Bears Bring Home the Win in Regional Hockey Final

This week has been a wild ride for the hockey team and next week ought to be just as fun.

On Monday, the team and on Wednesday full bent on ending the Bears' season.  Neither team could finish the job, and for that the Bears had a date Saturday night with the Farmington Falcons for a chance to advance to the state quarterfinal in Chelsea on Tuesday.

The Bears did just that, with a convincing 5-3 victory over Farmington in a game that featured big hits, great goals and good goaltending.

The Bears were a little tentative early on, resulting in numerous whistles due to icing. Early on, Jake Carlisle took a critical penalty, resulting in the first power play of the game. During the penalty kill, Gerald Mayhew was pressuring Farmington and because of his hard work, was able to draw a penalty. The teams now played 4-on-4 hockey.

Tyler Groat took advantage of the situation and scored the first goal of the game. With momentum on their side, the Bears took full advantage of it.

Farmington’s hockey team is a team that is seen as one of size and strength. The Bears are a team that uses speed and finesse to their advantage and after John Calhoun’s goal, the Falcons were exposed to the true strength of the Bears team. The Bears outshot the Falcons 10-6 and led 2-0 in the first period

Wyandotte’s second goal at the end of the first period put Farmington on their heels for the start of the second. Wyandotte also capitalized early in the period, thus killing more of Farmington’s momentum. A goal by Nick Kovalchik put the Bears up 3-0. Protecting leads is something the Bears have excelled at all season, but two quick goals by Farmington cut the lead to one.

As they had done all season, Wyandotte’s hustle caused Farmington to pick up a penalty. This penalty was going to do one of two things: further Farmington’s momentum in an effort to tie the game if they killed the penalty or allow Wyandotte to regain the momentum with a goal. Early in the penalty kill, Farmington defenders were doing their job.  Farmington netminder Tim Rogers attempted to stop a puck behind the net and clear it out of the zone.  He successfully stopped it, but did not clear the zone and Groat had an easy open net to score on.  The goal put the Bears up by 2.

“Their goalie made a mistake and was trying to clear the puck,” Groat said after the game.  “I was able to grab the puck and put it into an empty net.”

Heading into the intermission, the Bears had outshot the Falcons 19-10 in the second period.

The third period resulted in another early goal by the Bears, this time with Kovalchik scoring his second of the night and the Bears stretched their lead to three goals, 5-2.  The combination of Groat’s and Kovalchik’s goals had sent the Falcons reeling.  Farmington added a goal to cut the lead to 2 once again, but the score never changed again.  Wyandotte fought the final seven minutes without letting in another goal and the celebration was on for the Bears' 5-3 regional final victory.

Wyandotte coaches were quick to point out the play of sophomore Aaron Robinson who received hit after hit from the Falcons but continued to play hard.

“We played good tonight," Robinson said. "They kept coming after me and I felt I did what I had to win.”

Goaltender Chase Schmittou gave great credit to his counterpart Rogers.

“We knew from the start that we would go far, but we did not know much about Farmington," Schmittou said. "Their goalie did a great job of keeping them in it.”

Coach Mike Quint was seen enjoying the moment, but stressed that his team must maintain its focus.

“We’ve worked hard this year," he said. "Farmington came out to a slow start and we had to alter our game plan originally.  We knew that this was a good Farmington team.”

Wyandotte will travel to Chelsea on Tuesday to face Pinckney in a Division 2 state quarterfinal game.