The Northville Prephockey team has obvious-ly saved its best hockeyfor last.The Broncos, 21-8-

1 overall, have roaredthrough the preliminaryrounds of the Great LakesPrep Hockey LeaguePlayoffs andMichiganAmateur Hockey Associ-ation District playoffs. Asa result, Northville willplay in the League semifi-nals on Saturday, Feb. 25and have qualified for thestate championship tour-nament to be heldMarch9-11 in Jackson.Strong goaltending, an

improving defense andquick-strike offense haveall contributed through-out the playoff run, whichhas seen Northville out-score its opponents 24-13.

Northville 5,Lakeland 4

TheBroncos started outDistrict playoff playwitha hard-fought 5-4 win overLakeland on Feb. 1. North-ville went on top quick,springing to a 3-0 first-period lead. RyanBloomscored off a perfect passfromDominic DiComofor the first goal of thegame. Nick Strom thenfed Christopher Tripi, whoscored on a breakaway.Nick Stegmeyermade it3-0 on the power play goalwith 71 seconds left inthe period off a pass from

TroyYoumans. Lakelandkept the game tight andpulledwithin 3-2midwaythrough the second peri-od. Bloompushed the leadback to two goals with4:35 to play in the peri-odwith Youmans pick-ing up his second assist.The Eagles cut the leadto 4-3 just over aminute

later, but Bloomnettedthe eventual game-win-nerwith another set-upfromDiComo in thewan-ing seconds of the game.Lakeland tallied a goalmidway through the thirdperiod but it could not getan equalizer against goal-ie Nick Zalewski.

Clarkston 3,Northville 1

DespitebeatingClarkstonin their tworegularseasonmatchups, theWolvesdom-inatedNorthvilleonFeb.4ina3-1victory in theopen-ing leagueplayoffgame.Afterascoreless firstperi-od,Clarkstonwentontop1-0early in thesecondperi-od.Bloomevenedthegameminutes laterwithassistsfromTylerMarcotteandDiComo.Clarkstoncamebackwithgoals late intheperiod togoupbytwogoals.TheBroncosattempt-edafuriousrally in thethirdperiod,outshootingtheWolves11-3,but theycouldnotcut thedeficit.ClarkstonoutshotNorth-ville in thegame32-20.

Northville 4,Clarkston 1

Two days after play-

ing Clarkston in a leagueplayoff contest, North-ville faced theWolvesin a District playoff andthis time the result wasmore favorable, a 4-1 win.Clarkston hopped on top1-0 early in the secondperiod. Tripi tied it at 1-1with 6:18 left in the peri-od with assists to Steg-meyer and Tim Eis. Mar-cotte tallied the even-tual game-winner lessthan twominutes lat-er. Stegmeyer andHen-ry Chang both assistedon the goal. The Broncosadded twomore goals inthe third period. DiComoscored off a pass fromSean O’Malley and KyleWright finished the scor-ing with assists to Tay-lor Turner and CameronLayne. Zalewski got thewin in goal.

Northville 4,Shamrock Prep 3(OT)

Needing a win to clinchan automatic spot in thestate championship tour-nament, Northville usedovertime to beat Sham-rock Prep 4-3 on Feb.11. Tripi gave the Bron-cos a 1-0 lead just oversix minutes into the

gamewith assists toAlex Ridener and Chang.The Rocks respond-ed by scoring the nextthree goals. Northvillehad a two-man advan-tage for nearly threemin-utes, but was unable tocapitalize on it. Howev-er, the Broncos were ableto earn two goals in thefinal 7:16 of the periodto even the game at 3-3.Bloom started it off witha wrist shot from 5-feetout with assists going toWright and Layne. Kel-lan Flayer tied it at the3:31 mark with a close-range shot with Eis andTurner picking up theassists. In overtime, Tri-pi stole the puck in theShamrock zone and sent apass back to Chang nearthe blue line who fired inthe game-winning goal.Goalie Jeremy Onofriohad several big saves inrecording the win.

Northville 3,FarmingtonUnified 1

Three third-periodgoals, including two byBloom, propelled North-ville to a 3-1 league play-off win over Farming-ton Unified on Feb. 12.

The Flyers netted theironly goal 50 seconds intothe game. Bloom evenedit at 1-1 at 13:10 of thethird period with assiststo Stegmeyer and DiCo-mo. Just over threemin-utes later, he put North-ville ahead for good withan unassisted goal. Riden-er sealed the victorywhen he converted a passfrom Stromwith undertwominutes left. Zalews-ki earned the win in goal.

Northville 4,Novi 1

Another strong defen-sive effort and a hat trickwere the needed ingredi-ents in a 4-1 league play-off victory over Novi onFeb. 15. Bloom scoredthe first two goals of thegame and gave the Bron-cos a 2-0 lead after oneperiod. He notched hisfirst goal off a pass fromStegmeyer and then gothis second tally when hetipped in a shot from SeanO’Malley. After Novi cutthe deficit in half mid-way through the secondperiod, Bloom set up You-man’s goal from 30 feetout. Bloom then cappedthe scoring with an emp-ty-netter with just over aminute left. The defensecomprised of Youmans,Chang, Strom, Chaudoinand Drake Eaton playedone of its best games ofthe year and helped Ono-frio pick up the win in thenets.

Northville 7,Shamrock Prep 3

The Broncos secured aspot in the league semi-finals with a 7-3 winover Shamrock Prepon Feb. 17. The Rocksscored first, but North-ville responded with fivestraight goals to put thegame away. Eis startedthe spurt and was joinedby Stegmeyer and Bloomin the scoring columnduring the opening peri-od. Flayer and Bloomadded goals in the sec-ond period to push themargin to 5-1. The Bron-cos finished the scoringwith third-period goals byEis and DiComo. Zalews-ki registered his fourthplayoff win.

—ByBob Tripi

Hometown Weeklies | Thursday, February 23, 2012(NR) LOCAL SPORTS online at hometownlife.comB4

Northville Prep hockey team headingto state championships, league semis

The Northville Prep Hockey Team celebrates Henry Chang’s goal that advanced the Broncos to the state championshiptournament March 9-11 in Jackson.

Northville. Senior AlexMoynes lit up the score-board as she put on ascoring clinic, single-handedly pouring in 24points, nearly surpass-ing Mott’s team total.

What’s more impressiveis that she only playedthe first three quartersof the game.Senior Meredith Wil-

liams added eightpoints in the winningeffort.“Offensively we just

pounded the ball insidebut didn’t force it,”

said Gudith. “It was anobvious mismatch, sizewise, and Alex finishedwell around the rim.”The Mustangs jumped

out to a 12-4 lead in thefirst quarter and heldit as they entered half-time with a 21-14 advan-tage. They increasedtheir lead in the third

quarter with 16 pointswhile holding Mott tojust five. The two teamseach scored six pointsin the final stanza.Northville also

rebounded well, grab-bing 35 boards on thenight to Mott’s 20.The Mustangs are now

12-7 overall.

MUSTANGSContinued from page B1

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