Catholic Central wins tough battle with Cranbrook

BLOOMFIELD HILLS » The Detroit Catholic Central Shamrocks won a 3-1 defensive hockey battle over the Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood Cranes Friday night.

The Shamrocks were opportunistic early on. Catholic Central led 2-0 after the first period despite being outshot 10-9.

The Shamrocks opened the scoring with 3:10 remaining in the first period on a slot wrister from Nate Grondieleski to make it 1-0. Catholic Central then added a short-handed goal with 35.4 seconds left when Nick Swider took a pass from Ryan Wantuck and finished off a two-onone rush to double their lead.

Cranbrook got that goal back just 16 seconds into the second period when Michael Brown’s shot from the blue line made it through a screen and into the net for a power play goal, cutting Catholic Central’s lead in half at 2-1.

But that was as close as

Cranbrook could get all game. The Shamrocks got better as the game wore on and were on absolute lockdown defensively fiveon-five, holding Cranbrook to just 11 shots at even strength all evening.

“That’s what we kind of pride ourselves on is five-on-five hockey, defensive hockey. We have good goaltending obviously. Going into tonight we had six or seven straight shutouts,” Shamrocks assistant coach Scott Lock said. “In the back end, we’re pretty solid, and our goalies are playing really well lately.”

Cranbrook did have a chance to tie the game on a power play later in the second period, but was were unable to convert. Catholic Central goalie Bob Masters did much of his best work on the penalty kill, holding the Cranes to just the one power play goal in five attempts.

And the Shamrocks added another goal in transition shortly after the Cranes first power play of the second period when Conner Bell roofed a shot on a breakaway to make it 3-1.

Cranbrook struggled to create any kind of scoring chance in the third as the Shamrocks, led by the play of Wantuck, Jackson Walsh, and Nolan Galda, held them to just four shots on goal in the third period.

Cranbrook was solid defensively themselves, limiting Catholic Central to just 25 shots on goal. And while the Cranes did not make many mistakes all night, when they made a big one, the Shamrocks were often right there to capitalize.

“I thought we played our best period in the first, and a couple of mistakes ended up in the back of our net. But that’s a good team. I thought they turned it up a notch halfway through the second and outplayed us from then on,” Cranes head coach John LaFontaine said. “That’s a good team. You’ve got to play your best to beat them,” he added.

With the win, Catholic Central improves to 12-1 overall and 7-0 in the Michigan Interscholastic Hockey League North.

“(we just) make sure you come to the game, every game, prepared. Everyone’s got to be excited and wanting to be here. It’s a team sport. Everyone’s got to keep working hard, and we’ll get there,” Wantuck said.

Cranbrook is now 7-3-1 overall and 4-2-1 in the MIHL North. The teams have a rematch Saturday night, which will be hosted by Catholic Central.

“I thought we lost as a team tonight. Guys played good, but we didn’t have anybody that played the full 51 minutes. We had guys that played a good period here, a good period there. Our consistency wasn’t there,” Lafontaine said. “You get challenged, and these are the games you get better,” he added.