Orchard Lake, Grosse Pointes, Grosse Pointe Woods

St. Mary's uses strong second period to skate past Grosse Pointe North

By Mike Moore
C & G Sports Writer

» Click on image to view full size « Photo by Patricia O'Blenes North's Joe Aluia (19) fires a shot during the second period of a Jan. 25 game at City Sports Center. St. Mary's jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the game, and held on for a 3-1 win. It was the Eaglets fourth straight victory. Photo by Patricia O'Blenes North's Joe Aluia (19) fires a shot during the second period of a Jan. 25 game at City Sports Center. St. Mary's jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the game, and held on for a 3-1 win. It was the Eaglets fourth straight victory.

DETROIT — Brian Klanow was quick to admit that this wasn’t his team’s best game of the season — not by a long shot.

With that said, however, the Orchard Lake St. Mary’s hockey coach had little else to complain about following his guys performance Jan. 25 from City Sports Center against Grosse Pointe North.

Despite a somewhat sluggish start, the Eaglets cashed in on some timely opportunities and took the Michigan Interscholastic Hockey League battle 3-1.

“Every win is a good one, and we’ll take this,” Klanow said afterward. “We didn’t play our best game, and we know that. But good teams find ways to win games like this, and we found a way.”

Although North seemed to control the tempo for most of the first period, neither team was able to find the back of the net. That changed less than four minutes into the second, though, when St. Mary’s defenseman Jordan Kutek beat North goalie Chip Wujek, giving the Eaglets a 1-0 lead.

They would add to it almost 10 minutes later when Cooper Anstett notched a power-play goal.

North got its lone goal of the night when Joe Aluia beat Austin Julvezan early in the third period.

A penalty filled third, however, produced no further scoring until Daniel Coley fired a shot into a empty North net in the game’s final minute.

"It was a good hockey game, I mean, we came out and played strong in the first period, gave ourselves a chance to win, just couldn’t pull it off,” North coach Scott Lock said. “I’m not going to worry too much about this one, because I felt we played pretty well. The thing we have to do is turn these close calls into wins. We have to find a way to get that next goal and make something happen when we have the chance.”

Wujek was brilliant in goal for the Norsemen, who fell to 6-8-0 overall and 4-7-0 in league play. The senior finished the game with 33 saves.

St. Mary’s, now 9-6-0 and 8-3-0 in the MIHL, won its fourth straight game.
 

You can reach C & G Sports Writer Mike Moore at mmoore@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1038.