Catholic Central shuts out Cranbrook to win CHSL Tournament

The Detroit Catholic Central Shamrocks won the Catholic High School League Tournament with a 3-0 win over the Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood Cranes Wednesday night.

Catholic Central scored twice early in the first period to establish control of the game. Brendan Cwiek banged in a rebound that caromed off the back boards to get the scoring started, staking the Shamrocks to a 1-0 lead with 12:15 to play in the opening period. Less than a minute later, Nate Grondzieleski finished off a two-on-one break to make it 2-0, and the Shamrocks never looked back.

“They got the lead and just shut us down, and we could never get our offense going,” Cranes head coach John Lafontaine said. “Give them credit, they played a really solid, smart hockey game, and they played hard. Once they got the lead, we couldn’t get much going.”

The game was a defensive masterpiece for Catholic Central as they held the Cranes to just 11 shots on goal and completely shut down the Cranbrook forecheck.

“Our guys played pretty well. We were able to limit a lot of their opportunities. They still created a few obviously, and that’s why it’s good to have goaltending like we have that can make up for it. They’re going to find some chances, and they’re a very good hockey team,” Shamrocks head coach Brandon Kaleniekci said.

The Cranes were strong defensively as well, holding the Shamrocks to just 21 shots.

But Catholic Central took advantage of their power plays, going two for four with the man advantage, including a second period power play goal from Nick Borchardt, to provide all the offense they would really need.

“I think the biggest thing we tried to do is just simplify what we were trying to do, try not to make it over complicated. Their goalie is really good. One shot goes wide and creates a weird bounce that we were able to put in off the back wall. Another one he just doesn’t see, which, that’s the way you’ve got to beat a guy like that,” Kaleniecki said.

Goalie Julian Zvyagin turned in a solid performance, making 18 saves. But the Cranes’ inability to generate any consistent pressure or shots short circuited any comeback attempt.

“There’s some positives. There’s definitely some positives. You hold that team to that (21 total shots), that’s great, but we didn’t generate anything,” LaFontaine said.

With the win, Catholic Central improves to 9-1 overall and avenges their only previous loss. The Shamrocks have a handful of tough non-conference games coming up starting with a home game against Flint Powers on Friday.

Cranbrook (7-3) goes back into league play with an MIHL crossover game against Trenton on Friday.