PLYMOUTH — As Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook won an improbable state hockey championship in the third overtime period Saturday, winning goaltender Garrett Dudlar hesitated instead of joining his teammates in a wild celebration at the opposite end of the rink. A few moments later, they rushed back to mob him in a second celebration.
“I was praying,” he said. “I was praying in between periods, before the game, after the game, as the game was going on. There’s nothing we could have done without God. The whole team does pray, in between periods, before the game. We all give the Lord thanks; He’s the reason that we’re all out there and we’re all able to play so well in that game.
“So I just said my prayer to honor Him first and celebrate with the team second.”
In 70½ minutes of heart-racing hockey action, Dudlar stopped 53 shots — the second-best total in MHSAA championship history — helping the Cranes to a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over East Grand Rapids at USA Hockey Arena.
David Schmitt knocked in his second goal of the game at 3:34 of the third overtime for the game-winner, and it also took him a while to get into the moment.
“My mind just went blank. Did I just do that?” he said, “So, yeah, it was pretty crazy.”
Schmitt, whose power-play goal tied the game at 2-2 in the second period, had only scored once during the regular season. His game-winner came on a blast from the right point after Cranbrook won a faceoff in the East Grand Rapids end.
“Coach (John LaFontaine) is always telling me to get pucks up quick, on net, and see what will happen,” Schmitt said. “I did it; I saw a lane, shot, and it just went in.”
Cranbrook had to battle back from an early deficit after allowing East Grand Rapids’ Glenn Green to score the fastest goal at the start of a championship game: only 12 seconds.
“We have a saying as a team: you have 30 seconds to worry about what happened, and then you have to forget about it and move on,” said Michael Horton, one of the team’s captains. “We had our 30 seconds and we were upset, and then I said to everyone — and I’m sure it wasn’t just me — 30 seconds, it’s done. We have a whole game ahead of us. (We gave up) one goal in the first 10 seconds? It’s insignificant in the big picture.”
In some ways, the Cranes’ finals performance mirrored their entire season. The team (16-13-1) started its post-season playoff run with a sub-.500 record and was the only unranked squad among Division 3’s final four participants.
“It was really tough for us because we had five returners, I believe, and there was a real hump of trust that we needed to get over with all the new guys,” said Roman Cecco, another captain. “We got over that — and it took us a long time, to be fair — but it took us a long time for a reason, because we’re so strong now and we’ve all earned this moment together.”
“It’s incredible, but it’s not just me, it’s the team,” Schmitt said. “I mean everybody — the coaches, our goalie — everybody put in equally as much work. I can’t say enough about these guys. It’s incredible to see the payoff.”
Catholic Central repeats in Division 1
As time was winding down in Novi Detroit Catholic Central’s 2-0 victory over Brighton in the Division 1 title game, Cael Rogowski couldn’t help but get a bit misty-eyed during his final shift on the ice.
“I remember seeing all the seniors last year getting emotional, and I didn’t really know what it felt like, but then this year I know what it feels like to leave my mark on the school,” he said. “I was definitely trying to hold back the tears playing those last two minutes, but I know that my brother (Brooks, a sophomore) has got some years left to play for the school.”
Rogowski made an impact in his last game for the Shamrocks, scoring an insurance goal early in the third period to help Catholic Central win its fifth straight title — and third straight over Brighton. He fished out a loose puck in front of the Bulldogs’ net and forced it through an opening.
“I went down and I was just trying to work and get the puck to the net — that’s what my goal was the entire game,” he said. “As soon as I did, it just went in, I was so happy about it.”
Catholic Central (29-1) was the state’s top-ranked team all year long and defeated Brighton 7-1 during the regular season. But the Bulldogs (24-5-1) hung tough Saturday, allowing only a power-play goal by Joseph Curtin midway through the first period before Rogowski expanded the lead and took some weight off the Shamrocks’ collective shoulders.
“With a one-goal lead, you’re always on the defensive. You’re seeing yourself as a defense-first type of team,” he said. “When you go up two, you have some give. You know that you can give one up, but at the same time, you can press the attack more.”
At the other end, Mathieu Chernauckas stopped all 25 shots he faced, earning his second straight shutout. He was also the goalie in Catholic Central’s 8-0 semi-final victory over Muskegon Reeths-Puffer on Friday.
“My defense played amazing. Without them, I couldn’t have done that,” he said. “The amount of pucks they kept wide gave them very little opportunity for good (scoring) chances.”
In five post-season games, Catholic Central outscored its opponents 34-3. But to Chernauckas — who spent three seasons toiling on the Shamrocks’ junior varsity — it was more important to simply get a chance to play.
“You never know what can happen because nothing’s guaranteed, so you just have to finish that out,” he said. “It’s amazing to have an opportunity to play. To get that opportunity, you’ve got to take advantage of that, and that’s what I did.”
So that’s why the Shamrocks’ victory meant even more to him Saturday night.
“It didn’t feel real,” he said. “It was the best feeling of my life because I’ve worked all these years to be where I’m at, and I finally got it.”
Copy Permalink
