morley-Stockton brushed aside nice chances by Dan Smith and Tyler Frakes to keep the Wolves off the scoreboard.
In the second period, Clarkston goaltender Garrett Knappe literally turned into the human target. OLSM just pelted shots constantly, but Knappe stood strong, knocking all 21 shots that came his way in the period.
After a Frakes shot was pushed aside in the first minute of the second period, the Eaglets began their onslaught.
Billy Balent, Dane Muller, Nick Czinder, Brandon Krefski each hammered shots away on Knappe in the first three minutes, but Knappe just wouldn't give in.
Balent, OLSM leading scorer on the season with 16 goals, had another excellent chance with 7:07 to go in the period, as he nearly slipped one on the ice past Knappe's pad.
After going a man down with 3:15 left in the period, Clarkston tried to capitalize with a short-handed goal of its own as Aaron Podbielski slipped past the Eaglet defender for a 1-on-1 opportunity on Morley-Stockton, but was denied.
Cloonan, a junior second-line forward for the Eaglets, got the only other goal with 1:28 remaining, as his rebound was knocked in the back of the net by a Clarkston player.
The two goals by Cloonan on the night match his season total.
"He is a very good player for us," Klanow said. "He plays on a line where he really takes the defensive side. Tonight he was in the right place at the right time."
Copyright 2008, St. Mary's Preparatory, Orchard Lake, Michigan. All rights reserved.
No logos, photographs, or graphics on the site may be reproduced without written permission.