League Championship

 MIHL Title goes down to the Wire!

If any high school hockey league championship race can be classified as dramatic, certainly this year’s title chase in the Michigan Interscholastic Hockey League would qualify. Four teams ended the season tied with 16 points, but U of D Jesuit emerged with the title by virtue of having more wins. As MIHL president, Andy Weidenbach, said, “It just couldn’t have been any closer. We had to use the fourth tie-breaker to determine the winner.”

 

U of D Jesuit Head Coach Rick Bennets was proud of his team and their achievement, “The MIHL is arguably the best and most competitive league in the state and for us to be in this league and now being able to finish on top with Cranbrook, Catholic Central and Brother Rice is a tremendous achievement. We hope it will be something to build on in the future.” The competition was indeed intense as Cranbrook, Catholic Central and Brother Rice were all ranked #1 in their respective divisions.

 

This year is certainly the high water mark for the Cubs in the MIHL as their finish was 4^th place in their inaugural season in the league. Bennets explained the improvement, “We put an added emphasis on defense – we decreased our goals against average, improved our defensive zone play and got the players to buy into a “defense first” philosophy. We also increased our quality scoring chances in each game and the players felt like they had a chance to win every game.”

 

Strong season performances by several key players also played a part in the improvement. Mac Olson has averaged about two points per game and Mike Yanis started to log about 30 minutes per game once he made the switch to defense. Justin Evans was a stalwart all season between the pipes. But as Bennets said, “Everyone contributed to our success. The team always came first.” 

 

It doesn’t get any easier for the Cubs as they begin the MHSAA State Tournament. First game is against none other than fellow MIHL member Grosse Pointe North, a team they beat twice during the season. Bennets explained the challenge, “Certainly, playing Grosse Pointe North for our first tournament game is a challenging draw.  We've defeated them twice by one goal, but both games could have gone either way.  I think the biggest thing we have going for us is winning 18 games against great competition over a 4+ month timeframe. It is also key that the kids believe that they can beat anybody they play on any given night is something we have not really had in the past.”