PLYMOUTH – Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern/Eastern’s power play has been a strength all season.
It scored three power-plays goals and added an empty-netter to beat Saline 4-2 Thursday in a Division 2 state semifinal at USA Hockey Arena.
Forest Hills, which lost to eventual state champion Romeo in the state semifinals last season, advances to the championship for the first time. It will face top-ranked Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice -- a 5-2 winner over Hartland -- in the finals Saturday.
“It is a big moment for our program,” Forest Hills sixth-year coach Tom Bissett said. “It wasn’t the prettiest game, wasn’t the best game we’ve played, but we found a way to get it done. I’m really proud of the team and the ability for us to battle through.”
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Junior forward Joel Brandinger scored Forest Hill’s third power-play goal at the 14-minute, 37-second mark of the second period for a 3-2 lead. Saline’s Mikhail Lozovyy remained in the penalty box for another four minutes after taking a five-minute major for an illegal check to the head.
The Hornets took another five-minute major in the third period, and although Forest Hills didn’t capitalize, the time on the man-advantage ate a good portion of the clock.
“It has been clicking at about a 25-percent clip,” Bissett said his team’s power play. “Tonight we had a lot of opportunities. I thought we could have had a buried a few more -- had decent puck movement but were a little bit slow at times. We’ve had a few different looks and we have a quite a few different weapons on our power play.”
Saline had a few good chances in the last five minutes, but Josh Boverhof’s empty-net goal with 34 seconds left sealed it for Forest Hills (20-9-1).
“That’s just when you have to chip away, be gritty, start getting pucks out, blocking shots, getting across the red line and getting it (the puck) deep,” said senior forward Wyatt Radakovitz, who gave Forest Hills a 1-0 lead 3:05 into the first. “It was a huge group effort out there in the last eight minutes, high intensity.”
Radakovitz said the team doesn’t feel like it is an underdog, even if it is not ranked.
“Not a lot of our guys worry about that,” he said. “We just come to the rink every day ready to work and have fun.”
Brandinger gave Forest Hills a 2-0 lead at the 4:31 mark of the first period with another power-play goal.
“We shot ourselves in the foot a little bit too much tonight,” Saline coach Paul Fassbender said, referring to taking penalties. "We knew they had a good power play and gave them too much respect.
“I thought five-on-five we played pretty well. We had some chances. It’s a tough one to swallow.”
Saline, also unranked, finishes the season 22-6-1. It won the Metro Division and Southeastern Conference Red Division, and had a 13-game winning streak heading into Wednesday, including a 6-5 overtime victory over No. 4 Livonia Churchill in the quarterfinals.
The Hornets graduate three seniors: Klaassen, Noah Helber and Justin Flanagan.
“We had a lot of chemistry,” Helber said. “Everyone was themselves, everyone had a voice on the team and everyone worked hard. Coming this far, I hope to see the Saline program keep doing this and pose a threat in high school hockey.”
