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Brighton, MI
No two teams are alike from year to year in high school hockey and it usually takes the first few games to establish an identity but if Brighton’s 4-1 victory over Plymouth Wednesday night is any indication, this years Bulldogs will be a grind it out and win type of team.
“The preparation has been good”, Brighton coach Kurt Kivisto mentioned afterwards. “I liked the way we have been practicing and even leading into the game you could see our guys were pretty focused and we have done a good job with that through two games.
Asked about the workman like manner in which his team played on the night Kivisto replied, “I think that is what our team is this year. We have seen that in practice on a day to day basis and we have seen it in the weight room so I think that is what we can expect out of our group this year.”
On a night that saw Brighton throw 41 shots on net the Bulldogs picked up their first goal at the 10:56 mark of the first period when Eddie Wheeler found the back of the net assisted by Luke Weaver and Lucas Eiola for the early 1-0 lead.
Defensively Plymouth wasn’t going to simply roll over, holding Brighton scoreless for the next twenty minutes before Landon Whitlock flipped the puck into the net off of an assist from Wheeler to move the lead to 2-0 where it stood headed into the third period.
When asked about his team’s defense Plymouth coach Brian Dallas had this to say, “Our guys work hard to block shots and obviously we’ve got a great goaltender back there when stuff does get through but they work very hard.” Assistant AJ Liberacki continued in regards to the penalty kill, “We have worked pretty hard on it, the guys are committed to doing their jobs, blocking shots, working hard and getting pucks out tonight was actually nice, we used two extra young guys for the first time and they answered the bell and that’s all you can ask for right now.
The third period saw Brighton fire thirteen shots on net with two of those lighting the lamp. The first goal came on the power play when Connor Duffany scored on an assist from Vince Walkup and the final Bulldog tally came with 5:17 left in the game with Mitchell Wysocki scored with assists from Eddie Wheeler and Landen Clement.
Plymouth finally broke through with 1:46 left in the game when Lukas Mondro slid the puck past Brighton goalie Reece Hutcheson with an assist from Avery Olepa wrapping p the scoring on the night.
Kivisto on his teams scoring, “Our scoring is going to be pretty spread out, it was in the first game as well and spread out across the lineup today as well. It is good to see that we are not reliant on one line to create everything for you and we feel like we have some balance and depth in our group that we like.”
On the night, Hutcheson had nine saves on ten shots while Plymouth netminder Liam Villaobos stopped thirty-seven of the forty-one shots he faced.
The win improves Brighton’s record to 2-0 on the season with Livonia Stevenson at home on Saturday while Plymouth falls to 1-3 and faces the Bay City Wolves on Friday night in Plymouth.