The Saline Reporter
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
DREAMS DEFERRED
Saline loses 5-4 heartbreaker
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: March 8, 2007
Following his Saline hockey team's heartbreaking 5-4 loss to Milford in Friday's regional championship, Hornet head coach Drew Denzin was asked if he could remember a more painful loss.
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"Right now? No," he said. "Tonight was devastating."
A season-ending loss would be under any circumstances. But Saline's was even tougher to swallow after the Hornets saw a 4-0 second-period lead evaporate into a 4-4 tie on a Milford goal with 2:21 to play.
Just 23 seconds later, the Mavericks' Ron Pew scored a shorthanded goal to give Milford the win and send the Hornets into disbelief.
"The guys got a little ahead of themselves," Denzin said. "It was the perfect storm. A couple of bad plays, a couple of questionable calls, and everything went wrong. It was a microcosm of our entire season."
The Hornets looked well on their way to a regional title after a pair of goals from sophomores Sean MacNeil and David Dager gave them a four-goal lead with 8:49 to play in the second period.
MacNeil's shot from the left point after a Cory Corker pass snuck in after the Maverick goalie was screened. Just 44 seconds later, a near-identical shot by MacNeil –– again from a Corker pass –– was tipped in by Dager for the 4-0 advantage.
"I'm really proud of the way our guys came out and attacked," Denzin said. "We were excellent for the first two periods."
A series of Saline penalties helped bring Milford back into the game. With 7:31 to play in the second, the Mavericks scored on the power play to cut the lead to 4-1. A Milford power play late in the period carried over into the third and the Mavericks scored their second just 13 seconds into the period.
With momentum firmly on the visitors' side, Michael Whiteman scored with 10:18 to play to slice the Hornet lead to one.
The Saline defense and goalie Chuck Schneider regrouped, stuffing a Milford power play that began at the 8:23 mark. The Hornets even began to press for a clinching fifth goal, with Jay Birko and Grant Phillips each coming close as the clock crept under four minutes.
But the Saline push forward was short-lived as Milford went on another power play with just under three minutes remaining. The Mavericks' Michael Whiteman took advantage to tie the score, despite Schneider's protests that his shot never crossed the line.
Saline received its own power-play opportunity with 2:05 remaining. On the Hornets' first attack, a pass sailed across the Milford crease just out of reach of the Hornet attackers and started a 2-on-1 the other way. Pew made no mistake and Saline trailed 5-4.
After pulling their goalie and seeing a pair of long-distance Milford shots come within inches of sealing the win, the Hornets believed they had tied the game with 3.6 seconds remaining when a close-range shot appeared to trickle over the goal line. But the officials ruled that the goal had been bumped out of position ahead of the shot and awarded a face-off.
The Hornets were unable to get a shot off in the remaining time.
"I never thought we wouldn't at least go into overtime," Denzin said. "We ran a play we haven't run very often and we got caught. It was not Charlie's fault at all."
Birko opened the Saline scoring with a breakaway goal with 3:47 to play in the first period on a Kelly O'Sullivan assist. The Hornets scored again just 26 seconds into the second period as Phillips and Birko combined to set O'Sullivan up in the slot for a top-shelf finish and 2-0 lead.
Afterward, Denzin spoke about the resiliency of his six senior — Birko, Schenider, Phillips, O'Sullivan, Doug Nelson, and Bobby Schilke — in the face of an often trying season.
"If there's any group of kids that will be able to take something like this, it's these," Denzin said. "They gave it their all. To reset and win two playoff games after the season we had is a great accomplishment. That they had to lose it the way we did tonight is a shame."
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