It was fun while it lasted for the Heritage hockey team.
Coach J.J Bamburger’s Hawks advanced to the Division 2 state semifinals on March 8 before calling it a season. They ended the year at 24-6.
Heritage had defeated Grand Haven 4-1 in the quarterfinals earlier in the week at Ferris State University. But in the semifinals, it ran across a tough Livonia Stevenson team and lost 10-2.
Stevenson had a 5-0 lead after the first period. Travis Harvey scored three of Stevenson’s seven goals in the first 17 minutes.
Stevenson took the state title the next day.
Tyler Irvine had a goal in the first period for Stevenson and scored four more in the second. Sami Abdelaziz and Christopher Scheading had second period goals for Heritage. It was Abdelaziz’s 26th goal of the season to go with 22 assists. He played varsity four years, and 26 goals is a career high. His four-year total is 46 goals.
“We had a lot more playmakers this year compared to individual play. We played more as a team. It led to more goals and more wins,” he said.
Kevin Cressey and Andrew Rozenbaum were goalies for Heritage.
Abdelaziz had a hat trick and a playmaker (three assists) against Mount Pleasant and Bay City. He scored five points, two goals and three assists, against the Bay Reps.
A forward, Abdelaziz said he was strong in making himself available and getting the puck. He’s been playing the sport 12 years.
“This was my best year of hockey,” he said. “I did a lot of off-season work.”
Stevenson had a 42-14 advantage in shots in dominating Heritage. But Abdelaziz was still ecstatic with the way his team performed during the season.
“This was Heritage’s most successful season, in my opinion,” he said. “We accomplished a record for most wins. We made it to the finals of the Traverse City Invitational. We won both of our games in the Trenton Showcase and made it to the state semifinals.
“Our goalie, Kevin, stepped up at playoff time.”
The team was able to come together at the right time, as far as Abdelaziz was concerned.
He’s going to try out for Michigan State University’s club team after graduation. But Abdelaziz won’t forget 2012-13 for a long time.
“The most enjoyable part was the Traverse City Invitational,” he said. “In previous years we hadn’t won any games. To go to the finals was a big deal for me.”
Tyler Angers led the team with 28 goals.
TITLE GAMES
The title games were played Saturday, March 9, at Compuware Arena.
Brighton defeated Detroit Catholic Central 2-1 for its second straight Division I title.
Michael Yuhasz scored in the first period and assisted Lucas Morgan on his goal in the second period for Brighton. Carson Gatt scored the lone goal for Catholic Central.
Catholic Central had a 38-16 shots advantage. James Milletics had 37 saves for the winners, who ended their season at 28-2-1. Catholic Central was 22-8.
In Division 2, Livonia Stevenson sneaked past Hartland 5-4 for the Division 2 crown. Travis Harvey and Dominic Lutz each had two goals for the winners. Chris McRae had a pair for Hartland.
Stevenson had a 40-29 shots advantage and ended the season at 23-7-1, while Hartland finished at 19-9-2.
It was the first time Livonia has produced an MHSAA hockey champ.
Cranbrook-Kingswood has earned several state titles, and it notched No. 16 with a 4-2 win over Sault Ste. Marie in the Division 3 championship game.
Alex Ager scored two goals to lead Cranbrook, which had a whopping 38-10 shots advantage, including a combined 22-3 in the first and third periods. Nickolas McKenzie kept Sault Ste. Marie in the game.
Cranbrook’s season ended at 28-2-1 while Sault Ste. Marie finished at 22-9.