Hockey coaches expect tighter BNC race this year

Dec. 2—TRAVERSE CITY — Hockey looks to be as competitive as ever in northern Michigan this season.

With most teams playing a handful of games already, area teams set the stage for some drama down the stretch and in the playoffs.

Cadillac and Petoskey posted strong early showings, and Gaylord looking to continue its resurgence. The Big North Conference could be as competitive as it's been in years and the Northern Michigan Hockey League might not be the breeze it's been in many years for a reloading Bay Reps squad.

TC CENTRAL

The Trojans won the Big North in eight of the last 10 seasons, and face a big early-season test in two weeks when Central and West square off Dec. 15 at Howe Arena.

Central started off the season 3-0, including a very competitive 5-3 game against Petoskey in which the Trojans scored all five of their goals on the power play.

"This is probably going to be the tightest conference race we've had — maybe ever, but certainly in the last 8-10 years." Trojans' head coach Chris Givens said. "Day-to-day life in the Big North is not going to be easy, and we saw that (against Petoskey). You'd rather have it that way."

The Trojans have Grant Neuhardt back for his fourth year starting between the pipes. He's posted a .912 save percentage in two appearances this year after a .901 rate last season. He and junior Brady Faille have two shutouts in three games.

"He's really matured the last four years," Givens said of Neuhardt. "He's taken on a leadership role."

Central's strong 3-0 start comes with five freshmen on the roster, the most in Givens' tenure. There are eight freshmen and sophomores in their first year on varsity.

The Trojans lost Will Dawson, Ethan Vander Roest and Carson Peters — the three top point scorers from last year's team. The next three — Hunter Folgmann, Owen Dawson and Shea Harmeson — stepped right into those spots, producing 11 of the team's 15 goals through three contests.

Harmeson and Folgmann play on either side of center Cam Peters on the team's "green" line, the top-scoring line this year. Owen Dawson, a defenseman, added to his shot in the offseason to help replace the loss of his older brother's scoring when Will Dawson left to play for the Notre Dame Hounds in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, where he has seven points in 22 games.

TC WEST

West aims to dethrone Central, which hasn't lost a game in BNC play in over two years.

The Titans started out 3-0 in fine fashion, including a 2-0 shutout of Northville and a 9-1 mercy of Farmington United.

The Titans miss the scoring of Murphy Kehoe, Grant LaFaive and Ryan Leslie. But sophomore Brandon Myers has helped fill that void nicely, producing two goals and six assists in three contests while joining the top line alongside Michael Schermerhorn and Tyler Esman.

Esman has five goals and eight points, and Schermerhorn netted four goals and six points as the line produced 11 of the team's 16 goals through three games.

"We've had to gut out a couple close ones in the third period," West head coach Jeremy Rintala said. "That's always nice to see with a kind of young team."

The junior goalie duo of Mason West and Mac Smith both put forth goals-against averages right around 1.00 and save percentages well into the 90s so far, with West playing two games and Smith one.

"We always feel good with Mason between the pipes," Rintala said, noting Smith has looked good in practice as well.

West's second line of senior center Drew Moeggenborg, Finnish foreign-exchange student Antti Virolainen and either Reece Robertson or Isaac Roehling on the other wing could be a major factor. Moeggenborg and Virolainen each have a goal and an assist early on.

Rintala said sophomore Jonah Starr has been a pleasant surprise on the third line. He's scored a goal already this season.

BAY REPS

The Reps started the season with a pair of one-goal setbacks, but they rebounded with 19 goals in the next two contests against Monroe St. Mary and Wyandotte Roosevelt.

The seven-school co-op program made up of Traverse City St. Francis, Elk Rapids, Kalkaska, Suttons Bay, Lake Leelanau St. Mary, Kingsley and Mancelona already have nine players with four or more points. Those nine players also represent five of the seven co-op schools, led by Elk Rapids sophomore Grant Lucas with four goals and seven points and St. Francis sophomore Lars Millar, a cousin of former Reps standout Kaleb Miller (even though they spell the last name differently), with two goals and five assists.

"We're not an overly young team, but we're young up front," Reps' head coach Mike Matteucci said. "They're progressing well and hope they continue forward and we can compete with anybody on our schedule."

The Reps had to wait for several players from semifinals run in football, getting Drew Hardy and Garrett Hathaway back from TC St. Francis and junior defender Nick Dashner from Suttons Bay.

The Reps have only five seniors, including goalie Mack Barnhard, who has split starts in goal evenly with Hathaway so far. But the team only has one freshman (Kalkaska forward Zander Griffore). That leaves a lot of sophomores and juniors to fill out the roster.

"They can make an impact this year," Matteucci said. "Over the four games we've played, they've done better. That'll leave us with a deeper team."

