Livonia Stevenson was the latest team to take a crack at the nation's No. 1-ranked hockey team in the Michigan Interscholastic Hockey League Showcase.

And although the Spartans fell short 4-2 Saturday afternoon against 31-2 Culver Academy (Ind.), they acquitted themselves quite well at Trenton's Kennedy Arena.

"It was a tough game, they played us really hard," Culver fifth-year coach Steve Palmer said. "And if we didn't get a couple of power play goals in the second period . . .  that was the difference. Our power play was a little better than theirs tonight and it's a 2-2 hockey game if we're not two-for-two on the power play, so it was a really good game."

After a scoreless first period, Culver capitalized twice in the second with the man advantage to take a 2-0 lead.

Senior forward Connor Merrill, who has 60-plus points on the year, scored at 8:15 assisted by Jackson Pierson and Dominic Vidoli followed by a Vidoli goal at 16:45 from Brock Paul to give Culver a two-goal cushion.

"They're good," said Stevenson fourth-year senior defenseman Kevin Stefanick, who was a standout on the blue line. "Coming in knowing what they are – number one in the nation, too –  we knew we'd have a tough game. Their power play is good, no doubt about that. We tried focus on our defense, live another day, so just chip pucks out, get pucks deep and play simple."

But only 13 seconds later after Vidoli's goal, Stevenson Brenden Preiss answered with an unassisted effort to trim the deficit to 2-1 entering the third when he beat Culver goalie Grant Adams.

But at the 3:36 mark of the third period, Culver's Nick Stapleton made it 3-1 on a screwball-type drive that eluded Stevenson netminder Will Tragge. Assists went to Pierson and Jacob Eckerle.

"The defenseman went to get his stick on it, and it popped up, and Will (Tragge) never saw it," Stevenson coach David Mitchell said. "They shoot the puck so hard and they shoot it so well. It was a fluky goal, but that's what good teams do. Good teams make plays happen."

Culver's Patrick Schmiedlin went top shelf off an assist from Merrill to increase Culver's lead to 4-1 at 9:04, but the Spartans got a late goal with 1:43 remaining from Vincent Decina assisted by Cole Parkhurst.

With 1:23 left, Mitchell called a timeout and pulled Tragge for the extra attacker, but time ran out on the Spartans, the state's No. 1-ranked team in Division 2.

"It was a great hockey game in terms of we gave it our best, that's for sure," Mitchell said "Culver is on another level. You have the utmost respect for them, for their program, for what they do and what they're about. We can't say enough of who they are and we appreciate them coming down to this Showcase."

Stevenson did a good job of limiting Culver's chances. The official MIHL stat crew had Culver outshooting the Spartans, 18-11.

"They blocked a lot of shots tonight, normally we've been getting 30 plus shots a game and we got under 20 today," Palmer said. "It was tough to get pucks to the net and they played really hard, they blocked a lot of shots, they had sticks in lanes. They really competed defensively. It was a real tough game for our kids, who skate pretty well and move the puck pretty well, but they made it real tough on us. That's a pretty good defensive hockey game."

The loss dropped Stevenson to 16-4 overall.

"We learned we can play with the best for sure," Stefanick said. "We got a lot competitors, guys that want to compete, want to play hard. I think we're looking good."

It was only a night earlier that Culver handed Novi Detroit Catholic Central, the No. 1-ranked team in Division 1, a 2-1 setback in the Trenton Showcase. CC has only three losses this season, all to Culver.

"Culver plays a really mature, real hockey, next level hockey game," Mitchell said. "And when you play that you have to stay on top, you have to make sure your guys stay with their assignments. You have to really have to stay on guys instead of puck watching. I think we did a really good job of sticking to the game plan, skating with them and playing with them."

The Spartans went 0-for-3 on power play, while Culver went two-for-two.

"They're power play was great, but we hung in there and we felt we held our own," Mitchell said. "It was a good showing, I think."