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3/9/2008-Hockey
St. Mary's skates into D-1 hockey final
By Mike Rosenbaum of The West Bloomfield Eccentric
PLYMOUTH--One hot goalie who's only played half the season, plus two goals from a defensive-minded forward, added up to victory for Orchard Lake St. Mary's on Friday.
Junior forward Andrew Cloonan scored twice while senior goalie Ryan Morley-Stockton stopped all 19 Clarkston shots to give the defending-champion Eaglets a 2-0 victory in Friday's Division 1 semifinal, played at Plymouth's Compuware Arena.
"Tonight we played good, but we can play better," said St. Mary's coach Brian Klanow after Friday's contest. The Eaglets out-shot Clarkston, 36-19, but the great majority of shots for both teams came from the outside.
"They played us very tight," Klanow said. "We had a lot of opportunities, but they kept coming at us."
There were few scoring chances in a tight-checking first period. With the Wolves on the game's first power play, Cloonan stole the puck at his blue line and skated into Clarkston's zone down the right wing. He sent a rolling wrister toward the net that seemed to fool Wolves' goalie Garrett Knappe. Knappe reached for the puck with his stick and deflected it behind him into the net.
Klanow agreed that the goal proved the old hockey axiom that it's never a bad move to put the puck on net.
"That's what we always say," Klanow acknowledged. "We say, 'If you've got nothing to do with it, especially on the penalty kill like that...just keep throwing the puck to the net, because things happen.'"
By contrast with the opening frame, there were plenty of scoring chances, but no goals, in the faster-paced second period. St. Mary's carried much of the play and peppered Knappe with 21 shots, though most were from long range.
Morley-Stockton had to be sharp in the period's first minute when he stopped Tyler Frakes' quick shot from the slot off a Clarkston rush.
St. Mary's best chance came five minutes into the period when Jordan Kieltyka passed from behind the net to Nick Czinder in the slot, but Knappe went low to stop Czinder's quick wrister.
The Eaglets out-shot Clarkston 21-8 in the frame for a two-period advantage of 28-14.
Cloonan's goal held up through most of the third period, even as Clarkston tried to forecheck more aggressively. Late in the period Brandon Krefski's shot from the point was deflected wide, but the puck went to Cloonan, who buried it with 1:28 remaining in the game.
Cloonan, who skates on a line with higher-scoring forwards Tim Hooker and Aaron Schneider, entered Friday's game with just two goals this season, although Klanow emphasized that Cloonan's worth to the Eaglets isn't measured in goals or assists.
"He's a very good player for us," Klanow said. "He plays with a (scoring) line and he really takes on the defensive side of that line. He plays that third man high, he takes that upon himself to take that role. But tonight he was in the right place at the right time. He's on our third set of penalty killing. He's a junior for us and we expect him to come back next year and be one of our leaders."
Morley-Stockton, a transfer who had to sit out the first half of the season, shared time with fellow netminders Devon Carr and Chris Sullivan prior to the state tournament. Morley-Stockton started the pre-regional opener and shut out Bloomfield Hills Unified. Sullivan started the next two games, defeating Birmingham Unified but falling behind Northville, 2-0, in the regional final March 2. Morley-Stockton then entered the game and shut the Mustangs down as the Eaglets rallied for a 3-2 victory. The senior also started the quarterfinal contest, a 6-1 victory over Ann Arbor Pioneer.
After Friday's victory, however, Morley-Stockton deflected any praise as deftly as he'd turned aside Clarkston's shots.
"Defense is playing really well in front of me," he said. "They're clearing everything out, controlling the puck, and I'm putting the rebounds to the corners."
Klanow was more expansive about his netminder's play.
"We've known that Ryan's a very good goalie," Klanow said. "He had a bit of a slump period there, which all players, all athletes go through. I think it was a good thing for him to be able to come in against a good team like Northville and just shut them right down. His confidence level's real high right now. We know his ability...All three of our goalies are very good. We don't question their ability. We just need to know which one is (hot) right now. It's the nature of the beast, the nature of that position. And Ryan's done a fantastic job."
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