Shamrocks capture 15th state title with big assist from JV squad, which filled in for quarantining varsity players for two games
PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP — Alec Hamady admits he had no idea how much time remained in the state championship hockey game when the puck bounced his way.
No matter — the Brother Rice senior forward had just enough time to take a few whacks at it, driving it into the back of the net with just 6.7 seconds left to play, giving the Warriors a 2-1 victory over undefeated Byron Center and a Division 2 state title.
Hamady’s goal touched off pandemonium among the Brother Rice players and fans, and started the day on a high note for Catholic League teams. Following the Warriors’ last-minute victory, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook and Novi Detroit Catholic Central also won their games Saturday at USA Hockey Arena, meaning the Catholic League was a perfect three-for-three on the big stage.
Describing the biggest goal of his life, Hamady said, “We had a designated play where a man was back-door and we tried to look for him. When we went for it, it got blocked and went off the goalie, the puck came out to me, I shot it back in, it hit him in the blocker and magically it came back out to me again, and I kind of chopped it with my backhand last resort, and it went under his blocker.”
While Hamady could describe his goal in detail, ha said what happened after that was a little fuzzy.
“It was all a blur, honestly. I couldn’t even recall what happened. Everybody was just going crazy. I just lost all feeling in my body. It was just unbelievable,” he said. “There’s no way I can really describe it. It’s just an unbelievable feeling to have. To have something stripped from us last year (when the COVID-19 outbreak halted the state tournament), and then to come back and win it all is just an amazing feeling.”
Warriors coach Kenny Chaput was overjoyed to see his players win the program’s sixth state title in a season like no other.
“This year, we really just had to go on the fly without a lot of practice time. It was about playing the game the right way and being mentally strong,” Chaput said. “We struggled early and had some things that needed to get fixed, and in a normal season you usually have plenty of time to do that. But these guys got it. We could tell, about two, two-and-a-half weeks ago that they were locked in.”
It took more than two periods, but senior forward Carson Moilanen finally broke the scoreless tie for Brother Rice (14-4-0) by scoring at 6:04 of the third. That lead only lasted 10 seconds, though, as Mason Breit scored for Byron Center (17-1-0) on the Bulldogs’ next trip up the ice, setting the stage for Hamady’s heroics.
Catholic Central 5, Rockford 1
While Catholic Central’s varsity always set winning another Division 1 state championship as its main goal, a big assist goes to the Shamrock junior varsity squad — they kept the post-season alive by filling in for two regional games while most of the varsity players were in quarantine because of COVID-19 earlier in March.
“It was crazy; you never take anything for granted. We were thankful our JV guys came through,” said senior forward Billy Shields, the only varsity player not to be quarantined. “We played for those guys, we played for our alumni (who couldn’t finish last year’s tournament). We had our ups and downs, but in the end we came through with a state championship, and I couldn’t be more happy.”
The Shamrock JV team beat Berkley and Troy the prior week, setting the stage for the varsity to finish the deal with victories over Plymouth Salem in the quarterfinal, Brighton in the semi-final and Rockford in Saturday’s championship, 5-1.
“It (stunk) being away from your team and your guys for two weeks, but when we got our team back, we were fired up to come back. We went out and played like we knew how to play, and we got the win,” Shields said. “We knew we were going to have to get a lot of shots against this team, and we stuck to our game plan and came out victorious.”
Shields had a short-handed goal late in the first period that clearly established the Shamrocks’ momentum. Brennan Sass, Bret Beale, Ryan Wartuck and Kaden Hemme also scored for Catholic Central (17-1-0).
Following the official team trophy photo after the game, the varsity invited the JV squad out onto the ice for a picture involving the entire group.
“The hockey part is the fun part, no question. With all the things that were going on this year, when you got to the rink, you tried to have as much fun as possible,” coach Brandon Kaleniecki said. “We also mentioned to them that we had a group of seniors that didn’t get to finish last year; you’ve got to play for them as well.”
Cranbrook 4, Calumet 1
While Catholic Central won its 15th state championship — the second-most for any program in the state — they didn’t gain ground on Cranbrook, who leads with 18.
The Cranes (15-4-0) shut down previously undefeated and top-ranked Calumet, limiting the Copper Kings to just 10 shots on goal in a 4-1 victory in the Division 3 title game.
That wasn’t unusual for Cranbrook, a defensive-oriented squad led by blueliners Leyton Stenman and Michael Brown and goalie Julian Zvyagin. But coach John LaFontaine said the “X factor” was the Cranes offense, which came into its own over the course of the season, outscoring their five post-season opponents by a cumulative 28-2.
“Coming into the year, we knew that we were going to be strong on the back end,” LaFontaine said. “We didn’t know that we were going to get a goalie like we did in Julian. That kind of fell into our lap, and we didn’t think we had enough depth up front, but things fell into place for us. We didn’t always outshoot teams like this.”
Cranbrook got its goals from four different players: Nathan Hooker, Jack Wineman, Isaac Cheli and Ty Esterline, to end a six-year dry spell since its last title.
