Lumberg lifts Black Hawks over Rochester United
The Bloomfield Hills Black Hawks got two goals from Preston Lumberg and won their playoff opener 3-1 over Rochester United Tuesday.
It was Travis Stafford who got the game winner with 4:14 remaining when he took a pass from Nathan Rumptz and snapped home a shot from the right circle that took a deflection and trickled into the net for a 2-1 Black Hawk lead.
Lumberg added an empty net goal with 1:15 to play to seal the game for Bloomfield Hills.
Rochester United had come out strong in the first period, outshooting the Black Hawks 13-10 and getting the three best chances of the period, including a two-on-none break in the final minute that Black Hawks goalie Rocco Colosimo made a sliding stop on, just getting across to get a toe on the puck and keep it out of the net and the game would go into the first intermission scoreless.
“We came out a little flatfooted. We battled through. It was tied after one. Our goalie made a couple of incredible saves to keep us in the game,” Black Hawks head coach D.J. Fichter said.
Colosimo would finish the game with 23 saves for Bloomfield Hills.
The Black Hawks would get better as the game went along, outshooting Rochester United in each of the final two periods, though they also had to kill off five Rochester United power plays, including a lengthy five-on-three power play for United early in the third period. But they were able to hold United to just five shots on goal on those five power plays and to kill off each penalty without giving up a goal.
“Unfortunately, I think we’re the most penalized team in the league, so we’ve had plenty of work at being shorthanded. Our penalty kill was incredible. They worked their butts off the whole time,” Fichter said. “But we’ve got to do better at staying out of the box. It’s one of our biggest problems.”
Eventually, Lumberg got the Black Hawks on the board when he scored on a shorthanded breakaway with 5:59 remaining in the second period.
Rochester United tied the game with 16:15 to play in the third period when Dominic Alter snapped in a rebound from a bad angle.
But Rochester United generated only four more shots on goal the rest of the way as Bloomfield Hills slowly reclaimed control of the game and United was unable to stage a late comeback, though they did skim the crossbar with a shot with 7:20 remaining in the game.
“That’s kind of been our issue all year. We just couldn’t ever find the back of the net it seemed. We started to get some traction late in the year. We were snakebit all year, and unfortunately we made a couple mistakes that ended up in the back of our net, and we weren’t able to capitalize on our opportunities,” United head coach Tucker Penning said.
With the win, Bloomfield Hills improves its record to 13-12 and advances to the regional semifinals on Thursday where it will face top ranked Detroit Catholic Central.
“We’ve got a tough road ahead of us. We’ll figure something out, probably have a different game plan Thursday, and we’ll see what happens,” Fichter said.