HAMADY’S LATE GOAL GIVES BROTHER RICE D2 STATE TITLE
Alec Hamady jammed in a rebound with 6.7 seconds to play and Brother Rice won their sixth state title, claiming the Division 2 state championship with a 2-1 victory over the previously-unbeaten Byron Center Bulldogs.
“The puck came out to me. I shot a backhand, hit him (the goalie) in the blocker. Magically, it came back out to me again and I kind of chopped it with my backhand as a last resort and it went under his blocker,” Hamady said.
Hamady’s goal came after a faceoff win deep in the Bulldog zone. The initial shot was stopped, but the Warriors swarmed the rebound with several players getting a shot at it before Hamady finally stuffed one in.
The game was a tight affair from the opening puck drop. The Warriors had pressure on the Bulldogs right from the start, forcing Byron Center goalie Carson MacKenzie to make a couple of brilliant saves in the first few minutes.
But it would not be long before the Bulldogs turned the tables. Byron Center clanged a shot off the post just a couple of minutes later and had a glorious two-onone opportunity with 11:30 remaining in the second period that Brother Rice goalie Drake Danou simply smothered.
“I knew coming into it that they were a very offensive team,” Danou said. “Really, the only thing going through my head was that I can’t let my teammates down.”
The game continued that way throughout with both teams having to work hard to get any kind of decent scoring chance against great defensive efforts. Yet each team did manage to create a few chances only to get stymied by the stellar goaltending that each team was receiving.
The Warriors finally opened the scoring with 10:56 remaining in the third period when captain Max Brown stole a puck behind the net, came out front and fired a shot. MacKenzie made the save, but Carson Moilanen was there to pounce on the rebound, stuffing it in for a 1-0 lead for Brother Rice.
It wouldn’t last.
The Bulldogs won the ensuing faceoff and went right down the ice with Logan Nickolaus splitting the defense and setting up Max Breit for a tap in near the post just 10 seconds after the Warriors had taken the lead.
Even with the emotional swing, the Warriors were able to stay the course and grind out the game and the title winning goal.
“This one (season) was adjust on the fly. We all know the season – how it played out from scheduling to practice to even working on systems. Everything was so fragmented, and we knew it was going to be a sprint once we started,” Warriors head coach Kenny Chaput said. “We struggled early. We had some things that needed to get fixed, and usually in a long season you’ve got plenty of time. And here we really just had to go on the fly because you didn’t have a lot of practice time. It was preaching, playing the game the right way and being mentally strong, and these guys got it.”
Brother Rice finishes the season 15-4
and wins the state title they did not get to play for last year after COVID-19 cancelled the state semifinals with the Warriors still in the running for the championship.
“I’ve spent four years with the same kids, and it’s just the best feeling in the world to win a state championship with them. It brings you so much closer after playing a whole season through the ups, through the downs. Everybody was just so tight. I couldn’t imagine any other way of playing hockey,” Hamady said.
“Brother Rice hockey means everything to me,” Danou said. “These kids are our brothers and the brotherhood that we created from this team is something special.”