Bonnay’s two goals lead Anchor Bay in title win

Mark Bonnay and coach Joe Zuccaro have a ritual before each Anchor Bay hockey game.

The senior tells Zuccaro how productive a game he expects to have.

“He’ll be honest with me,” Zuccaro said. “There are days when he’ll say, ‘Ah, coach, I’m not feeling I’ll have a good game.’”

That wasn’t the case Wednesday. “He looked me in the eye and he had a twinkle,” Zuccaro said. “He said, ‘I’m going to have a good game today, Coach.’”

Bonnay was correct.

Bonnay’s second goal of the game gave Anchor Bay a 4-2 lead with 11:26 left in the third period, and the Tars went on to defeat Chippewa Valley United 5-2 in a Division 1 regional championship game at Mount Clemens Ice Arena.

“This is amazing — a dream come true, for sure,” Bonnay said. “I just felt it. Thank God we did it. We’ve been working hard in practice, and we did it.”

“This is a tremendous feeling,” Zuccaro added. “It’s all that hard work. You do everything in practice, all that stuff, it’s such a grind to get to this moment.

“It’s something you just take one day at a time. At the beginning of the year, we knew this was the end goal. We had it circled.”

Chippewa Valley United defeated Anchor Bay twice during the Macomb Area Conference Red Division season.

But the Tars didn’t care with the regional trophy at stake — not even when CVU led 2-1 after one period.

Seniors Aiden French and Brett Trevino scored in the second period for Anchor Bay. Sophomore Kaden Leigh added an empty-net goal in the third.

Trevor Peacock had two assists. French, Kallen Paul, Darren Jones and William Forrester had one apiece. Goalie David Girling made 35 saves.

Zuccaro emphasized to his players that beating a team three times in a season is difficult.

“You play the same team over

and over, it’s hard to beat them,” he said. “We were in both games against (CVU). We were there, we just didn’t finish. I’m happy to say we did finish today.”

It was Anchor Bay’s first regional title since 2016 and second in program history.

“I’m overjoyed,” said

French, who had a goal in the Tars’ regional semifinal victory over Utica-Ford. “We worked so hard to get here.

“I’m glad we finally got it. I never had a doubt in my mind we could get this done.”

Bonnay works on his game every day, French said.

“It’s exciting to see him succeed,” French said.

The Tars play Detroit Catholic Central in a state quarterfinal at 6 p.m. Saturday

at Mount Clemens.

Detroit Catholic Central, winner of the last three state tournaments, advanced with a 5-0 victory over M-1, a team that draws players from multiple schools, including Berkley.

Other regional champions were Brighton, Livonia Stevenson, Stoney Creek, Hartland, DeWitt and Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central.

Hartland won the Division 2 championship last year.