By Brian Kalisher –
Temperatures are dropping, the holidays are approaching, and local rinks are gearing up to play host to their respective high school hockey teams for another season.
On Nov. 18 and 19, Novi Ice Arena held the 10th annual Metro High School Invitational. While holiday gifts will be unwrapped soon enough, the two-day high school hockey tournament – starting Friday and continuing into Saturday evening – was an opportunity for ten local teams to tear open their 2011-12 campaigns. After all, hockey season just wouldn’t be complete without a little school spirit thrown in. Five teams from the Kensington Lakes Activities Association and five from the Oakland Activities Association squared off – each club playing two games against clubs from the opposing association.
Recaps from some of Saturday’s games:
Livonia Churchill 5, Farmington 0 (Saturday)
Day 2 of the Metro High School Invitational began Saturday at 11:30 a.m. with a match-up between Livonia Churchill and Farmington. In their second convincing win in as many days, the Chargers posted a 5-0 win over the Falcons.
Churchill scored a combined 14 goals in their two tournament games, after recording a 9-2 win over Clarkston on Friday. Goaltender Alex Estes earned the shutout Saturday morning for the Chargers.
“I thought we got better as the game went on,” said Churchill Head Coach Pete Mazzoni. “I don’t know if we were really focused right out of the gate…I was real pleased with the way the game progressed.”
Farmington dropped to 0-2 in the two-day tournament, after losing their first game, 4-2, to Stevenson.
The Chargers failed to score on an early power-play opportunity, but found the back of the net on their second man-advantage chance a few minutes later. Defenseman Nick Proben scored on a scramble in front of the net with 8:33 left in the first to give his team the lead. Assists went to Ben Proben and Jake Otto.
Proben added the Chargers’ second goal, taking advantage of a failed clearing attempt by the Falcons. He walked in and fired it past goalie Jon Lethemon from the top of the circle. Jim Lelekatch picked up the lone assist.
The floodgates seemed to open for Churchill, when a few minutes later forward Mike Rybinski added to their lead. The puck trickled past the goaltender to give the Chargers a three-goal margin.
The Chargers padded their lead with two more goals – one more in the second and another in the third – from Mike Gambino and Brad Milks to clinch the victory.
Coach Mazzoni said he liked starting the season with the Metro Invitational.
“I like the concept of a little showcase weekend or whatever you want to call it,” Mazzoni said. “But more importantly, it gives us a couple games under our belt before we play Stevenson.”
“It’s good competition, good way to start, [you] find out a lot of things about your team.”
Farmington Hills North/Harrison 6, South Lyon Unified 4 (Saturday)
The Farmington Hills Flyers squared off with South Lyon Unified for a Saturday matinee on Day 2 of the Metro Invitational. The fans who sat through a scoreless first period were rewarded with ten goals between the teams in the next two periods, with Farmington Hills prevailing 6-4.
The win improved Farmington Hills’ record in the tournament to 2-0, after they posted a 3-2 win over the defending state champs from Novi on Friday.
“Our expectations are to compete for a league championship,” said Flyers Coach Ken Anderson after Friday’s win. “[We will] see what happens in the regionals, and see where we can go.”
South Lyon’s record dropped to 1-1. The unified squad posted a convincing 8-0 win over Rochester United on Friday.
The teams started the second period with plenty of intensity, and it wasn’t long before the score sheet started filling up. Farmington Hills could not capitalize on an early 5-on-3 opportunity, but opened the scoring with a shorthanded mark from Eric Stanis, set up by Justin Brereton.
South Lyon tied it up on the very next trip down the ice, seven seconds later, when captain Jared Vincek scored a power-play goal, assisted by Cameron Thomas. South Lyon wasn’t done there; Cameron Thomas netted one 32 seconds later to give his team the 2-1 lead.
At 14:53 of the second, Farmington Hills rushed the South Lyon net and shoved one past goalie Louis Carnevale, tying the game at two. The goal went to Michael Tobar, assisted by Eamon Devlin. The Flyers notched two more goals in the remaining 55 seconds of the period – a power-play goal from Reede Burnett and then a goal from Frank Awdish, who followed up on a two-on-one break. Farmington Hills took a 4-2 lead going into the third period.
South Lyon broke into Flyer territory with speed and roofed a shot 2:47 into the third period. Jeffrey Gunn had the goal, assisted by Colin Tittle. Minutes later, Brad Savard tied the game at four with a rebound goal for South Lyon; assists came from Troy Surdyk and Jeffrey Gunn.
Yet Farmington Hills managed to take control in the closing moments, scoring two more goals – one from Jake Ladouceur and the other from Eric Stanis – to ice the game.
Full list of Saturday scores:
Churchill 5, Farmington 0
FH North/Harrison 6, South Lyon 4
Stevenson 3, Lake Orion 2
Novi 4, Clarkston 3
Northville 4, Rochester United 1
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