2 weeks Ago
ROCHESTER HILLS – The Stoney Creek Cougars and Rochester United played to a 3-3 tie in their annual Thanksgiving Eve contest before a packed house. “As the game wore on, it was just back and forth. Both teams trying to grind out a win.
That’s the best part of these rivalry games. How good is high school hockey? That was awesome,” United head coach Tucker Penning said. “The atmosphere – the band playing, the student sections going back and forth – that’s what all this is about.
The kids enjoy playing in that moment, and there is not a better atmosphere in my mind in the area than this.” Trailing 3-2, the Cougars tied the game with exactly eight minutes to play when Alex Jackson jammed in a rebound in the slot for a power play goal. Related Articles High School Sports | Seaholm shows resolve despite falling to Bloomfield Hills in Spenser Adams’ head coaching debut High School Sports | Photo gallery of Birmingham Seaholm vs.
Bloomfield Hills in OAA White boys basketball action High School Sports | SWIM FINALS ROUNDUP: West Bloomfield’s Eichbrecht cleans up in 200, 500 freestyle again; Marian comes runner-up in D3 High School Sports | Photos from Chippewa Valley United’s win over Troy United on Saturday High School Sports | Chippewa Valley United beats Troy United for first win of new season Neither team was able to score in the overtime, though both goalies had to come up with big saves in the final minute to preserve the tie. “I like how we battled back. We competed throughout the entire game, including overtime.
So credit to our guys too, and credit to them as well. It was overall a good game for the community,” Cougars head coach Steve Emery said. The Cougars had also started fast.
Andrew Ziehm got the Cougars on the board just 1:38 into the game when he raced down the right side and fired a shot from inside the right faceoff circle that the goalie only got a piece of before it trickled over the line. Dylan Smith scored a shorthanded goal with 2:04 to play in the first period on what was otherwise a carbon copy of Ziehm’s goal, and Stoney Creek took a 2-0 lead into the break despite Rochester United having the better of the zone time and outshooting the Cougars 9-4 in the period. But Rochester United showed some grit of their own in the second period, battling back with a three-goal period, led by the play of Greyson Hizer, who factored into all three of Rochester United’s goals.
T.J. Maguet started United’s comeback with 10:12 on the clock when he redirected a pass from the point by Mason McCaughtry to make it 2-1.
Hizer picked up the secondary assist on that play, and just under two minutes later, he got a goal on a breakaway to tie the game. After a puck hit Hizer on the shoulder near his own blue line, it popped high into the air and landed in Stoney Creek’s zone. Hizer won the race to the puck, cut across the face of goal, and deposited the puck into the back of the net to tie the game.
Hizer then sprang Brayden Buckler on a breakaway for a go-ahead goal with just 20.3 seconds to play in the middle period as Buckler took the pass, dangled the puck for a moment, then beat the goalie with a backhanded shot. “I’m proud of my guys.
I think the biggest thing I take away is the fact that we’re such a young group and we were down 2-0 at the end of the first period, and we came out and were able to take that lead back,’ Penning said. “That’s the big takeaway for me and a testament to the guys’ character in the room.” But overall, neither team was able to sustain any clear run in shots, even when they were able to get zone time.
There was very little room to skate for either team, and both teams were blocking shots, clogging the slot, and generally making it hard for anyone to get a clean shot through to the goaltender. Photo gallery of Stoney Creek vs. Rochester United in OAA hockey action /*! This file is auto-generated */!function(d,l){"use strict";l.
querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&"undefined"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.
wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.
wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.
secret||t.message||t.value)&&!/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.
test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.
secret+'"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),c=new RegExp("^https?:$","i"),i=0;i
length;i++)o[i].style.display="none";for(i=0;i
length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.
removeAttribute("style"),"height"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.
height=r):"link"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute("src")),n=new URL(t.
value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.
host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.
top.location.href=t.
value))}},d.addEventListener("message",d.wp.
receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll("iframe.
wp-embedded-content"),r=0;r
random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.
src+="#?secret="+t,e.setAttribute("data-secret",t)),e.contentWindow.
postMessage({message:"ready",secret:t},"*")},!1)))}(window,document); “A game like this, if you can’t get up for Stoney and RU and block shots for the guy next to you, then you don’t deserve to play in a game like this. I’m honestly happy that both teams are willing to do it for each other. It’s a testament to both teams’ character,” Emery said.
Stoney Creek (3-1-2) will have a bit over a week off before facing the M1 Griffins in an OAA Red matchup next week. Rochester United (2-1-1) faces Birmingham Unified next Tuesday in an OAA White clash..
