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FLINT – The Detroit Catholic Central Shamrocks earned another trip to the state semifinals at USA Hockey Arena next weekend, squeaking by the Howell Highlanders 1-0 on Saturday afternoon.
“It was a great hockey game, two great teams going toe-to-toe,” Shamrocks head coach Brandon Kaleniecki said. “I mean, 0-0, a tight game. It had a bit of everything. It was very emotional – good and bad at times with that emotion – me included. Everybody gets engaged in that, but it’s also what makes it so much fun, too.”
Nick McQuaid got the game’s lone goal with just 5:14 remaining in the third period. The puck caromed off the boards behind the net straight to the top of the face-off circle to the left of the Howell goal, and McQuaid stepped into a blast that hit the top corner on the far side as Howell goalie Chase Rayburn’s momentum took him back toward the near post to track the initial carom.
Prior to that, both goalies had seemed virtually unbeatable in a goaltending duel that was beginning to approach legendary status. Rayburn finished with 38 saves, including a half-dozen dazzling efforts that left the crowd stunned. Shamrocks goalie Nicholas Kogut wasn’t quite as busy – making 23 saves in the shutout – but he also had to make a handful of spectacular stops to keep the game scoreless. Kogut was at his best early in the second period when he made three tremendous saves in less than a minute, robbing multiple Highlanders of what should have been goals.
The game was a tight, at times chippy affair, with emotions running high as the top-ranked Highlanders and the six-time defending Shamrocks engaged in a battle that was worthy of any state final. The game looked like the most marquee of matchups on paper, and the teams did not disappoint.
Eventually, Catholic Central’s depth proved just a bit too much for Howell as the Shamrocks rolled four lines, leaving their legs a bit fresher while simultaneously letting them tilt the ice late in the third period against a tired group of Highlanders.
“I felt that towards the end you could see that a little bit,” Kaleiecki said. “We wanted to play a little more 5-on-5 for sure because of that depth. Some of the moments where we got into penalty trouble took us out of being able to do that, but our penalty kill was fantastic.” He added that, “Our fourth line, if you want to call them that, guys that didn’t play a ton because of some of those penalties, they were on the ice when we scored that lone goal. That’s a huge credit to them. That doesn’t get lost on us at all.”
Indeed, the Shamrock penalty kill was perfect on four occasions throughout the afternoon, including killing off three minutes of a major, part of which was 5-on-3 time as the major overlapped with another penalty later in the first period.
Photos of No. 2 Detroit Catholic Central and No. 1 Howell in a D1 hockey quarterfinal
With the win, Detroit Catholic Central improves to 26-1-1 and earns another trip to Plymouth and the state semifinals, where they will once again attempt to defend their crown. Not since 2018 when Brighton won it all has another team lifted the D1 trophy.
“You can’t assume that you’re going to get there,” Kaleniecki said. "We knew what the path was when they put these regional assignments out before the season, and you just kind of touch your head and go okay, that’s what it is. You kind of knew this game was coming, and here we are. We get to go back, and we get to go back to the rink on Monday. That was the biggest thing we were talking about. We wanted to be able to come back to practice on Monday, and we get to do that."
Howell finishes the year 26-2. The Highlanders started the year losing to Catholic Central by one goal in their season opener, 4-3, and ended their season the same way, winning the 26 games in between.
Eighth-ranked Rockford defeated Jackson Northwest 5-3 on Saturday and will be the Shamrocks' opponent next Thursday.
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