Grandville SOO recap

Grandville Soo Elk Tournament Summary
Grandville 1 - Lakeland 4
The Grandville Bulldogs opened their 2009-2010 season Friday night in the Soo Elks Tournament against the Lakeland Eagles at Pullar Stadium in Sault Ste. Marie. Despite a hard played game, the Bulldogs came away with a with a tough 4-1 loss.
Grandville started slow in the first period and after a couple of penalties for each team the period ended in a 0-0 tie. Despite the determined play of Stephen Flood and a shot off the post by Matt Boogaard the second period was mark by 3 Lakeland goals. Lakeland scored early in the first part of the third on a power play goal. Grandville got on the board with a score by Flood and assist by Boogaard midway through the period.

Grandville 3 - Big Rapids 2 (O/T)
The Bulldogs met Big Rapids on Saturday in a rematch of last year's Soo Elks Tournament championship game. The first period was a back and forth battle with Big Rapids scoring two quick goals before Stephen Flood scored assisted by Brenden Giffel and Matt Shultz. Grandville came back to tie the game at 2 in the second period with a goal by Travis Kamstra assisted by Flood. The third period was marked by tough defense for both teams and the game end in a 2-2 tie. Alex Stickland assisted by Sean Conley and Conner Higgins scored early in sudden death overtime for the win in another close game between the Bulldogs and Cardinals. This game featured Grandville working hard to come back from a 2-0 deficit in the first period.



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6th Annual Family Fare Holiday Invitational

For the sixth consecutive year, Hudsonville will again host the Family Fare Holiday Invitational Tournament at the Georgetown Ice Center on Thanksgiving Weekend.

If you're not into the "Black Friday" thing, can't stand the mall or just don't have anything else going on, come out and enjoy some great high school hockey action while giving back to those in the community that could really use some help right now.

Bring three (3) Spartan Brand canned or non-perishable goods to the tournament and receive $2.00 off from your $5.00 admission. All canned goods will delivered by Hudsonville players to local food pantrys to be used to help those in need during the holiday season.

Tournament Schedule

Friday November 27, 2009
6:00 PM DeWitt/St. John's vs. Birmingham
8:00 PM Hudsonville vs. Clinton Twp.-Chippewa Valley

Saturday November 28, 2009
2:00 PM Consolation Game
4:00 PM Championship Game

Happy Thanksgiving to all WMHSH Blog fans, contributors, players, parents and coaches from the Eagles!!

Hudsonville-7 Ypsilanti-Lincoln/Milan-4

Eagles explode for 5 goals in the third to down Railsplitters

After spotting the visitors a 2-0 lead early in the second period, Hudsonville picked it up and cut the Ypsilanti-Lincoln/Milan (YLM) lead in half when Parker Host, on a sweet feed from Alec Durham, laced a sick wrister past the YLM goalie, making it 2-1. The Railsplitters wasted little time in stretching the lead back to 2 goals, winning the center ice drop and scoring just 6 seconds later to go up 3-1. Hudsonville continued to battle and narrowed the gap to 3-2 with 3:14 left in the period when Ryan Rose (Cayce Fletcher, Host) found the net. YLM bounced right back again and went into the second intermission leading 4-2.

A few minor adjustments at the break was all it took for the Eagles to "get their groove" that they had been looking for the last couple of weeks. Just :27 seconds into the 3rd Ryan Rose netted his second goal of the night (Host, Alex Decorte) to pull the Eagles within one, 4-3. "Super Soph" Tyler Baar (Fletcher, Aaron Barto) tied the game at 4-4 when he unleashed a rebound-rocket into the YLM net. Alex "Gator" Decorte (Ryan Crass, Host), Quinton Courteau (Crass, Kyle Wesche) and Tyler Baar (Host) all found the net in the last 10 minutes to lead the Eagles to victory in their home opener.

Zach Streeter turned away 19 of the 23 shots he faced in the net for the Eagles.

Hudsonville (1-1-0) will host the Sixth Annual Family Fare Holiday Invitational at the Georgetown Ice Center on friday (11/27/09) and Saturday (11/28/09) of Thanksgiving Weekend.

Plymouth 6 - EK 4 Game Summary

The infamous air horn at East Kentwood sounded 4 times for goals but it was not enough, as the Plymouth Wildcats scored 6 times to hand EK a loss in their first game of the season.