The Reps could skate four solid lines at teams this seasons, with the fourth line consisting of returning players Ethan Vitale, Campbell Holland and Chris Gay and the Hardy-Millar-Lucas scoring line at the top.

Dashner makes his Reps debut in Friday's 5:30 p.m. home contest with Bay City. The Reps also host Rochester United at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

PETOSKEY

Petoskey (2-2) played TC Central close Tuesday night, following wins over St. Clair Shores Unified and Cheboygan. Monroe St. Mary and Rochester Stoney Creek are up this weekend in the home Toys For Tots Showcase at Petoskey Ice Arena.

Derek Hebner led the team in goals, assists and points last year as a defenseman, earning Record-Eagle Dream Team honors before joining his older brother Kyle on the Concordia University team. A bevy of players have helped fill that scoring void this season.

Junior forward Dylan Robinson has four goals and 11 points in four games as Petoskey scored an average of nearly five goals a game. Senior forward Christopher Kavanaugh pitched in a team-high five goals and eight points, while junior forward Rayce Szalkowski added three goals and five points. Senior Kolton Horn has three goals and four points, and senior defenseman Avery Timm pitched in three goals and four points.

"All players I was hoping would step up," third-year head coach Rob Higgins said. "A lot of our scoring came from (Hebner) last year. It's not something that's easily accomplished, but I feel we have the personnel to do that."

Timm, Horn, Kavanaugh and Robinson are the team's captains, with freshman Gavin Szalkowski taking over in net.

"We have great goaltending this year," Higgins said. "We have three goaltenders that are very capable."

Gavin Szalkowski played in three of four games in goal, with junior Joseph Wolfe and sophomore Mason Bird each appearing in one contest. Each earned a win already this season.

Petoskey has a fairly young roster overall, with seven freshmen and four sophomores out of 23 players.

CADILLAC

The Vikings won their first three games of the season, including a 2-0 shutout of Ann Arbor Huron. Only a 2-1 overtime loss to Big Rapids blemishes Cadillac's record, and the Vikings can put that in the past this weekend with a road game next week at Cheboygan and home Dec. 8 against TC West to open up league play.

"On a perennial basis, you've always got TC Central reloading," 24-year head coach Scott Graham said. "Central and West have had a stronghold on the league for a long time. But everybody's in it. It's go time."

Rostering 21 players this year also helps. The Vikings lost three seniors last season, and the 21 players is the most Graham has had for years.

Wednesday's home game against the Lakeshore Badgers was postponed to Jan. 10 because of the flu, reducing the Badgers to only eight players. The Vikings picked up a home game Friday with Davison.

Senior forward Fisher Moore leads the Vikes with 10 points on six goals and four assists, followed by junior Henry Schmittdiel with five goals and nine points. Senior Kam Hearld and junior Kaleb McKinley each produced four points through four games. Junior Carson Carlington and sophomores Cadyn Russell and Zach Beckhardt each have three.

The Vikings saw five different players score in a 5-4 overtime win Nov. 20 over Lenawee United that put Cadillac at 3-0.

Junior goalie Dylan Quartz has been rock solid in net this season, with a 1-1 record, 1.18 goals-against average and .948 save percentage. Junior Dakota Vail is the other goalie in front of a sophomore-heavy defense.

"We're confident in both of them," Graham said.

The Vikings have only three seniors rostered, but also just one freshman. The bulk of the team is nine juniors and eight sophomores.

GAYLORD

The Blue Devils started the season on a winning note, topping Cheboygan 6-0 before losses to Midland and L'Anse Creuse Unified. They scored eight goals in those setbacks, however.

The forward trio of junior Isaac Hopp, senior Colton Hurst and senior Ian Busch has made the Devils' engine run this season, with Hopp scoring a team-high four goals as well as five assists. Hurst put up a team-leading six assists and seven points, and Busch has three goals and six points. Ty Pichan and Luke Pawlanta each scored two goals.

Gaylord kicks off league play Friday and Saturday in a home-and-home series with Alpena before hosting Grosse Ile and Chelsea the following weekend. The Devils host 10 of their first 13 contests and then hit the road for much of the second half of the season.

LAKESHORE

The Lakeshore Badgers — an eight-school co-op of Manistee, Ludington, Manistee Catholic Central, Bear Lake, Shelby, Hart, Mason County Central and Mason County Eastern — dropped two games to start the season, but they rebounded with a 5-2 win over East Kentwood and a close 1-0 loss to Lenawee United (3-1). The Badgers were supposed to play Cadillac on Wednesday, but that game was canceled.

Junior defenseman Austin Quillan leads Lakeshore with three goals and five points, while freshman forward Brandon Austin has three goals and four points and senior defender Luke Larr has put up a goal and four assists.

Freshman forward JT Szoboszlay scored two goals and senior forward Russell Shade has a goal and three points on a team of only 11 skaters and senior goalie Alex Shriver.

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