2024 MDHLPlay-Off Re-cap

The 2024 MDHL season came to an end today, with an entertaining championship game between White and Green.  While it was a back-and-forth affair, Green proved why they were the first-place team in the league all year, ultimately winning the game 5-3 (with an empty net goal).

White’s Path to the Finals:
White earned their spot in the finals by topping Red 6-5 in their quarterfinal game and by beating Blue 7-5 in the semis.

In the quarterfinals, White was able to overcome a hat trick by Red’s Jack Dorgan on the back of two wraparound goals by Marco Wolf, two semi-breakaway goals by Gabe Thompson, and three assists by Braeden McNamara.  Justin Bloink was solid on defense, chipping in two assists, and White’s goalies got the job done.  The game ended 6-5 with shots 46-35 in White’s favor.
In their semifinal matchup with Blue, White went down 1-0 in first off a breakaway goal by Blue’s Owen Hall, set up on a great pass from teammate Nathan Dell.  While that was the only goal in the first, the second period was more wide open, with both teams scoring three goals apiece.  Blue’s Tyler O’Brien scored on a breakaway and Hall scored again on a nice pass from Eian Szerlip to put Blue up 3-1.  White fought back with two consecutive goals of their own, with Aidan McGonigal and Lucas Szmagaj scoring goals just about two minutes apart.  With the score 3-2, the teams traded goals again, with Blue’s Austin Scanlon sending a great wrist shot through a screen and into the net, followed by White’s McNamara putting one past Blue’s Will Young with just under 1:30 remaining in the second.
In the third, Blue made a number of glaring mistakes, and White took full advantage, scoring three consecutive goals in the first 11 minutes to go up 6-4.  Blue fought back to cut the lead to 6-5 on  O’Brien’s second goal of the game with the goalie pulled and 2:32 remaining, but that was as close as they’d get.  With 45 seconds left, White’s Wolf put in an empty netter to seal the victory for White and secure their spot in the final.
Shots ended even at 29 apiece.

Green’s Path to the Finals
While Green had a quarterfinal bye, they had a tough semifinal against an Orange squad that only had 10 skaters.

Orange played the game about as perfectly as they could.  They cleared pucks out of their zone, jammed up the neutral zone, and were opportunistic when chances arose.  The game was scoreless almost 35 minutes in, until Orange’s Brendan Sise followed up a 3 on 1 rebound opportunity that he stuffed into the back of the net with 5:11 remaining in the second.  Towards the end of the period, Sise almost put Orange up 2-0 on a shot that trickled just wide of the net. 
Orange’s goalie Blake Tice stood on his head almost the entire game, controlling rebounds and limiting second chance opportunities for Green.  It was a fluke goal on a dump-in from near center ice that finally beat him, as Green’s Quinn Addicott sent the puck high into the zone, where it bounced off the skate of an Orange player and made it's way past Tice before he could react to the redirection.  From there, the game remained tight until the 6:48 mark of the third, when Green’s Bennett Eisma sent a great pass to the slot to Oliver Owen who fired the puck past Tice for what proved to be the game winner.  Orange couldn’t generate much offense with their goalie pulled, but it was a heck of an effort from the undermanned team.
Shots were 40-18 in favor of Green.

Championship Game Recap:
In the finals, Green came out firing but weren’t able to put the puck past White’s Gavin Szalowski after a number of good chances.  After weathering the early storm, White took advantage of their transition game and a little over two minutes into the game took the puck down the ice where Corbin Kundinger sent a low shot to the net that Lucas Goerke tipped past Green’s Tyler Boynton-Fisher to put White up 1-0.  With just under 10 minutes remaining in the first White’s Marco Wolf earned a partial breakaway but sent the puck over the net.  Green had a powerplay with a little under 9 minutes remaining and generated a number of great chances but ultimately weren’t able to put the puck past Szalowski.  With 5:14 remaining, Green drew another penalty but White’s penalty kill was again up to the challenge, keeping the puck to the outside and only giving up one good scoring chance. Green carried the momentum the rest of the period but the score remained 1-0 heading into the second.

Within the first minute of the second, White chipped the puck out of the zone where Wolf chased down Green’s Kallen Ray, with the puck ending up on White’s Nino Suhy’s stick just inside the blue line.  Suhy took two strides and send a bullet over Green’s Will Nagelvoort’s shoulder to put White up 2-0.  Green wouldn’t go away, and with 6:45 remaining, earned a penalty shot when Brody Baysore was hooked down on a breakaway.  On the penalty shot, he came in under control, made a couple of head-fakes, and beat Szalkowski cleanly with a backhand deke to make the score 2-1. Both teams traded grade-A scoring chances in the next couple minutes, but neither could find the back of the net.  With 9:25 remaining in the second, Green’s James Albers knotted the game at two with a puck that slid under White’s Owen Anderson on the first shot he faced.  With 3:28 remaining in the second, Green’s Isaac Kapenga got the puck in the slot and was able to break free for a shot which he put over Anderson’s shoulder to make the game 3-2 in favor of Green. 
In the third, White drew a penalty  and had some good chances to score but couldn’t get the puck past Green’s Zachary Jaakkola.  However, with a little over 15 minutes remaining White’s Eddie Wheeler sent a rocket top-shelf to knot the game at 3.  With 10:23 remaining, Green got the puck deep in White’s zone, with Brady Ross sliding a cross-crease pass to Harmon Esch who tapped the puck behind Anderson to put Green back up 4-3. 
White fought back furiously and had a tremendous back-door opportunity with their goalie pulled and under a minute left, but the pass from the point couldn’t be handled cleanly by the open forward in front and slid into the corner.  From there, Green eventually sent the puck down the ice, won the race to negate icing, and Eli Habetler scored an empty net goal to put the game away at 5-3.
Shots were 44-26 in favor of Green.

This was the best game of the playoffs and a great way to end the season, with both teams leaving everything they had out on the ice.  Congratulations to the West Michigan-based Green team on a great season.

Good luck to everyone in the upcoming high school season, and thank you to EVERYONE involved with making this another successful MDHL season!