Plymouth scored 3 unanswered goals before the Falcons came back with goals from Stephen Dykstra and Zack Richmond. Plymouth and EK traded goals back and forth for the rest of the game with Brett White scoring 2 more for the Falcons. Scoring for Plymouth were Colin Wright (2), Ryan Bauer(2), Zack Gambrell, and Ryan Renault. A penalty laden game saw the power play have an impact as EK scored three on the the power play while Plymouth lit the lamp once with a man advantage.

East Kentwood's Daniel Leahy faced 24 shots while Mike Justus faced 28 shots playing in net for the Wildcats.

On Friday, the 27th the Falcon's face Rockford in an OK Conference Tier 1 showdown at 7pm at East Kentwood.

Saturday Scores

Dearborn Divine Child 3 Mattawan 0
Grand Haven 8 Portage Northern 2
GRCC 5 Livonia Churchill 4
Grandville 3 Big Rapids 2
St. Clair Shores 2 Kenowa 1
Escanaba 6 GR Christian 2
Plymouth 6 Kentwood 4
Dewitt/St. Johns 5 Forest Hills Central 2
Okemos 5 Northview 3
Hudsonville 7 Lincoln-Milan 4

Kenowa Hills players show grit, class in Alpena

The Kenowa Hills Knights traveled to Alpena Friday and Saturday to compete in the Huron Shores Holiday Inn Hockey Challenge. The Knights took home a victory Friday night against Midland Dow 2-1. Saturday they were handed a defeat by St Clair Shores 0-1. What is truly important about this weekend was not the victory or the defeat, but the respect the team showed to their opponent on Saturday.

St Clair recently experienced a terrible tragedy. Andrew Davis, a player on the team was killed along with his family in an apparent murder/suicide. The Saints had attended the memorial service on Thursday prior to traveling to Alpena on Friday. The Kenowa Hills players wanted to show respect for their fellow hockey player and all wore Andrew's initials and number on their helmets during the game Saturday. Prior to the start they asked the Saints to join them at center ice for a moment of silence. We are very proud of this fine group of young gentlemen.

Here's a YouTube video that captures the quiet class of the moment.

Grandville 3 Big Rapids 2 (OT)

Big Rapids got goals by Braden and Sigmund. Grandville rallied with goals by Flood and Kamstra. Stickland wins it in OT.
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Plymouth 6 EK 4 (final)

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GRCC 5 Livonia Churchill 4 (final)

For the second game in a row, GR Catholic Central fell behind early, only to rally back. On Friday night, the rally fell short against Livonia Stevenson. Today, the rally held up, giving the Cougars a thrilling 5-4 victory over Livonia Churchill. The Chargers got two first period goals by Steve Kuse and Jake Otto. The Cougars got on the board when Nathaniel Altman finished a 2-on-1 off a beautiful feed by Cam Kwaiser to cut the lead to 2-1. Four minutes later, Kwaiser found himself on the receiving end of a highlight reel assist from behind the net by Michael Dery, knotting the score at 2-2.  Kwaiser struck again just 16 seconds later off a feed from Owen Kane to finish another 2-on-1 and make the score 3-2.

Churchill battled back with the equalizer at 9:46 of the third on a PP goal by Joe Williams.  The Cougars regained the lead on a snap shot by Brian Gorski that handcuffed the Chargers goalie, and then GRCC padded its lead on a PP snipe by Brandon Carey, off a picture perfect cross-ice feed from the blue line by David Ziemke.   Churchill cut the lead to one goal with 2:23 left when Ben Proben stuffed home a rebound, making the score 5-4.   To add to the excitement, GRCC's Matt Kryzkwa was called for a hook with 42 seconds left, but Cougar netminder Quinn Edwards and the PK unit fended off the relentlessly charging Chargers to earn the 5-4 victory.  Joey Bowen contributed two assists.


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Saturday Schedule

Mattawan vs. Dearborne Divine Child (1 p.m. @ S2 Kalamazoo)

Portage Northern vs. Grand Haven (7 p.m. @ Wings)

Kalamazoo United vs. Northview (9 p.m. @ Wings)

East Kentwood vs. Plymouth (2 p.m. @ EK)

GRCC vs. Livonia Churchill (1:30 p.m. @ Novi)

Big Rapids vs. Grandville (TBD @ Pullar)

Forest Hills vs. St. Johns (TBD @ St. Johns)

Kenowa vs. TBD (Alpena Showcase)

GR Christian vs. TBD (Alpena Showcase)

Muskegon Catholic vs Reeths Puffer (4pm @ Lakeshore)

From Sailor to Laker

Yet another West Michigander 'done good,' Sailor goalie Scotty "Jr. Mad Blogger Apprentice in Training" Tiefenthal is backing up GVSU D. III goaler Peter Herman for the Lakers. Grand Valley's D3 team is currently 13-1, first in their league, and ranked nationally in D3. Tiefenthal sports a 3-0 record, a 1.71 GAA. and an even higher GPA.

