MIHL Season Preview |
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| Posted by (pronayne) on Dec 14 2009 | |
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Top conference set to roll
Two-of-three defending state champs highlight MIHL season preview
By Mike Moore
C & G Sports Writer
Year in and year out, it’s touted as the top high school hockey conference in the state. Following last season’s playoffs, the Michigan Interscholastic Hockey League has further proof to back up such a claim.
Two of the state’s three championships were won by the seven-team MIHL, and neither team — Novi Detroit Catholic Central in Division, nor Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood in Division 3 — won its own league title. That honor went to University of Detroit Jesuit, which won using tiebreakers after four teams finished tied at the top in points.
“You have to love this league,” said Catholic Central coach Todd Johnson, as teams from the MIHL have won 15 state titles since its inception in the 1999-2000 season. “The quality of the competition, the quality of the coaching, the quality of the players, it’s unmatched. There’s no argument, this is the best league in the state.”
So with the puck dropped on the 2009-10 season, and with the MIHL crown as up for grabs as it has ever been, here’s a closer look at each local team, including returning players and their respective positions.
For a complete preview, visit our Web site at www.candgnews.com and click on the Sports Link.
For a preview of each team, click on the link below.
| Brother Rice | Catholic Central | Cranbrook | De La Salle |
| Grosse Pointe North | Port Huron Northern | U of D Jesuit |
Shamrocks Picked top Team in MIHL Coaches' Poll
Birmingham Brother Rice Warriors
• Coach: Lou Schmidt — seventh season.
• Last season: 19-6-2 overall, 7-3-1-1 (fourth place).
• Playoff finish: Lost to Novi High 2-1 in Division 2 regional final.
• Key players lost: Andrew Szutka, Jon Elliott, Hayden Haffey and Jareth Glanda.
• Key players returned: Joe Van Antwerp, senior, D; Steve Hibbard, senior, F; Luke Jackson, senior, F; Grant Fisher, senior, F; and PJ Bridges, junior, G.
Season outlook:
The Warriors were one of four teams that tied for first overall a season ago; they also had the worst luck in the tiebreaker, officially finishing fourth in the MIHL. Keeping that position may be even tougher this year, as the Warriors graduated 10 players — none bigger than Glanda, the larger-than-life goalie who’s now a member of the Michigan football team.
“PJ’s job got a lot tougher,” Schmidt laughed, referring to Bridges, who assumed the starting role. “We’ve got a lot of confidence in him, though. He’s a completely different style than Jareth, but he can be just as effective.
Rice’s biggest strength may be up front. The Warriors returned six forwards from a team that was tied for the conference lead in goals scored last year with 90.
“If our younger defensemen play well and we get the goaltending we expect, things are going to be all right for us,” Schmidt said. “It’s going to take some time, though. We’re working some new guys into the lineup right away.”
Detroit Catholic Central Shamrocks
• Coach: Todd Johnson — seventh season.
• Last season: 25-3-2 overall, 7-3-0-2 (third place).
• Playoff finish: Won Division 1 state championship.
• Key players lost: Michael Szuma, Nickolas Gatt, Dan Brown, Tony Thomas, David Swierszczyk, Kyle Nelson, Brent Darnell and Steven Hensley.
• Key players returned: Zack Cisek, senior, G; and Erik Winkler, senior, F.
Season outlook:
The Shamrocks are much like the Cranes. After winning a state championship a year ago, they have reloaded and might be even stronger this year.
Fellow coaches seemed to agree, as CC got all but one first-place vote in our preseason poll in which they were asked to rank the squads.
“The goals here never change,” said Johnson, who lost seven seniors to graduation and two would-be seniors to the USHL, but returned 14 varsity players. “We want to win another state title, but we’re more focused on the day-to-day development of this team. There’s a great maturity about these guys.”
The Shamrocks lost their top two scorers in Thomas and Darnell, along with some key defensemen, but Johnson remains confident his squad can reclaim the top spot in the MIHL, something they haven’t done since 2007.
“The tiebreaker says we were third last season, so that’s where we’ve gotten our main goal from this year,” Johnson explained. “We don’t want to share first place with anyone.”
Season outlook:
It’s hard to imagine a defending state champion possibly being even stronger the next season, especially after graduating a significant batch of talent.
But that’s exactly what you have with Cranbrook.
“We’ve gotten off to a good start, and that’s always important,” Weidenbach said.
“We’ve missed some guys with injury and illness, so we haven’t been 100 percent. But over the next few weeks, I expect us to get even better.”
