Ever peruse the MI-HS state record books? Take a look and you’ll see crazy performances and astronomical numbers in line with the Gretzky era of the NHL. 

The Great One posted not one, not two, not three but four 200-point seasons in the 1980s. Meanwhile, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are on pace for just 121 points here in 2020 for most in the league. Well, similarly in high school hockey, there are out-of-this-world type records of 10 goals in a game by Ron Rolston, 372 points in a career by Doug Wood (Gotta be related to this Doug Wood, right?), Tom Gora’s 14 consecutive games with a hat trick, Traverse City defeating Saginaw 48-0… just ridiculous, stupid numbers that no one will ever touch now in the modern era.

Some of the rules changes in high school hockey — the eight-goal mercy rule and running clock — have eliminated the possibility of these records being broken, probably for the better, as I do not need to see any team’s margin of victory in the low teens, let alone in the 30-goal differential. While many records will never be broken, I think it’s worth noting when one athlete accomplishes something that MI-HS has no record of at all.

On Saturday, Seth Lause tallied not one, not two but three short-handed goals in Livonia Stevenson’s 5-2 win over KLAA rival Hartland. Such an amazing feat, that it would tie a 29-year-old NHL record if the leagues correlated. The only individual numbers provided in the record books as far as special teams are concerned is Rolston’s 26 power-play goals (wow) and Greg Rolston’s 12 short-handed goals (double-wow), both marked as single-season numbers but nothing in terms of individual game performances. 

Now, it wouldn’t surprise me if three of Greg’s 12 shorties came in a single game back in the ‘82-83 season for Flint Powers, but I think we’re gonna have a tough time digging through the archives for score sheets or retrieving any grainy game film from ‘back in the day.’ Can we just call Lause’s performance one for the record books? Can we make his short-handed hat trick a new benchmark in history? 

Rarely, do we ever get to witness history and not only did he do it but if you weren’t at the Hartland Sports Center on Saturday night, you can still admire the spectacle here.

It’s a unique time we’re living in and with social media, camera phones, high-definition video and much more, the idea of game highlights or chronicling historic moments are no longer limited to the ESPN’s and NBA’s of the world. You can watch Michael Jordan’s flu game in its entirety on YouTube. NFL Network re-broadcasted all 50 Super Bowls in order leading up to XLI last year. Thanks to the amazingly hard work of State Champs! and local news outlets like Bill Khan and the Livingston Daily, coupled with video analysis of games by coaching staffs, capturing these moments in our game is becoming more and more prevalent. 

Is there a video of Ethan Haire’s 96-save performance for Tawas from December, 2018? Could we rewatch the 2014 seven-OT thriller between TC West and Bay Reps? We’ve got them logged on the Hub and I don’t think we’re that far off as a society from being able to relive these moments in real-time. So when moments like Lause’s take place over the weekend, I think we need to do everything in our power to acknowledge and document such special moments in history.

Not only is it a once-in-a-lifetime sequence of events, but it’s who he accomplished the feat against that makes it even more improbable. 

Lause is one of the best players in the state — ranked seventh in my 100 Players To Know before the season — playing for one of the best teams in the state, as Stevenson ranked fourth going into this weekend by MyHockeyRankings. He didn’t go out and mount this performance against the 138th ranked team, he rattled off three short-handed goals against the reigning, back-to-back defending Division-II state champion and fifth-ranked Eagles in one of the biggest games of the ‘19-20 season thus far.

The game as a whole was one to be remembered and the four-year senior’s outing made it unforgettable. The two teams will more than likely collide again before the season is over, be it regular season and/or playoffs, and MI-HS supporters from around The Mitten should be tuning in when that happens.

That is the best thing I saw this week, and one of the best I’ve seen all season, how about you? Tell me what you think about this and anything high school hockey related here on Twitter.