The Lakers spent Wednesday busing to Iowa for this weekends "Clash In the Corn" tournament, besting the Colorado Buffaloes 3-2 on Thursday. According to Tiefenthal's Facebook, it was "the only place that I have ever walked out of an ice rink and it smells worse than inside of the ice rink." GV's opening goal in game 1 was scored by Tief's teammate & former RP Rocket Ben Sikkenga.

A tourney poster is pictured here.

Friday Night Scores

FHNE 3 FHC 1
Soo 5 Big Rapids 1
Lakeland 4 Grandville 1
Livonia Stevenson 8 GRCC 4 GR Christian 8 Lapeer 1
Kenowa 2 Midland Dow 1
NW Warriors Gladwin
Kalamazoo Eagles 8 West Ottawa 0

Big Rapids falls 5-1 @ Soo Elks Tournament

Final Soo 5 BR 1

Details to follow with a weekend wrap-up of both games on Sunday. Big Rapids will play Grandville (a match-up of last years final) in the consolation game.

FHNE 3 FHC 1 (final)

After Forest Hills Northern/Eastern had beaten crosstown rival Forest Hills Central in a 3-1 thriller, a fan in the packed house celebrated by throwing an octopus on the ice.   The octopi, traditionally a symbol of the late spring march toward the Stanley Cup, seemed like a bit of overkill for the first game of the season, but at least one participant liked the touch.

"I think that was my favorite part," said FNHE's Coach Todd Gallup, who won his first game as the team's new coach.  "We were fortunate to win.  I thought we dominated the first period, they beat us in the second period and the third was pretty even."

FHNE got a PP goal from Keenan Sullivan to open the scoring and then added an ES goal from Wesley Vos 1:10 later.  FHC's Jon Dusnik scored off an assist from Andy Pulling to close the gap, but FHNE's Sam Calloway added an insurance goal late in the second.   The third period was fast and furious, but neither team could poke one through.  Ian Jester earned the W with 20 saves.

Check out these pictures by our Bantam AA blogger, Connor Sullivan, who is back for another year of shooting games when he's not shooting pucks. (Hint: Double-click on photo book to see them in full-size slideshow).


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Livonia Stevenson 8 GRCC 4 (final)

This one looked like it was going to be a blowout, but actually ended up closer than the final score would seem to indicate.  The Cougars dug themselves a 5-0 hole early in the second period, then mounted a furious comeback to pull it to 5-4 with almost 11 minutes left in the third.  A too-many-men-on-the ice penalty put GRCC down a skater, and Livonia's Tim Pruchnik danced out the corner and stuffed one between the pads of Cougar netminder Quinn Edwards to rebuild the two-goal cushion.  Stevenson added another two minutes later then finished the scoring with an empty-netter.  Cam Kwaiser, Josh Berry, Brandon Carey, and Nathaniel Altman all had goals for the Cougars, and Matt Kryzkwa had a pair of assists.  Owen Kane was a sparkplug for the Cougars, assisting on the second goal and knocking one of Livonia's players out of the game with a bone-crushing, shoulder-to-shoulder hit.

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Hockey Night in West Michigan

The Blogger was on FOX TV this morning talking about the entertainment, but couldn't resist wearing his Hockey Night in West Michigan shirt and announcing that today was the first big day of the year. Lots of teams on the road for the start of the season, but the BIG game in town today is the season-opening rivalry between Forest Hills Central and Forest Hills Northern/Eastern (8 p.m. @ Patterson). FHN/E has a new coach, Todd Gallup, and an influx of former travel players that could help make them one of the best teams in the area.  Forest Hills Central has a seasoned squad and a disciplined "no-stars" approach that comes from Coach Rob Feenie, now in his second season. The Blogger's advice: Get to Patterson early, as this will be a standing room only crowd with tons of students.

Other games:
Kalamazoo Eagles vs. West Ottawa (7 p.m. @ S2/Kalamazoo)
Saulte St. Marie vs. Big Rapids (3 p.m. @ Pullar)
Lakeland vs. Grandville (6 p.m. @ Pullar)
Livonia Stevenson vs. GRCC (4:30 p.m. @ Novi)
GR Christian vs. TBD  (12 p.m. @ Alpena)
Kenowa vs. Midland Dow (2 p.m. @ Alpena)
Northwest Warriors vs. Gladwin (7 p.m. @ Centre Ice)