St. Mary's cruises past Northville and into D-1 quarterfinal

By BENJAMIN SZILAGY
Special to The Oakland Press

LIVONIA – Orchard Lake St. Mary's dominated Northville, 9-3, Saturday night to capture the Division 1 regional championship at Eddie Edgar Ice Arena in Livonia.

“Our team is just so fired up when they come to the rink,” St Mary's head coach Brian Klanow said. “That desire did a lot, and really got us going.”

The Eaglets used that energy and excitement to swarm both sides of the puck to create and capitalize off of quality scoring chances, especially in the second period.

Already leading 2-0, St. Mary's utilized its special teams to put the game out of reach.

The Eaglets Connor Lyons – who ended up with a hat trick - and Luke Rodgers both scored power-play goals. Trevor Bardallis also contributed with a shorthanded goal of his own.

“It was a well-rounded game,” Klanow said. “We've been really working on our special teams a lot in practice and it's starting to pay off. We're putting pucks in the net and using our speed to kill power plays.”

St. Mary's capitalized off 3 of 6 power-play opportunities, while killing off six Mustang power plays as well.

Freshman Cody Milan – who had two goals and an assist – opened the period with a goal earned off a rebound from Ryan Foe.

The Mustangs' Ben Crabill scored two consecutive goals to close the period and chip away at St. Mary's 6-0 lead.

Trailing 8-2 after two goals from the Eaglets' Connor Lyons and Cody Milan, Cole Brown answered at the 6:17 mark for Northville.

Stephen Zorc scored twenty seconds later to seal the win for the Eaglets.

“Orchard Lake St. Mary's is just a really good team,” Northville head coach Jeff Hatley said. “It's just a hard loss for our team, especially our seniors. Being down five guys, it wasn't going to be easy.”

St. Mary's next faces Livonia Churchill – who beat Ann Arbor Pioneer 4-3 in overtime Saturday — in the MHSAA quarterfinal Tuesday at 7:30 at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube Arena.

“We have a good balance right now,” Klanow said. “So, we're going to have a good skate, and work on our special teams a bit because, ultimately, it's going to come down to that.”

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