Capital City has played with a sense of confidence all season long. The Capitals have been a hard team to beat, having only dropping three games all season. The newly formed co-op in the Lansing Area have had win streaks of five, and 13 games through out the season.

Playing after a loss, or even chasing a team is almost foreign to them. It’s why games like Wednesday’s game at Fenton/ Linden was so important.

“We needed a weekend like this past weekend. We haven’t faced a whole lot of adversity; we’ve had some tough games, but there are times things have come easy for us,” Cap City coach Travis VanTighem said.

“That’s not always what you want coming into a playoff push. Games like tonight and the game we had against Kalamazoo, are healthy to see that our guys can get their confidence back together and play with composure.”

The Capitals (19-3-1) battled back from two one-goal deficits on the road against the Griffins to secure a 4-3 win.

Fenton jumped out to a 1-0 lead 2:26 into the first period. Freshman Nick Temple cycled the puck to the far side of the ice to senior Adrien Ganslandt. Ganslandt quickly settled the puck on his stick and sniped the top of the net for his seventh of the season.

Cap City quickly tied the score, 1-1, three minutes later.

“We’re big believers on possession. Possess as much as we can, and get middle lane drives. Watch any NHL team, and they score off middle lane drives. We try to emulate that,” VanTighem said.

“When our kids buy in they get rewarded and it’s nice to see.”

Senior Derek Hamp received a pass from Cam VanTighem and fired a quick that was initially saved. As the puck bounced off the pads, Blake Parisian stuck his stick out and batted in the rebound for the tying goal.

Despite Fenton (15-6) being outshot in the first period, the Griffins stormed back in the second period with the help of the power play.

28-seconds into a cross-checking call, the puck was moving low to high on the ice. Dylan Conte found Zach Eakes high in slot. The senior rifled the puck through traffic to regain the lead, 2-1.

“We’ve got some good shooters on our team and we like to roll three lines. Our depth really helps us, especially in games like this. We just got to turn the game around, and keep the puck a little bit out of our end, but on most nights we’ll be able to keep up offensively,” Fenton coach Kyle Marchand said.

The game of tug and war continued throughout the period as sophomore Michael LeTarte flicked in a rebound goal for a 2-2 tie 1:55 left in the second period.

Then, Cap City got even on the power play.

“We had some moment’s last weekend where we talked about it. We practice situations, six-on-five, end of game situations, we practice everything. We just don’t panic,” VanTighem said.

The Capitals received a power play, a five-minute major, and struggled to get the puck cleanly through the zone. When the puck was fired on net, it was cleanly turned away, and moved back into the neutral zone by the Griffin defense.

VanTighem walked the puck into the offensive zone. After he hugged the boards, he carried the puck from the end line to the center of the slot before he offered a deke and fired a goal for the first lead, 3-2, of the game for Cap City.

“There was just a miscommunication break down between the forward and defender there. And that’ll happen, they knew it when those two came off the ice,” Marchand said.

“But that’s not just a power play, but a five minute to our top line center that hurt. It’s a tough pill to swallow and it cost us. But we were able to answer one right back. But that goal really settled the momentum for them the rest of the way.”

After Fenton evened the score, 3-3, off the stick of Caleb Baker, Cap City regained the lead seven minutes later.

A big hit at center ice created a turnover, and Brendan Warner picked up the puck. The junior centered it into the crease where Blake Beachnau flipped it past the goaltender for a 4-3.

Fenton pulled goaltender Liam Murray late in the third period for an extra attacker, but couldn’t secure another game tying goal.

Van Tighem was thankful of the game as the regular season begins to wind down, and the post season begins to ramp up. He knows games are going to be neck-and-neck and the team can’t rebound off a loss like it did on Wednesday night.

“This is going to sound cliché, but we play games individually. We really do,” he said. “We focus on trying to win eight things a game. If we get seventy-five percent of those things accomplished, we have a good chance of winning. It’s a good way to keep our focus on what lies ahead of us, and hopefully create a deep run in the playoffs.”

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