If there is one question mark for the Cranes, it’s in goal.
With the graduation of Hansberry, who was 7-3-2, had a .935 save percentage and a 1.24 GAA last season, Cranbrook entered the 2009-10 season with three unproven goalies vying for the starting spot. Some two weeks into the season, Weidenbach said his Cranes still have, well, three goalies vying for the starting spot.
“We need to find that go-to guy,” he said of sophomore Aaron Alkema, junior Oliver Stahl and senior Thomas Scoggin. “I think we have a good mix of forwards and a good core of defensemen. If we get our goaltending figured out, we’re going to be tough.”
Weidenbach said there is little talk this early in the season about defending a state title, but it’s never too early to think about an MIHL crown, which the Cranes won two seasons ago.
“You’ve got six teams that really have a shot,” he said. “If we do the little things right, there’s a good chance the big things will take care of themselves.”
• Coach: Dan Barry — seventh season.
• Last season: 17-9-2 overall, 3-8-0-1 (sixth place).
• Playoff finish: Lost to Trenton High 2-0 in Division 2 quarterfinals.
• Key players lost: John Kleinhans, Frank Sorise, Steve Vandenbergh and James Fish.
• Key players returned: Bill Colle, senior, F; Matt Gasior, senior, D; Brad Annas, junior, D; and John Herbert, senior, F.
Season outlook:
The Pilots begin their third year in the MIHL with quite possibly their strongest shot yet of making some noise and getting away from the sixth-place finish they’ve maintained in each of their first two seasons.
“We’re eager to do something special,” said Barry, who graduated just six this offseason and returned 14. “There’s a different feel about this team than we’ve had. It’s like we’ve got all the pieces in place.”
Almost all.
Heading into the season, there is one small question mark for the Pilots, and that’s in goal: Senior Matt Neal has taken over in net for Kleinhans, one of the top netminders the MIHL has seen in recent years.
“So far, so good,” Barry said of Neal, who had pitched two shutouts in his first four games. “If Matt can play the way we think he’s capable of, we feel we have a shot. One of the goals we set was to win the conference.”
“We have a very young team,” Lock said. “And the schedule we play, both in and out of conference, certainly doesn’t make things any easier. It’ll be a baptism by fire for our guys.”
Still, Lock hardly paused when talking about how much potential this group has, mainly because it’s the same situation he was in three years ago.
“When those guys were freshmen and sophomores, it was almost identical circumstances,” he said. “They learned on the fly, and the next thing you know, we’re in three straight final fours. No matter our roster, our goals never change. We plan on being at our best come February.”
Season outlook:
When asked about his team and its prospects for the season, Warren knows he’s building for the future.
“We’re very young this year,” he said. “We’ll be playing with four freshmen and nine sophomores in the lineup every night, and that’s not going to be easy.”
Still, knowing his team will have a difficult time climbing out of the cellar in the standings, Warren sees it as a certain blessing that his guys will face the level of competition they will all season.
“There aren’t any teams that are going to do us any favors,” he said. “But we’re fortunate to play the caliber of teams we’re going to. It accelerates that learning curve.
Season outlook:
Talk about a team that surprised everyone last season.
After going 1-9-2 in conference play two years ago, the Cubs used some timely scoring and excellent goaltending from Evans to earn first place overall in the league.
Things won’t be as easy this time around, however. The Cubs, who didn’t score a ton last year anyway, graduated 54 percent of their offense.
“Our main thing is figuring how to put the puck in the net — how to make up for that lost offense,” Bennetts said. “We’re going to need some big contributions from a bunch of different guys.”
The Cubs will also rely heavily on Evans, who’s back between the pipes for a third year as a starter. Last season, he was 7-2 with a 2.20 goals against average in 10 league starts.
“We’re still trying to figure out exactly what we have and get guys in the right place,” Bennetts said. “Our goal is to defend the title we earned last year. Whether or not that is reasonable, only time will tell.”
For the complete C & G newspaper article click on MIHL.
For the second consecutive season, Catholic Central is favored to capture the crown. Listed below are the vote totals. First-place votes are listed in parenthesis.
Catholic Central — 48 points (6)
De La Salle — 36 points (1)
Cranbrook — 36 points
Brother Rice — 27 points
Univeristy of Detroit Jesuit — 24 points
Grosse Pointe North — 18 points
Port Huron Northern — 7 points
Last changed: Dec 21 2009 at 10:34 AM
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