MCRHL Saturday Recap

With Saturday in the books, let’s recap our first day of Regional Championship play.

DI:

Right out of the gate, Michigan State was finding the back of the net. Scoring early and often the Spartans, led by Eric Purcell’s 4 point day, went on to beat Eastern Michigan 11-1.  The second DI game of the day turned out to be the game of the day.  With a back and forth season series, Miami and Grand Valley needed 2OT to determine a winner.  Josh Kanclerz scored his second of the game to lead GVSU to a 5-4 win.  Later on, in the elimination bracket, Miami leaned on their star Kevin Putnam.  He responded with 3 goals and an assist the Redhawks beat Eastern Michigan 7-1 to earn a spot in the DI semi-final Sunday at 10 am.  In the last game of the night, Mac Burkhard quietly had a hat trick to lead the Spartans to a 6-1 win over Grand Valley.  With the win, Michigan State advanced to the DI final.

DII:

Finally healthy and back with most of their roster, Western Michigan came out and started to play like the team that only lost 2 regular season games.  Through the day they ran through Ohio State 8-2 and -Michigan Tech 7-2.  Billy DeMeyer fired away 2 goals and added a helper for the Michgan Tech Huskies against Akron on route to a 4-3 win.  Their season’s on the line, Akron and Ohio State squared off.  Korey Davis lead the Zips to  a shutout and Joey Nahay scored both of Akron’s goals in a 2-0 win.  Michigan Tech and Akron play Sunday morning at 9AM.

DIII:

Grand Valley State and Michigan State-White took to a best of 3 series to earn a spot in the DIII final.  Grand Valley came out flying.  Led by Brian Makowski’s 3 goals the Lakers went on a 6-1 win and a 1-0 series lead.  In Game 2 Michigan State’s Stephen Krause showed exactly why he was selected the All-MCRHL team.  Refusing to go quietly, he took his team on his back firing home a hat trick and adding two assists.  However, the Spartans fell short in OT and the Lakers swept the series.

Plenty of great action ahead on Sunday!