St. Mary's hockey team stays hot against Brother Rice

By KEITH DUNLAP/The Oakland Press

OAK PARK — If the Orchard Lake St. Mary's boys hockey team was a movie, its plot would probably be lousy because there wouldn't be any main characters.

Fortunately in hockey, such a quandary is a good thing, because that means the Eaglets possess enough depth where any player can step up on a given night.

“We have a lot of good players,” St. Mary's head coach Brian Klanow said. “It's not a one-man team.”

Stepping up to the forefront on Tuesday were junior forwards Zak Thompson and Connor Lyons, who each had multiple-point outings to lead the Eaglets to a 3-2 win over rival Birmingham Brother Rice.

Thompson had two goals and an assist, while Lyons added a goal and assist for St. Mary's, which is currently ranked No. 3 in the state in Division 1.

St. Mary's has won 10 of its last 11 games and is now 12-5-1 on the season.

After Brother Rice took a 1-0 lead with 15:02 left in the second period on a goal by senior Joey Christie, who took a pass in front of the goal from teammate Andrew Sohn and buried the wide-open chance, Thompson tied the game at 1-1 on a goal with 11:17 left in the second on an assist from Lyons.

The two hooked up again to give St. Mary's a 2-1 lead with 2:38 remaining in the second. Thompson fired a shot from the point that was tipped home by Lyons to give the Eaglets their first lead of the game.

Brother Rice tied the game with 11:12 remaining in the game on a goal by senior Stephen Hibbard, but it didn't take long for Thompson to produce what was the eventual game-winner.

Just 53 seconds later, Thompson picked up a loose puck at the Brother Rice blue line and skated in all alone, scoring on the breakaway with 10:19 remaining to give the Eaglets a 3-2 lead.

Brother Rice pulled its goalie in the final minute and thought it had tied the game on a shot by Christie with 45 seconds remaining.

The Warriors thought Christie's shot hit some padding in the net just around the post and bounced out, but the referee ruled it hit the post instead. From there, the Eaglets hung on.

Junior goalie Joseph Janiga was solid in goal for the Eaglets, stopping 21 shots.

Those saves were a big reason why Brother Rice went 0-for-6 on the power play.

“We need to be a little more urgent on the power play,” Brother Rice head coach Lou Schmidt said. “But they were very effective. Their style is aggressive. They're aggressive on the forecheck and are aggressive on the penalty kill. They just force you to turn the puck over. We need to be a little bit more patient.''

While happy with how his team killed off the penalties, Klanow wasn't happy that those penalties were taken in the first place.

“We have to be a little bit smarter,” Klanow said. “We can't take penalties like that. We can't do that. Some of our top players took penalties tonight, and multiple penalties.”

Ranked No. 4 in the state in Division 2, Brother Rice fell to 9-6 on the season.

Even though the Warriors have played a brutal schedule, with four of the losses coming to Novi Detroit Catholic Central (twice), Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood and St. Mary's, Schmidt said the team should be well past the point of moral victories.

“We need to step it up a notch,” Schmidt said. “We're losing to all of them by a goal. I think we need to figure out a way to win those one-goal games.”

RCHARD LAKE ST. MARY 3, BIRMINGHAM BROTHER RICE 2

SM 0 2 1 — 3

BR 0 1 1 — 2

Second period: 1, BR, Joe Christie (Andrew Sohn); 2, SM, Zak Thompson (Conner Lyons); 2, SM, Conner Lyons (Thompson, Milan)

Third period: 3, BR, Steven Hibbard (Joe VanAntwarp, Jake Jazkolski); 4, SM, Zak Thomspon

Goalkeepers: BR, T.J. Bridges (22 saves); SM, Joe Janiga (21 saves)

RECORDS — Brother Rice 9-6

Prep Hockey

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