The Chelsea Standard
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Bulldogs peaking at right time
By Don Richter, Sports Editor
PUBLISHED: March 1, 2007
Chelsea hockey is peaking at the right time. With last Saturday's impressive regular season finale 8-1 victory over visiting Lansing Catholic Central, the Bulldogs enter the Division III state playoffs on a four-game winning streak.
Advertisement
To close out the regular season, Chelsea (15-6-2) was unbeaten in six of their last seven contests.
Against the Cougars, the Bulldogs, who celebrated Senior Night prior to the opening face off, fell behind 1-0 early, as Ben Hamlin scored on a power play at 12:59 of the first period.
"We didn't play very well in the first period," said Chelsea coach Don Wright. "We got off to a slow start. Once we got focused we played pretty well. We played much better in the second and third periods."
Chelsea out-shot Lansing 17-2 in the second period, scoring five unanswered goals and taking a commanding 5-1 lead.
Sixteen seconds into the second stanza, senior forward Schyler Williams scored a power play goal off an assist from senior defensemen Travis Amburgey and Jake Vaughan.
At 7:48 of the second period, junior forward Kyle George scored giving the Bulldogs a 2-1 advantage. Picking up an assist on the play for Chelsea was senior forward David Maveal and Williams.
Williams increased the Bulldogs' lead to 3-1 with a goal at 11:16 of the second period. Maveal recorded an assist on the play for Chelsea.
Eight seconds later, junior forward Matt Heinen scored off an assist from junior forward James Cogswell.
To end the second period, Heinen scored giving the Bulldogs a 5-1 advantage. Sophomore forward Riley Feeney and Vaughan picked up assists on the goal for Chelsea.
To begin the third period, Williams notched his second goal of the night scoring off an assist from Vaughan and Amburgey at 2:24 of the frame.
At 11:28 of the third period, Maveal scored increasing the Bulldogs' lead to 7-1. Cogswell recorded an assist on the goal for Chelsea.
With less than a minute remaining, Maveal scored for the night's final margin. Vaughan and Williams picked up an assist on the goal for the Bulldogs.
Chelsea out-shot Catholic Central 34-9 for the game.
Combining for the win in net for the Bulldogs were goaltenders seniors Zach Leszczynski and Josh Cottrell.
On Feb. 21, visiting Chelsea shut out Ann Arbor Huron 7-0 at the Ice Cube.
The Bulldogs scored five power play goals to overtake the River Rats.
"Our power play did a great job," Wright said. "Defensively, we were able to hold them to one shot from the A (in front of net) area during the game."
Amburgey started the scoring for Chelsea, hitting the back of the net on a power play at 5:19 of the first period. Vaughan and Heinen recorded an assist for the Bulldogs on the play.
Just over a minute later, Maveal scored a power play goal increasing Chelsea's advantage to 2-0. Senior forward Howdy Holmes and George picked up an assist on the play for the Bulldogs.
In the second period, Williams scored on the power play off an assist from Vaughan and Amburgey.
At 14:32 of the second period, Cogswell scored giving Chelsea a 4-0 lead. Senior forward Shawn Scott and Amburgey assisted on the goal for the Bulldogs.
In the third period, Maveal scored his second goal of the night for a 5-0 Chelsea advantage. Holmes and George recorded an assist on the play for the Dawgs.
Williams upped Chelsea's lead to 6-0 scoring off an assist from Heinen at 10:16 of the third period.
At the 14:54 mark of the third period, George closed out the scoring with a power play goal. Junior forward Garrett Nickels and Vaughan assisted on the play for the Bulldogs.
Chelsea out-shot Huron 36-9 for the night.
Sophomore goaltender Joe Hume and Cottrell combined for the victory between the pipes.
The Bulldogs are playing some of their best hockey as the Division III state playoffs begin.
"We've been playing well," Wright said of his squad's late-season win streak. "All year long we've been a pretty good hockey team. We're getting strong offensively. And we're doing a better job of keeping the puck out of the net."
Chelsea began Division III state pre-regional competition hosting Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard after press deadline. If successful against the Fighting Irish, the Bulldogs would play the winner of Dexter-Jackson Lumen Christi 6 p.m. Thursday at the Arctic Coliseum for the pre-regional title. Chelsea is hosting the pre-regional.
The regional final is 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the Arctic Coliseum. The Chelsea pre-regional winner will take on the Dearborn Divine Child pre-regional champion.
Besides the Falcons, teams competing in the Divine Child pre-regional include Birmingham Detroit Country Day, Madison Heights Bishop Foley and Dearborn Heights Crestwood.
Not all stories are guaranteed to appear
online. The Web edition contains a reasonable
sampling of the print edition stories.
For the most complete news coverage, we invite you to
subscribe
to the print edition of the paper.
Expanded
Web
Coverage
TOP JOBS
