Plymouth Township ― The Orchard Lake St. Mary’s hockey team will be targeting a repeat of its 2025 championship after defeating Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett, 7-2, on Friday in the Division 3 state semifinals at USA Hockey Arena.
St. Mary’s goes into the finals carrying a 14-game winning streak in hopes to defeat Houghton, which is ranked No. 1 in the division. St. Mary’s was able to come away with the victory in last year’s title match, 3-0 over Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood.
The first period teased what would be a high-scoring effort, with three goals scored in only 15 combined shots.
Not even a minute into the game, Liggett put the reigning champs on the defensive, with Griffin Marchal finding an open Nick Gould for the score. Gould entered into the game as one of its biggest weapons on attack with 43 goals and 34 assists prior to Friday’s matchup.
St. Mary’s struggled to find its footing for the majority of the first, as Liggett was able to take advantage of a vulnerable defense to find the net again, this time at the hands of Marchal himself. The senior right wing took the puck himself to the net, breaking a number of defenders on the way to gain a 2-0 advantage early.
Just when it seemed like the period was over, St. Mary’s somehow managed to find the net with under a second remaining. Dominic Pizzo and Daniel Ramos were able to set up Charlie Roberts to cut the lead within one before the second.
The last-second goal ended up being just what St. Mary’s needed to shift the tide. The second period would carry off of that momentum and turn into a one-sided scoring frenzy.
“It was a huge goal,” St. Mary’s head coach Brian Klanow said. “It really set us up coming out into the second period to really start to take over.”
St. Mary’s struck with a shorthanded breakaway goal by Matthew Mourad around four minutes in. In a two-minute span following the game-tying goal, St. Mary’s caught fire with two more goals to make it 4-2 before the midway point of the period. Roberts found the goal again for his second of the afternoon, while Ramos was able to get into the action as well.
The lead continued to pile on as the period progressed, with Brandon Kondrat scoring off of an assist from Cam Sussex around the six-minute mark. Pizzo would finally finish off the St. Mary’s onslaught with a goal of his own to mark his third point of the game and head into the third with a 6-2 lead.
“After the first, we just needed to change what we were doing,” Klanow said. “We had to just focus really on that defensive zone, having everyone hang in there. Really from that point out, that’s what we did and with a couple big goals we were really able to open it up.”
The five-goal second period seemed to be the nail in the coffin for a demoralized Liggett team, which was unable to find any spark in the final period. St. Mary’s added its final goal in the third, with Mourad scoring the lone goal on a power play.
Ramos ended the game with a game-high four points with three assists and one goal, while three other players also added two or more points, highlighted by Mourad and Roberts’ two goals each.
With the win, St. Mary’s has a shot at repeating as champion, which to Klanow would be a perfect end to another strong season.
“It would be awesome,” Klanow said. ”I want this for them. They’ve worked really hard all season so this would really be the crescendo to it all.”
Division 3 hockey
Friday’s semifinals
Houghton 4, Traverse City St. Francis 0
Orchard Lake St. Mary’s 7, Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett 2
Saturday’s finals
Houghton (24-6-1) vs. Orchard Lake St. Mary’s (25-4), 3
Doug Doty is a freelance writer.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: St. Mary’s hockey cruises to D3 finals behind second-period flurry
Reporting by Doug Doty, Special to The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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