SAGINAW — Hockey fans saw two exciting finishes in Monday night’s Division 2 pre-regional games at Saginaw Bay Ice Arena.

But the outcomes of those games left Midland High and Dow High stunned.

Host Saginaw Heritage exploded for four goals in the final 4:28 to erase a two-goal deficit and defeat the Chemics 6-4 in the first game, then Bay Area goalie Jayson Wiltala made 47 saves and the Thunder withstood a big Dow rally and beat the Chargers 5-4.

The Hawks (13-12-1) will host the Thunder (17-9-1) in Wednesday’s regional semifinal, while the Chemics (11-14) and the Chargers (17-8-1) bowed out on the first night of the postseason.

“I thought we dominated the game,” said Dow coach Dick Blasy, whose team outshot the Thunder 51-12. “We had so many chances that we just didn’t capitalize on, and their goalie played outstanding.”

Bay Area — made up mostly of Bay City John Glenn players along with a few from Essexville Garber and Pinconning — built a 5-1 lead midway through the second period and then survived the Chargers’ comeback.

“This was huge for us,” said Thunder assistant coach John Ioannidis. “To beat a talented opponent like Dow was a huge victory for us.”

Dow, the Saginaw Valley League champion, had beaten Bay Area 3-2 in overtime in the season opener on Nov. 26, and Ioannidis said his team came into Monday’s game relaxed.

“The pressure was off us. We were playing with nothing to lose, and we were very loose in our play,” Ioannidis said.

After 10 scoreless minutes to start the game, Bay Area junior Lucas Rafaill scored past Dow goalie Seamus Belisle with 6:27 left in the first period.

Dow junior Alex Farrell answered with a goal at 4:48 to tie it. But Rafaill struck again just 12 seconds later for a 2-1 lead that the Thunder took into the first intermission.

Things unraveled for Dow early in the second period. Bay Area junior Connor Monaghan scored at 15:09, and scored again on the power play at 11:51 to make it 4-1.

The Chargers went on a power play a minute later but could not convert, and then at 8:02, junior Sam Gaffney’s goal put the Thunder ahead 5-1 at 8:02.

That prompted Blasy to use his timeout, and Dow responded 46 seconds later with a goal by senior Jackson Storer from outside the left face-off circle to make it 5-2.

The Chargers got another power play a short time later, but the Thunder again killed the penalty. Dow peppered Wiltala with several shots in the last few minutes of the second period, but he turned them all aside to maintain the three-goal lead.

Bay Area killed yet another penalty early in the third, and the teams played more than 11 scoreless minutes to start the period.

“The Thunder did a nice job of packing in (on defense), and they blocked a lot of shots,” Blasy noted.

Finally, Storer scored with 5:46 left to make it 5-3 and give the Chargers some momentum.

Dow eventually got a 5-on-3 power play for a little over a minute after two Bay Area penalties. The Thunder officially killed off both penalties, but Dow cut the deficit to 5-4 just as the second penalty was ending at 1:58, on a goal by Farrell on a rebound.

Bay Area then called timeout, and the Chargers pulled Belisle for an extra attacker with 1:25 left. However, Dow could not get another shot past Wiltala, and the Thunder prevailed.

Blasy said his team’s lack of execution offensively was a flaw for much of the season.

“We had the puck in their end almost the entire game, but we couldn’t bury the puck — which has been an issue for us the majority of the season,” he said.

Assists for the Chargers went to Sully McMahon, Cay Wagner, Jack Kivi, Nick Sleeper, Jackson Storer, and Brett Brillhart.

Dow will lose seven seniors, including Storer, who had 42 points this season, and Brillhart, who had 41 points.

“My seniors were a hard-hat and lunch-pail group. Every day they came to work and worked hard,” Blasy said.

Meanwhile, in Monday’s first game, coach Jeff Brown’s Chemics twice built two-goal leads against Heritage, but ended up falling to the Hawks for the third time this season.

“There were some highs and some lows out there tonight, and we’re a little low right now,” Brown said. “I’m proud of the way the guys played. The seniors gave it everything they had. We’re going to hate to see them go.”

Heritage had defeated Midland 4-1 and 9-2 in the regular season.

“I don’t think a lot of people thought we had much of a chance (tonight),” Brown said. “But we battled hard, and things just didn’t fall our way.”

Midland came out with a lot of energy and outplayed Heritage in the first period, netting two goals to take a 2-0 lead.

Junior Mitchell Gardner backhanded a rebound into the left corner of the net to make it 1-0 with 10:50 left in the first period.

With 3:56 to go, the Chemics got a 2-on-1 breakaway and Brendan Witt made a nice pass to senior captain Yoodong Hwang, who fired the puck into the net from the right side for a 2-0 advantage.

But Heritage got some life late in the first period when Kevin Bremer scored to make it 2-1 at 1:56, and the Hawks ended the first period on a power play.

The Chemics killed off that penalty and killed off two more in the second period, but Heritage was able to tie the game on an even-strength goal by London Bonenfant with 6:14 left.

“In the first period, (Midland) had great energy and they outworked us,” said Hawks’ coach J.J. Bamberger. “We had a really good second period (on offense), but we were just missing the net way too much.”

The Chemics regained the lead thanks in part to an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty called against Bonenfant with no time left in the second period. Just nine seconds into the third period, Midland junior Cheyne Maier scored on the resulting power play for a 3-2 lead.

The Chemics took advantage of a 5-on-3 power play a few minutes later when senior Alex Reinke scored for a 4-2 lead with 13:57 left.

Midland built on that momentum by killing a penalty that took the clock down to 6:29.

But, with their backs to the wall, the Hawks rallied. Bonenfant cut the lead to 4-3 at 4:28, and Hunter Parasiliti scored 23 seconds later at 4:05 to tie the game.

Midland killed another penalty right on the heels of the tying goal, but only five seconds after the Chemics were back at full strength, Bremer’s goal gave Heritage a 5-4 lead at 1:56.

Brown called timeout at that point.

But the Hawks continued to put pressure on the Midland goal, which meant that Midland was not able to pull goalie Weondong Hwang until only 20 seconds remained. The Chemics could not take advantage of the extra attacker, and instead the Hawks’ Zach Dornseifer scored into an empty net with 4.4 seconds left to seal the win.

“We played hard, and they’re a good team,” Brown said of Heritage. “I’m still trying to process that last five minutes.”

For the Hawks, the only two seniors on the team — Bremer and Bonenfant — combined for four goals and three assists.

“They came out and played with a lot of emotion and heart, and that trickled down to everybody else on the team,” Bamberger said of Bremer and Bonenfant.

Heritage outshot Midland 35-32.